- Conference
- 2013 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 18 September 2012
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes that each UNISON Region has its own Regional Race Action Plan. The purpose of this is to keep aspects of each region’s race issues, at the forefront of UNISON’s structures, to affect change, increase participation from members and be a beacon to attract other people to join and remain with UNISON.
After making enquiries, the West Midlands Region was surprised to learn a copy of each region’s Race Action Plan is not held nationally therefore progress is not monitored at a national level. As a consequence this means that there is no national oversight, monitoring or assessment of the effectiveness of the Regional Race Action Plans. This in turn creates a missed opportunity for the sharing of good practice between regional offices. Currently this just, does not happen.
This can mean that best practice models such as the Equality Project outline Document and process of Project management for Self organisation within the North West region, where the aims of the black members committee will now be fully incorporated into the regional objectives, are not being shared in a manner that can benefit other regions.
UNISON has a Race Discrimination Protocol and we are all keen to ensure its effectiveness. We should be just as concerned with the effectiveness of the Regional Race Action Plans. Both are important in assisting regions to deal with race issues and an excellent tool for collating data, for a progressive and uniformed approach across UNISON. A national focus on Regional Race Action Plans will help to sharpen the focus and the effectiveness of these plans and help to set quantifiable regional targets.
Conference calls on the National Black Members Committee to work with the National Executive Committee to:
1)Compile a national record of the Regional Race Action Plans on an annual basis.
2)To nationally, assess whether there are key criteria targets that should be consistent across all regional Race action plans.
3)To annually, monitor the effectiveness of each regional race action plan and their incorporation into regional objectives.
4)To annually, monitor action targets set and the progress of each regional race action plan.
5)To report their findings on the above at Conference 2014.