UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Conference notes that the deadlines for submission of motions and of amendments this year were 12th June and 7th August respectively. Conference also notes that the Report of the National Retired Members Committee (the Committee) including action arising from 2018 Retired Members Conference (the Report) was published on the Retired Members pages of the UNISON […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

TELEVISION LICENCES FOR OVER 75S

Conference notes that since November 2000, those over 75 have been entitled to a free television licence and that until 2017/18 this was wholly funded by the government. Conference also notes that it is now partly government funded, and that the funding for the scheme will become entirely a matter for the BBC from June […]

Attacks on our benefits

Conference notes that, whoever wins the Tory Party leadership race, there is a possibility of an early general election. In any case, the next one has to be in 2022 at the latest. Conference is extremely perturbed at noises coming from the Government about saving loads more money by axing the benefits older people receive […]

The Future of Social Care

Conference notes that the Government has been promising a Green Paper on Social Care since 2017 and that, to date, nothing has been produced. Conference further notes that Social Care is now in crisis and deemed by many to be unsustainable in its current form. The Government’s approach to this crisis has been to put […]

Standards should not be allowed to drop for our elderly in care

Conference notes with serious concern the June 2018 report of the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland (COPNI) into Dunmurry Manor Care Home and believes that the abuse and neglect of residents in the home that it details is both shocking and appalling. Council notes that COPNI began its investigation into Dunmurry Manor after […]

Cancer Screening

Breast and bowel cancers are two of the biggest cancer killers in the United Kingdom (UK). There are around 10,000 deaths from the former and 16,500 from the latter. Across the different parts of the UK upper age limits for breast and bowel cancer screening are routinely set by the relevant health authorities. This motion […]

Withheld and Unclaimed Benefits

Conference expresses its deep concern that the suicide of an 81 year old pensioner left with no money because the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) wrongly stopped her State Pension and Winter fuel allowance because of changes to her pension credit entitlement. She had only £5 when she died. Older people often cannot easily […]