- Conference
- 2022 Virtual Higher Education Conference
- Date
- 12 October 2021
- Decision
- Carried
Conference acknowledges that there are four nations within the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), with each legislature having autonomy over Higher Education.
This has meant that our Higher Education (HE) committees in those nations are more often than not negotiating directly with relevant devolved governments on a range of issues such as more direct funding via funding councils, a different model of tuition fees or introducing laws that directly benefit our members.
Conference agrees that these devolved negotiations are highlighting what can be achieved when working with governments that are open to dialogue with Trade Unions. Our union as a whole should value and learn from what is being achieved in devolved nations, in contrast to the approach currently pursued by the Conservative UK Government.
Conference believes that devolution matters and voices in those devolved nations need to be heard by UNISON. It is a matter of deep concern that in the current Service Group Executive the majority of working groups are made wholly of English only representatives with voices from devolved nations not being heard.
We call upon the Service Group Executive to undertake the following:
1)Develop a process/procedure to ensure that devolved voices are heard and reflected when deciding on UK wide issues such as the New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (new JNCHES) negotiations.
2)Review and Reaffirm their commitment to the Devolution Protocol, operating under the guidance of the NEC and best practice.
3)Highlight and contrast the work in the devolved nations that is taking UNISON’s agenda forward in order to achieve our objectives across all of UNISON in Higher Education.