Social care is now beyond a crisis.

This service group conference notes with alarm the continuing and deteriorating crisis of social care underfunding that makes it hard for local authorities and provider organisations to ensure decent jobs and quality services. This service group conference supports the provisions of UNISON’s ethical and residential care charters. The charters provide a set of minimum standards […]

Funding for health and social care integration

This conference recognises that buried under the jargon of Sustainability and Transformation Plans, Local Care Organisations, Place-Based Plans and Geographic Footprints there may be potential opportunities for improvements in services by removing artificial barriers between health services provided by the NHS and social care services provided by local government. However, as is all too common […]

Inclusive equality policies in local government

This conference is proud that our predecessor local government unions were the first to place lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality on the bargaining agenda, starting with a 1976 NALGO conference decision to include sexual orientation in non-discrimination clauses in all collective agreements. This has developed over the decades, been taken up by other […]

The LGBT impact of cuts to local government services

Conference notes that cuts to local government services are biting ever deeper. With the current Tory Westminster government’s economic policies, there are no signs of any relief. This impacts negatively on our members providing those services in innumerable ways. It includes job losses, increasing severity and complexity of service user needs, and reduced pay and […]

Crisis in social care – call for a special conference

This local government service group conference calls upon the NEC to organise a special one-day delegate conference on the crisis in social care as a major step towards developing a union-wide organising and publicity campaign in defence of publicly owned and democratically controlled, good quality social care and social work services. This conference believes that […]

Schools Funding and Facility Time Arrangements

Conference recognises the importance of recruiting and organising support staff in schools as part of our campaign against the government’s 8% cuts to school funding by 2020 (as predicted by the National Audit Office) . These cuts are already hitting a wide range of staff particularly in academy schools and will also hit the quality […]

NJC pay claim and campaign 2018 onwards

Conference welcomes the National Joint Council (NJC) committee’s decision to lodge the 2018 pay claim early so our pay aspirations are clear to the Local Government Association (LGA) during the negotiations on the review of the NJC/GLPC pay spines. Conference condemns the UK government’s continuing refusal to give public service workers, and particularly local government […]

Facility time

This Conference notes that motions on cuts to facility time have been debated and passed at Local Government Conference in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. This Conference notes that the motion passed in 2013 called for the development of “…practical and immediate support measures for branches facing cuts to facility time”. This Conference notes that […]

Recruiting and organising Black members in the fragmented workforce

It is important that Black workers and members are equipped for the challenges within the changing and evolving landscape of the UK today, especially in delivering public services and local government sectors. Conference recognises that Black workers left, behind after the cuts, are now more likely to be working, in more isolated workplaces, under increased […]

Closing the gender pay gap in local government

Conference notes that new government legislation on gender pay gap reporting, whilst a welcome initiative, will not, on its own, make a significant difference to the occupational gender imbalance in local government. Women continue to be excluded from senior posts within the sector, with as few as 1/3 of all management/director/senior officer posts being held […]

Pension Ffnd costs and charges

Conference notes that the combined assets of workplace pensions in the UK stands at £3 trillion and that 99% of that money is managed by commercial asset managers. The most shocking consideration in this process is that no pension fund either defined benefit or defined contribution can tell scheme members how much it costs to […]

Bullying and harassment of local government workers must stop

This conference notes the bullying and harassment survey conducted by UNISON’s national young members’ forum in young workers month 2016. Highlights of great concern in the survey with respect specifically to young members in local government were: 1)One third were unaware of whether their employer had a policy on addressing bullying and harassment; 2)One quarter […]

The election of Donald Trump and its implications for Women’s Rights on a global scale

Conference notes that since the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States of America on the 20th January 2017, his initial actions as President have set a tone of undermining the hard fought rights of Women across the world. As one of his first acts as President, Donald Trump decided to put […]

The impact of the Policing and Crime Act on fire and rescue support staff

Conference notes that the Policing and Crime Act became law on 31 January 2017, despite concerns raised by UNISON and other trade unions. This Act allows fire and rescue authorities to be abolished and replaced by Police and Crime Commissioners. Across England, Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) will be able to take on the responsibilities […]

Funding for schools

This conference believes that the government proposals for school funding reform in England are flawed, unfair and fail to address the funding crisis affecting schools. The DfE proposals will only result in a flat cash settlement for schools and takes no account of the increasing costs for schools resulting from from inflation and increased staffing […]