A strong contingent from the UNISON nursing family came to Liverpool and made their voices heard throughout the three days. Conference heard about their work through the Covid-19 pandemic and the major challenges facing the professions now, from unsafe staffing levels to mileage rates and sexual harassment at work.
Conference passed a number of vital motions to inform UNISON’s programme of work for nursing and midwifery going forward. Please read on to find out more.
Safe Staffing
Northern Ireland delegate and UNISON ‘Future Health Leader’ Blaine McCartney speaks about safe staffing levels.
A number of motions on safe staffing levels and service pressures were debated at conference, with many delegates from our nursing family sharing their experiences.
Motion 15 on ‘Staffing Levels’ from UNISON Scotland highlighted that ‘lives have been lost and health impacted by these staffing shortages’. Amongst other actions it called for investments in older and more experienced staff to retain them in the NHS.
A common theme through conference was the need to support more joiners through educational routes into the nursing and midwifery professions. Motion 15 also demanded the building of more educational and development opportunities for nurses and midwives. Our Science, Therapy and Technical committee introduced amendments to highlight the shortages that also affected their members and to ask for similar actions.
Motion 15 passed overwhelmingly and will be taken forward by UNISON Health. In addition to our national campaigning UNISON officers are already working with a pilot group of UNISON branches on local safe staffing campaigns with the aim of forcing effective local action from employers.
The Health team also ran a focus group on Covid-19 and workloads and safe staffing which attracted a large number of delegates. They heard from UNISON reps who worked clinically through the Covid-19 waves, including Trudie Martin, the chair of the nursing and midwifery sector.
Emotions ran high as delegates described the workloads and staffing challenges they had faced during the pandemic. Many interesting observations were made on the crisis and the emergency interventions that were taken which will inform UNISON’s work going forward.
Widening access to nursing and recruiting more nurses and midwives
UNISON Nursing and Midwifery Sector committee vice-chair Alan Philson speaking on widening access to nursing.
A motion was submitted to Health conference by NHS Lanarkshire branch calling for ‘Widening Access to Nursing’. This motion claimed a ‘radical rethink of nursing, midwifery and AHP training is required’.
Nursing and Midwifery Sector representative Gamu Nyasoro spoke about her experience in delivering simulation training for nurses.
The motion asked for UNISON to work with Governments and employers to provide more funded places for nursing students and to expand routes to registration for experienced unregistered nursing staff.
Our nursing & midwifery committee representatives introduced amendments to strengthen the motion. One related to financial support for healthcare students, asking that we campaign for salaries or living bursaries, and the second set out UNISON’s approach to current reviews of undergraduate nursing and midwifery standards which are taking place.
The motion was well supported and ensures UNISON has a modern, comprehensive approach to help us lead the expansion of the nursing and midwifery professions.
Lived experience workers
Delegate Tamara Janes speaks in favour of motion 19 on recognition for Lived Experience workers.
UNISON has many nurses working in mental health services and has been leading on efforts to better support and organise the mental health workforce.
‘Lived experience’ workers are people with prior experience of mental distress and service use who can be recruited into paid roles where they make important contributions to clients and services.
Though numbers are increasing, their roles are often not understood, and tensions exist around their support in the workplace. Motion 19 called for UNISON to work with stakeholder groups to better organise and support these workers. This was supported from the floor by a number of delegates with direct experience of these roles.
Ethical international recruitment
UNISON is fortunate to count many nurses and midwives from overseas amongst our members. Overseas recruitment of nurses to the UK has expanded dramatically in the last few years, prompting serious concerns about the ethics of this practice and how these healthcare workers are supported in the UK. UNISON is supporting a number of nurses around the UK who have been the victims of racism and exploitative employers and recruitment agencies.
UNISON has already lobbied Government for better ethical safeguards and runs a free monthly webinar to better connect with overseas nurses. Motion 18 to conference aimed to strengthen this work programme and set out a number of other areas for the union to work on.
Gamu Nyasoro spoke powerfully to Conference about her journey into nursing in the UK and the need for the union to better support migrant healthcare workers.
These included engaging with workforce planning to insist on reciprocal, mutually beneficial partnerships with other nations in regard to recruitment; establishing a network in the union for overseas nurses; tackling the use of repayment clauses to exploit overseas nurses, and more.
