Police Officer Uplift

Conference gives a cautious welcome to the pledge of the government, made on 26 July this year, to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers. UNISON has been campaigning for many years to reverse the damaging cuts to policing, so this promise of new investment in the police workforce is good news. But Conference notes that […]

New Police Misconduct Regulations and their potential misapplication

Conference is concerned by the introduction and application of the new police misconduct regulations 2019 (currently in draft form) due to reach royal ascent in January 2020. These regulations seek to take Police Staff into the police misconduct process and there is genuine concern that local forces will attempt to amend police staff misconduct procedures […]

What about Police Staff?

Conference is well aware that when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister on the 23rd July 2019 there would be grand gestures? One of his first was to announce in his maiden speech at the dispatch box in Prime Ministers Questions, that he was a going to recruit 20,000 Police Officers in order to bring the […]

Fighting Unfair Work Capability Assessments

Conference is concerned at the number of deaths following Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC) claimants being found fit for work or where claimants have been denied Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payments (PIP). Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show that over 2,300 former claimants of sickness-related benefits […]

Educate to celebrate our diverse disabled and LGBT+ families

Conference welcomes the introduction of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Plus (LGBT+) inclusive relationship education in primary schools and relationship and sex education in secondary schools, which forms part of the Department for Education’s statutory guidance, applying to all maintained schools, academies and free schools. Although the mainstream media has focused on the inclusion of […]

Black Disabled People and the Windrush scandal

Conference condemns the Home Office’s politically motivated decision to classify thousands of long-term British residents as illegal immigrants, forcing many of them out of their jobs and homes, and in extreme cases, resulting in detention and deportation. Conference notes that many victims of the Windrush scandal are Black disabled people and the impact of the […]

Access to Mental Health services for Deaf people

Conference notes that Deaf people are twice as likely as hearing people to experience mental health problems, yet they do not have equal access to services. Mental health services are often inaccessible for Deaf people. For example members have reported that they are referred to counselling services where the counsellor does not sign and therefore […]

Disability Passports in the Workplace

Many of our members are not receiving the reasonable adjustments they need in the workplace environment, whether it be removing physical barriers or providing additional support for a disabled employee to protect against substantial disadvantage. A way to encourage the introduction and continuous support of reasonable adjustments would be a disability passport document. A disability […]

Excluding Future Higher Education, Further Education and Sixth Form Staff from the Local Government Pension Scheme

Conference opposes this government’s continued attacks on public sector pensions, the latest of which comes in the form of the recent consultation “Local Government Pension Scheme: Changes to the Local Valuation Cycle and the Management of Employer Risk” launched in May 2019, from the Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities. These changes, if implemented, […]

Career progression for Police Staff

In the recent survey that UNISON undertook into wellbeing amongst Police Staff nearly 80% of respondents said that they had no defined career structure. Conference rightly agrees that this is unacceptable to both the individual staff members and also the forces. Forces need to work harder to retain talented and hardworking police staff. Conference also […]

Supporting LGBT+ members in police and justice

Conference notes that despite the government telling us that ‘austerity is over’ cuts to our public services continue, with lack of funding to police and justice services causing mass job losses, department closures, and outsourcing. Whilst UNISON leads the way in the fight to save jobs there are times when jobs cannot be saved, such […]

Privatisation of Approved Premises

Conferences notes that… Approved Premises or AP’s are one of the core elements of the Probation Service’s responsibilities. They accommodate, in local communities, recently released prisoners to support and enable them to return to society post release from custody, most often from lengthy sentences. The National Probation Service (NPS) is moving its AP estate from […]

Serious Further Offences

Conference notes that the current process for Serious Further Offences (SFO’s) in the National Probation Service is to assess the quality of practice in the management of an individual case leading up to the SFO. Conference further notes that during this investigation, information is gleaned in order to improve future practice. The process is not […]

National Collective Bargaining and Protecting Members’ Terms and Conditions

Conference recognises the importance of national collective bargaining for the protection of members’ terms and conditions across all sectors in the Service Group. The Police Staff Council for England and Wales and the Police Scotland and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) negotiating machineries are essential for this protection. National collective […]

Custody – Is it Time for a Detention Officer to Cell Capacity Ratio?

Conference will recognise the devastating impact on staffing levels in the police service as a result of Austerity led reductions in funding to the service. Many cell blocks have been closed and staff made redundant or not replaced when they leave to save money. As a result, our members in Custody are often being forced to […]