- Conference
- 2026 National Community Conference and Seminar
- Date
- 5 November 2025
- Decision
- Carried
Conference recalls the passing of Motion 13 “Supporting regional development in Community” at 2023 Community Conference and Motion 15 “Meeting the organising challenge in Community” at 2025 Community Conference and that work on progressing these decisions remains ongoing.
Conference notes that many Community members are placed in Health and Local Government branches and that support structures and opportunities for participation of our members are inconsistent across both.
Conference acknowledges that branch organising and development priorities will often be concentrated on the issues affecting members in the core employer and that, if Community members do not have access to branch democracy, this will remain the case.
Conference is concerned that the failure to actively engage, support, organise and develop branch Community membership can result in isolation, continued fragmentation, non-participation in our democratic decision-making structures and, ultimately, failure to both recruit and retain Community members.
Conference sees the result of this in low attendance of branch delegations at our Conferences and Seminars, the disparity in participation by branches in our Regional Service Group structures, and lack of inclusion of Community members in branch structures.
At the same time, there are many examples of good practice operating at branch level which attract, develop and support Community members and activists to play a pivotal role in our branch organising and bargaining agendas.
Conference believes that continuing dialogue with our colleagues in the Health and Local Government Service Groups is crucial if we are jointly to reverse this trend, meet the key objectives of our national Organising to Win strategy which highlights the need to grow our activist base, and secure our future as the third largest Service Group in UNISON.
Conference, therefore, calls on the Community Service Group Executive to:
1)Work with the National Executive Council (NEC) to consider the viability of revision to the 2027 Branch Organising Framework to make specific mention of measures taken to support bargaining groups that include Community members.
2)Work with the NEC to consider the call for embedding the role of Community Convenor/Officer in branch structures and the process of taking this forward at national level.
3)Work with the Health and Local Government Service Group Executives to continue to promote and highlight good practice at branch level through all appropriate media.