Home Care Inspections

The National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) is a new, independent public body set up under the Care Standards Act 2000, to regulate social care and private and voluntary health care services. From 1 April 2002 the NCSC took responsibility for the registration and inspection of services including care homes, replacing the previous system of inspection […]

Conference Attendance Quotas

Conference instructs the National Retired Members’ Committee to establish a fair quota system relating to branch members attending National Retired Members conference. Their proposals to be submitted to the 2004 National Retired Members Conference.

Widows’ Pension Rights

Conference urges the National Executive Council to take every possible action, including under the Human Rights Act 1998 if appropriate, to remedy the injustices, inequalities and discrimination contained in the Local Government Pensions Scheme Regulations in relation to members’ provision for widows and widowers of post-retirement marriages.

Council Tax/Pension Increase

Conference urges the National Retired Members’ Committee to use its best endeavours to obtain the support of the National Executive Council in establishing a fair and equitable balance between annual pension increases and annual council tax increases by way of appropriate rebate.

Cost of Non-Residential Care

Conference wishes to express its concern that local authorities across the country are raising the cost of non-residential personal or nursing care to those most vulnerable who rely on these important services. Conference calls on the National Retired Members’ Committee to ask the National Executive Council to mount a campaign under the “Right to Care” […]

Safety on Pavements, Footpaths and Pedestrian Areas

Conference requests the National Executive Council to seek all means to implement the present law relating to motorised vehicles and cycles and anything that obstructs the use of pavements, walkways, pedestrian areas and verges as this endangers the physical security of legitimate users with specific reference to senior citizens.

Improving Local Services

Conference endorses UNISON’s support for world class public services and commits itself to working with councils to achieve that aim. However, Conference believes that the Government’s approach centres on a ‘big stick’ approach to performance management, rather than serious investment in staff and services, which hinders, rather than helps councils and staff to improve. While […]

Lessons from the 2002/3 Local Government (England, Northern Ireland and Wales) Pay Dispute

This Conference welcomes the report on ‘Lessons from the 2002/3 Local Government (England, Northern Ireland and Wales) Pay Dispute’. Conference also notes that a similar exercise took place in Scotland post the 1999 dispute. Conference calls on the SGE to ensure that its recommendations are acted upon at all levels of the union, after discussion […]

Housing Stock Transfer

Conference condemns the Government’s ‘Communities Plan’ released on 6 February 2003. This is effectively a plan to remove English local authority housing from local democratic control and transfer staff to a plethora of other employers. Conference notes that local authorities will only be able to choose three investment options: stock transfer; the Private Finance Initiative […]

English Regional Government

Conference notes publication in May 2002 by the Government of ‘Your Region – Your Choice – Revitalising the English Regions’. Conference re-affirms its general commitment to regional government and the potential offered by it to: 1)‘Draw down’ powers from central government and enhance local democracy 2)Democratise the ‘quango state’ and Government Offices in the regions […]

Privatisation and Fair Wages

Conference condemns the Government’s continuing push for privatisation of local government services. It notes that this has been accompanied by a failure to address either the weakness of the TUPE regulations or the broader problems of the two-tier workforce in privatised services. However, Conference, welcomes the Scottish Protocol on Public Private Partnerships which recommend that […]

Service Group Conference

This Conference supports the principle that consideration of prioritised motions should remain the primary function of Conference but also makes the following recommendations: 1)That participation in the prioritisation process be promoted 2)That conference time be allocated for a maximum of two external speakers of strategic importance to members in the local government service group 3)That […]

Pensions

Conference reaffirms the continued right of all our members providing local government services to a decent pension through the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). Conference also calls for an adequate state pension which does not penalise our low paid members through the means testing ‘clawback’ of their LGPS contributions. Conference notes that the average local […]

Timing of Local Government Conference

Conference notes the current link between the Local Government Service Group Conference and the National Delegate Conference both being held in June. Whilst it is recognised that there are cost savings achieved by the linkage, holding the Service Group Conference at this time is no longer appropriate. Since the introduction of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement […]

Raising Standards and Tackling Workloads

This Conference welcomes the “Raising Standards and Tackling Workload” national agreement signed up to by UNISON and other unions representing members in schools. The agreement recognises the long standing anomalies facing UNISON members working as school support staff and offers the best opportunity for years to rectify these problems. It also lends weight to the […]