Later, on Tuesday evening at Conference our nursing and midwifery sector fringe event focussed on the same topic. Delegates heard from guest speakers:
- Dr Joy Spiliopoulos – From the SAPPHIRE group, Dept of Health Sciences, University of Leicester
- Ramesh Subbiah, international nursing recruitment advisor at NHS England
- Stuart Tuckwood, UNISON National Officer for Nursing.
A number of participants shared their personal experiences and thoughts on how best to ensure those recruited from overseas are supported ethically.
Mileage rates
The spike in the cost of living and fuel prices in particular has placed huge pressure on NHS staff who are required to drive for their role. Our Nursing and Midwifery sector representatives were keen to highlight the particular impact on community and district nurses and inserted an amendment to motion 4 (paying to work – mileage rates in health roles) to do so.
UNISON Nurse and representative for Yorkshire and Humberside Anne Cherry raises the concerns of community nurses on mileage rates.
Motion 4 was supported overwhelmingly and set out actions for UNISON to work both nationally and locally to urgently redress the failure of mileage rates to adequately reimburse NHS staff.
The sexual harassment culture in nursing
Violence against women continues to an unacceptable level across the UK. Nurses face a particular culture of sexual harassment at work which was highlighted dramatically by a survey UNISON coordinated with the Nursing Times in 2021. Respondents repeatedly told us that sexual harassment was seen merely as part of the job and that they were discouraged from complaining about it.
UNISON student nurse Amy from Hull branch bravely spoke for the first time at conference about her experiences of sexual harassment.
A number of brave speakers took to the podium to speak against this unacceptable culture and to call for action. Motion 24, which was passed, called for UNISON to take several actions to stop this culture, as well as examining our own structures and resources to make it more acceptable for nurses to raise issues of sexual harassment with us.
Alan Philson – Vice-Chair of the National Nurse and Midwifery Committee
‘Having recently returned from our first physical National Health Conference in over 3 years, it was great to meet old and new friends that we haven’t seen personally for a long time.
I and Gamu Nyasoro were given the privileged to represent the committee and spoke on many motions that were passed by Conference, which gives us a mandate now to campaign on issues such as; supporting widening access to nursing, ending sexual harassment and improving mileage rates.
Gamu spoke well on the unacceptable sexual harassment she has faced on performing her duties and how migrant workers are treated when they come to work within the NHS.
Personally I spoke on a new body of people that support mental health patients and who have themselves suffered mental health issues. I also supported the role of simulation and living Bursaries for our Student Nurses which we have raised with decision makers.
Speaking at Conference can be daunting but the satisfaction of presenting our motions and the support of other speakers after was very rewarding’.
Gamu Nyasoro – National Nursing and Midwifery Committee East Midlands Rep
‘Attending a conference is both exciting and overwhelming, especially when you are tasked to move a motion as important as sexual harassment in the work place. I do enjoy the buzz of activities during conference and meeting people who are as passionate as you are about all things. I always ask myself is it Fear of missing out (FOMO) or professional curiosity that drives people like me. I leave that decision to you!
First day of conference I moved the motion about sexual harassment at work. I knew this was an important issue and I knew people who had trusted me with their experiences but you always doubt that maybe the audience might not have come across it. When a newly qualified nurse and another student nurse came and spoke about their experiences it gave validation to the issue raised and boosted the important of us doing something about it. I certainly wasn’t expecting that but it was good to see that it wasn’t only #MeToo but that there were others in the audience too.
Then we held our caucus on supporting Internationally-educated nurses. We held rich discussions there and we meet a new UNISON Internationally educated nurse who was already facing some of the issues we have come across. It didn’t surprise me that our motion on supporting Internationally educated nurses facing difficulties passed.
The presence of our UNISON Nursing Team was an added advantage as they were there to support and guide us during the conference. I would like to encourage anyone who would want to do more or have an experience of such a vibrant, rich event to please let your branches know and consider attending in future.’
Conference passed many other motions which will affect our work and our nursing and midwifery members. These are only several of the key highlights. You can see the full list of resolutions from our conference at www.unison.org.uk.
To follow our progress on nursing and midwifery issues on social media please follow @UNISONOurNHS on Twitter and @UNISONnurses on Facebook. If you have any questions or need direction to get involved in our work please feel free to e-mail health@unison.co.uk