Growing Crisis in Social Work

Conference notes with alarm the mounting pressures on social workers and condemns the witch-hunts and vilification against social workers waged by parts of the media. They ignore the facts and the pressures in favour of finding easy targets to blame. Both Government and Opposition politicians have equally cynically fuelled the media campaign, often in direct […]

Access to Work

This Conference notes that many disabled people are unemployed and find it difficult to obtain work. Some employers, particularly those in the Private Sector, see disabled people as an ‘expensive’ choice due to the need for access arrangements. The current economic climate means that it is now even more likely that employers will not take […]

Support Members in Childrens Services

This Conference agrees t support their colleagues in Children’s Services with regard to the unacceptance working conditions those workers are enduring at present. These conditions include: 1)Unacceptably heavy case loads 2)Pressure not to practice professionally and in the prime interests of children, with assessment of need being secondary to what financial resources are available. 3)Cases […]

Local Government Pension Scheme – Cost Sharing Proposals

Conference calls upon our Pension Representatives and negotiators to defend the existing rights of all UNISON members. We call upon UNISON to stop the recommendations proposed by the Local Government Pension Scheme Cost Sharing Proposals. These proposals to be in place by 31 March 2009 and include cost sharing by both parties, employer and employees, […]

Personalisation of Social Care

Conference notes growing evidence of serious shortcomings in the implementation of ‘personalisation’ in social care. The primary focus of central governments and local authorities is the roll out of ‘cash for care’ schemes such as direct payments, personal budgets or individual budgets. Other aspects of personalisation such as early intervention and prevention of dependency have […]

Funding in the Community and Voluntary Sector

Conference notes that while the financial situation has tightened considerably in all local government funded services, it is often the community and voluntary sector which is hit hardest by funding constraints. Local authorities often turn to voluntary sector partners first when cuts need to be made, and the result is that voluntary organisations have to […]