Communicate, Communicate, Recruit

Conference, when gathering UNISON leaflets, information and publications for a disabled members event or stand, looking through UNISON publications there is little or none. We are asking the National Disabled Members Committee to look at producing bespoke materials related to Disabled Members issues to be able to use at all levels of the union for […]

Overcoming the Barriers

Conference, Disabled workers often have to overcome more barriers to be able to manage daily life and to hold down a job. The Coalition Government has taken away our support mechanisms to be able maintain and manage ‘normal day to day activities’ including employment. Conference, we instruct that in 2015 the National Disabled Members Committee […]

Disability Hate Crimes

Conference condemns the continuing rise in hate crimes against disabled people in Northern Ireland. In 2011 more than 2,000 such offences were recorded here – up a third on 2010. Research by shows that nine out of 10 people with a learning disability had been a victim. Victims of disability hate crime continue to be […]

Black People and Mental Health

Conference notes with concern the findings of the 2005 “Count Me In” census in England and the following censuses that people from Black Caribbean, Black African and other Black backgrounds are over represented in psychiatric care. Indeed, in May 2013, Health Minister Norman Lamb said in the House of Commons that “something [was] wrong” with […]

Equality Facility Time for Disabled Members

At the Discrimination Law Conference in January 2014 Professor Sir Bob Hepple QC said that “if a new government enacts only one new piece of equality legislation it should be to require equality representatives at workplaces” – such reps would require a legal right to time off to “be involved in drawing up and enforcing […]

Disability Related Absence

At Conference just last year UNISON attacked the government’s obsession with sickness rates, after figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that days lost due to sickness absence fell from 178 million in 1993 to 131 million in 2013. The figures also showed that the differences in absence rates between the public […]

AFTER 2015 – DISABLED MEMBERS AND INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

Conference notes that according to the 2011 World Report on Disability published by the World Health Organisation and World Bank there are an estimated one billion disabled people globally. Disabled people face barriers to participation in society, such as in accessing development programmes and funds, education, employment, health care, communication and transport. Disabled people and […]

MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES FOR LGBT PEOPLE

One in four people experience mental health issues at some point in their lives, but there is still a lot of stigma associated with mental health impairments, making many people unwilling to disclose mental health issues in the workplace. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people still face high levels of bullying and harassment and […]

Be Safe Training

We congratulate UNISON for the work it has done after the publication of the Francis Public Inquiry into care failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust. It is essential that we continue to prioritise the Be Safe training. We are encouraged that a small number of branches have volunteered to act as early implementer sites to […]

Registration for Healthcare Assistants

HCAs feel undervalued and under the spotlight. HCAs perform one of the most important caring roles; they provide the frontline fundamentals of care, including bathing, helping vulnerable people to eat and go to the bathroom with dignity. Statistics show that HCAs and other support worker roles deliver up to 60% of direct patient care and […]

Protecting and Promoting Equality in NHS Pay and Conditions

Both the UK government and all devolved governments in the UK have a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity. Most recently the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) concluded that the UK Government had failed to take steps to ensure that there was even application of equality requirements. Agenda for […]

Privatisation, Franchising and Procurement

Conference notes the alarming expansion of privatisation within the English NHS. For example, the NHS Support Federation found that the private sector had won 21 of the first 25 NHS contracts awarded since April 2013, and it has been estimated that £5bn of NHS work is now up for grabs. Since the abolition of the […]

How We Want To Work – A Charter for the NHS Workforce

Conference recognises that in the run-up to the general election, all political parties will be setting out their policies on the NHS including the structures in the four countries and the ideological differences behind them; the different approaches to integration with social care, and outcomes for patients and the way that serious complaints are handled. […]

Supporting Outsourced Members

Conference notes the continuing trend for NHS Trusts to outsource services such as Learning Disability Services, to companies such as Thera, Creative Support, and others. Increasingly members who are transferred to such organisations under TUPE, have seen serious attacks on terms and conditions. In some cases, the transferred staff, on protected NHS terms and conditions, […]

Science, Technical and Therapy Staff in the NHS

Conference notes the significant contribution that staff working in Science, Technical and Therapy roles provide to the whole person care of patients in the NHS. UNISON organises staff within Science, Technical and Therapy roles into an occupational group which has the role of informing Service Group Executive policy and speaking on behalf of all members […]