- Conference
- 2003 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 29 May 2003
- Decision
- Carried
Conference recognises that the recent political debate has shifted, since the spending increases announced in 2002, from a question of extra funding to one of public service reform, with growing support for different varieties of new localism. However this debate has been marked more by rhetoric than either substance or vision. There is a contrast with the experience of UNISON members on the ground where words like reform and choice are translated to old ideas of competition, efficiency savings, private sector involvement and privatisation, that all eventually lead to poorer services, cuts in jobs, pay and conditions.
Conference notes the challenges posed by the Prime Minister’s four point reform plan, which involves:
1)national standards;
2)devolution to the frontline;
3)extra pay for changes in working practices;
4)more choice for the consumer.
First, Conference notes the introduction of national standards but the shortcomings, such as a lack of local ownership of targets, their sheer number, the accompanying performance indicators, league tables, inspection regimes, bidding pots and lack of independent revenue raising powers, are serious constraints on improving services.
Second, Conference welcomes proposals to give more power to the frontline, but experience so far is that power rarely reaches those who work with the public, that central government still holds the purse strings, dictates models of service delivery and tilts the playing field in favour of the private sector.
Third, Conference believes that the best way of achieving decent pay and conditions and an assault on low pay and the pay discrimination suffered by women are essential if we are to recruit and retain the high quality staff needed to deliver world class public services. The Government’s pay for reform approach in the fire service is an example of how not do it.
Fourth, whilst supporting more choice within public services and greater user consultation and involvement, Conference believes that uniform high quality local services are what people want. Furthermore, Conference believes that the language of efficiency and choice are often simply euphemisms for privatisation. Conference regrets that the Government puts too little faith in elected politicians making service decisions and pays too little regard to equity.
UNISON members delivering local services have an excellent record of embracing change where it improves services.
Conference notes that there are some differences evolving in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as a result of devolution, for example no foundation hospitals and specialist schools, and welcomes a generally more co-operative approach to reform being fostered.
Conference continues to oppose PFI and the Government’s model of Public Private Partnership. It has failed to deliver on its promises and is expensive, bureaucratic, low quality, inflexible and downgrades the pay, pensions and conditions of public service staff. Furthermore, the drive to take public expenditure off the balance sheet is condemned by Conference as little more than the economics of Enron. The real risks remain with the public sector.
Conference welcomes the UNISON motion at Trades Union Congress 2002 that united the movement in opposition to PFI. Conference also welcomes the sixty-seven per cent of delegates at Labour Party Conference 2002 that backed UNISON’s call for a PFI review and a fair wages clause. However, despite this vote, the new Labour Government showed its contempt for democracy and the unions by immediately stating that it would simply ignore the vote and intended to continue with its privatisation programme.
Conference believes UNISON’s high profile public service campaign is winning the arguments on PFI and that the stream of hard hitting UNISON reports and events highlighting the failures of PFI are making their mark. Architects, accountants, doctors, teachers, politicians, councillors, workers, passengers, pupils and other unions are all starting to become exposed to the shortcomings of PFI and UNISON is successfully bringing them together at local and national level.
Conference notes the following measures to tackle the two-tier workforce, the Retention of Employment model in Health, the recently implemented Best Value code, the Scottish protocol and local branches successfully negotiating TUPE Plus agreements.
Conference notes recent successes but still believes that a fair wages clause and protections for agency workers are required. Conference will continue to campaign to end the two-tier workforce and resolves to continue the present high level Positively Public campaign to:
a)offer a new vision of public services based on the following principles;
b)
1)a strong public service ethos of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, openness, accountability, competence and equality;
2)democratic accountability of public service organisations;
3)planning and audit processes that assess the social, equality, health, economic and environmental impact of policy decisions;
4)building the capacity of public services to allow the development of innovative services that meet the needs of all local users, creating an organisational and management culture that encourages innovation;
5)the active participation and involvement of users, community organisations, staff and their trade unions and elected representatives in the planning, design, monitoring and review of services;
6)the recruitment and retention of high quality staff through fair pay and conditions, genuine partnership working with trade unions, equal opportunities, public service academies and lifelong learning;
7)a system of performance review that is linked to the availability of resources and the wider social and economic needs of the community;
8)address the fragmentation of services brought about by privatisation and the growth of unelected public bodies by developing public service networks to share good practise.
9)
b)highlight, first, the benefits