- Conference
- 2004 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 5 January 2004
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes the success of learning initiatives in health branches, and the productive relationship between the Culture of Learning Project and health branches. Conference recognises that the Learning agenda provides UNISON with important opportunities for branches to organise and recruit new members, in addition to other organising activities such as campaigns, representation and negotiations.
Lifelong learning fieldworkers employed via the Establishing a Culture of Learning Project have so far worked with over 100 health branches in England, and the Open College have established 250 learning partnerships with health employers. To date over 400 learning reps and advisers have been trained in health branches.
Conference welcomes this development and notes the real benefits of a learning culture which gives unparalleled opportunities to our members and potential members and enables branches to recruit new members and activists.
Conference also welcomes the commitment of the NHS to put learning at the centre of its plans for modernisation via the Knowledge and Skills Framework. Conference also welcomes the Individual Learning Account scheme and the creation of the NHSU to support a culture of lifelong learning for everyone in the NHS.
Conference calls upon the SGE to:
1.Ensure that a national and regional strategy for engaging in learning and making the links between learning, organising and recruitment is developed and rolled out to branches;
2.Issue clear guidance for branch and regional activists on ways of engaging in learning initiatives;
3.Encourage all health branches to give priority to the development of learning advisers and reps in a branch education team;
4.Develop appropriate training for branch activists to ensure that they understand the Knowledge and Skills Framework and the opportunities for improving access to learning that it represents;
5.To raise with the Department of Health the need for employers to provide paid leave for staff to undertake training.