- Conference
- 2019 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 20 February 2019
- Decision
- Carried
This service group conference notes with deep concern the disastrous effects of massive funding reductions for social care services, with spending on these services being forecast to fall below 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020.
The appalling effects of these cuts are increasingly experienced on a daily basis by UNISON members working in all areas of social care and the negative consequences on vital services for vulnerable people of all ages have frequently been highlighted in many reputable public reports and other social studies.
These serious reports and studies have also been regularly reinforced by innumerable media reports.
This service group conference calls on the service group executive to:
1)Continue to campaign to highlight the Tory government’s systematic under-funding of social care and to publicise this at every opportunity;
2) Step up already existing work aimed at emphasising the impact of this sustained under-funding on both vulnerable service users and what is pre-dominantly a low paid and mainly female workforce;
3) Help regions and branches to oppose local closures and service reductions whilst continuing to emphasise the root cause as being under-funding by the Tory government;
4) Highlight these issues with the national executive council (NEC) as a priority to ensure that the issues continue to be publicised both inside UNISON by communications with members and externally through all mainstream and significant social media outlets and taken up within the TUC;
5) Work with other service groups as necessary in order to maximise the effectiveness of campaigns and to encourage joint working between branches as appropriate.
6) Urge the NEC to encourage regions to maximise their efforts to publicise the impact of social care cuts, including the development of cross-service-group activity and discussion designed to develop wider understanding of social care cuts and how they can be resisted.