Facility time

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Conference
2017 Local Government Service Group Conference
Date
23 February 2017
Decision
Carried

This Conference notes that motions on cuts to facility time have been debated and passed at Local Government Conference in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

This Conference notes that the motion passed in 2013 called for the development of “…practical and immediate support measures for branches facing cuts to facility time”.

This Conference notes that the motion passed in 2014 called “…on the Service Group Executive to urgently clarify what work has been undertaken, is being considered, or is planned to provide practical and immediate support measures to Branches whose facility time has been or is in the process of being cut.”

This Conference further notes that the motion passed in 2015 was amended to “…bring forward proposals which address the need for practical and immediate support measures to branches by remedying the shortcomings of current resource streams.”

This Conference further notes that the motion passed in 2016 was heard at “…the third consecutive conference at which the issue of practical and immediate support measures for branches facing cuts to facility time has not been resolved.”

This Conference believes that the system of Activity-Based Budgeting introduced at National Delegate Conference 2016 has done little if anything to alleviate the profound problems our branches face when their facility time is reduced. This Conference therefore notes, with considerable regret, that a matter of such importance as attacks on facility time and the commensurate reduction in resources at branch level to support and defend members has not been satisfactorily addressed, with no structural or resourcing remedies put in place.

This Conference further believes that a lack of response to motions and amendments democratically carried at Local Government Conference is not indicative of a healthy and vibrant culture of responsiveness to lay activist concerns.

This Conference therefore calls on the Local Government Service Group Executive once again to urge the NEC to speed up the implementation of the action called for in previous motions carried at LGC, most recently in 2016.