Open University closed to disabled students

The Open University’s (OU) is a flexible system of learning that supports the largest disabled student community in the UK. Last year almost 20,000 disabled students studied at the OU and a large number were UNISON’s Disabled Members. Conference is concerned the planned closure of Regional Centres announced on 15 September may mean the OU […]

Force Funding

Conference notes that on the 15th July 2015 the Home Office began a consultation process on proposals to reform the police funding formula. This consultation ended on the 15th Sept 2015. The proposals within the consultation are to reform the existing funding system for police forces in England and Wales with five identified guiding principles; […]

Computer Says No

In June 2013 Accenture PLC a multi national management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company were awarded the i6 project, which will see a single system operate across Scotland, described by Police Scotland as the “largest and most significant transformational change ever undertaken by the service”, replacing 135 existing IT and paper-based systems and providing […]

Reforming the Powers of Police Staff and Volunteers

Conference notes that the government’s consultation paper on ‘Reforming the Powers of Police Staff and Volunteers’ published on 9 September 2015 contains both opportunities and threats for the police service and police staff. Key proposals in the consultation paper include: • Creating a list of ‘core’ police powers – including arrest and stop and search […]

PCSOs an endangered workforce

PCSOs an endangered workforce Newspapers are alight with reports of Police Forces either considering or deleting PCSO posts. The most recent example being Nottinghamshire Police’s announcement on 11th September 2015, that they are reducing their PCSO establishment by 70. On the 9th September 2015, the Metropolitan Police announced that they are considering axing 1,017 PCSO […]

Attacks on access to justice is an attack on people with disabilities

Conference will note that we are now over 5 months into this Conservative Government and the wellbeing of our disabled members and their families is under constant threat from draconian legislation on welfare, social care cuts by local authority, changes to the benefits system and proposed changes to human rights legislation and a referendum to […]

Autism in the Workplace: Autism and trade unionism

Autism is a term which covers a wide range of conditions that reflect neurological differences among people. A neutral descriptive definition is: Autistic Spectrum Conditions. Conference this is a trade union issue for a number of reasons as it affects both adults with autism who experience difficulties in the workplace, their parents, carers and children […]

Disabled Labour

Conference will note the Labour election defeat in May 2015 and the return of a Tory Government. Conference will further note the lack of any policies likely to benefit people with disabilities in the Tory party manifesto or Queens Speech. Moreover, a further round of welfare cuts and reduction of services is proposed. Conference will […]

Disabled Students Allowances

Conference is concerned about the changes to Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) announced the Government are proposing. When these were first announced in April the Ministers for Universities said he was announcing ‘measures to minimise DSA’ what he actually meant was cuts that will be devastating to disabled members. DSA isn’t just for University Students. It […]

Domestic Abuse, Hate Crime and Disabled People

This Conference is concerned about the high number of domestic abuse that some disabled people are facing. The World Health Organisation’s 2013 World Report on Disability highlighted abuse as a leading cause of death among disabled people. However, little is known about the true extent to which disabled people experience abuse and whether associated issues […]

New Ways of Working and Reasonable Adjustments

Conference notes that government cuts mean employers are looking for new ways of working to save money without cutting jobs. Often referred to as Lean or Agile Working, these methods were developed by Toyota and are predominantly used in manufacturing industries. If implemented correctly they can bring financial savings and improve working conditions. While we […]

Disabled members delivering public services in times of austerity

Conference condemns the continued attacks on the funding of public services. Austerity cuts are providing an environment for employers to continue to cut/reduce vital services, outsource services, or develop shared services with other public bodies and private organisations. The cuts are being used as a reason by employers to increase the use volunteers, have continual […]

Welfare Reform

That this Conference recognises that the current Government’s Welfare Reforms are an attack on the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society. With the return of a Tory Government in May, and their commitment to make a further £12 billion of cuts to the Social Security budget, there is no doubt that the level of […]

Stop the destruction of passenger transport services

Conference, we understand that across the country the slashing of transport services to the public will result in the abandoning of printed timetables, the closure of travel centres, information centres and ticket offices. This will significantly disadvantage disabled people as due to their disability not everyone is able to use internet technology to access time-table […]

Privatisation/Outsourcing and the Equality Duty

Conference is aware this Government is eroding the public sector by privatisation and outsourcing. The Post Office; East Coast Mainline; a third of recent NHS contracts; and more recently, over half of the Probation Service, all moving into private hands, not only will this lead to poorer service provision, it will also have a negative […]