Nursing Skill Mix Review

In a bid to save money, many health boards are focusing on the nursing wages bill and are using unsustainable tactics, such as freezing posts, not replacing registered nurses when they leave or retire and converting vacant registered nurse posts to a lower grade as they cost less. Despite all of the repeated assurances, from […]

Sickness Absence, Capability and Down Banding

This Conference is concerned that too few health staff have the facility to take negotiated disability leave when their impairment or long term health condition requires them to take time off work. In particular we are concerned that specific non apparent impairments relating to auto immune deficiencies including Rheumatoid Arthritis, HIV, Lupus, Ankylosing Spondylitis etc […]

Women in the NHS

Conference is concerned that, following the government’s decision that all NHS trusts will be expected to become foundation trusts, there is a real danger that we will see a major shift away from our hard fought and negotiated terms and condition of employment under Agenda for Change. We have already seen some foundation trusts take […]

Our NHS Our Future

Historically NHS reorganisation brings with it many challenges and is often coupled with significant job losses. However major NHS reorganisation taking place concurrently with the impact of the comprehensive spending review is a recipe for disaster. The national nursing sector is deeply worried about the impact that this will have on our patients, the profession […]

Disabled Health Workers and the Risk of Redundancy

This Conference is concerned that in the 21st century, nurses and other heath workers continue to be at risk from workplace injuries that can give rise to them acquiring a new status of disability. In many cases employers view the only option for such workers to be transferred from a clinical role into administrative and […]

Application of Sickness Absence Procedures

Following the comprehensive spending review it is clear that the NHS is not protected from cuts by this coalition government. Conference is concerned by an increasingly aggressive misuse of staff sickness by some NHS employers to avoid the costs of redundancy. In addition to the fundamental dishonesty of this approach, staff and patient health is […]

Sickness Policy and Procedures

Recognising that there is a fundamental issue of what kind of society we are going to fight for in this new millennium as part of an NHS providing services to meet the needs of all. Recognising that staff should be treated in a humane way on everything including sickness to meet those needs of the […]

UNISON – the lead union for ambulance staff

Ambulance services will be at the forefront of the preventative health treatment agenda and branches will need to be able to support members working in new and untested areas of provision – from paramedics using new prescribing powers; to control and dispatch staff advising on care pathways; and planned care staff being moved across to […]

The NHS Cannot Afford An Immigration Cap

Conference notes the positive effect migration has had on the NHS, in fact almost since its inception the NHS has relied on migrant workers, when in 1949 a recruitment campaign targeted nurses and doctors from the Caribbean, Malaysia as well as other parts of the Commonwealth. They were recruited after the war to combat the […]

Secure Communication

Conference supports achieving secure communications for health branches engaging in times of industrial dispute. Activists must be safe in the knowledge that what they are communicating is secure and cannot be easily intercepted. In these modern times we rely on communication methods that our employing organisations control. As we have seen in recent media investigations […]

Defending Agenda for Change for LGBT workers

Conference believes that Agenda for Change is living proof of the benefits of national collective bargaining and represents a major achievement for UNISON. Conference is appalled by current attempts to undermine Agenda for Change, with the proposals to give individual NHS Trusts the so-called ‘freedom’ to develop local terms and conditions. Conference notes that Agenda […]

Regulation

UNISON fully supports the principle of public protection and we value the unique contribution our members play in caring for the most vulnerable in our society. We believe that public protection can best be served when it is risk-based and proportionate. UNISON reaffirms its policy that professional registration fees should be proportionate and related to […]

Training and development: crucial to the NHS

This Conference believes that proper training and development opportunities are essential for all those working for the NHS, regardless of what function they perform, if it is to maintain the standards crucial to the care of patients. For young staff, particularly those working in ancillary and administrative roles, looking to having careers in the NHS […]

Our NHS, Our Future

This conference welcomes the UNISON survey of young workers in the NHS on the subject of career progression and attitudes to employment and future employment prospects in the service. This conference notes that while interim results indicate many young workers have positive experiences of employment and training, 60% of respondents feel they do not have […]

UK Conference Review

Annual Health Conference is the prime policy event and platform for UNISON to showcase UNISON campaigns and activities in defence of the NHS, its users and the staff who deliver key services. To ensure the continued effectiveness of the event, Conference calls on the Service Group Executive to review the duration, format and content of […]