This Conference recognises the importance of ensuring that social work and related practice is of a high standard, and that regulatory authorities have a role to play in this process. The regulatory system must be one that has the confidence of the workers who are subject to its regulation, and must therefore to be seen […]
Conference motions
This Conference notes the increase in local public services integration and ‘joined up’ service delivery within the UK nations. While we support initiatives that genuinely enhance the quality of local services and provide them in a more integrated and efficient way, we believe that initiatives such as ‘Total Place’ should be under local democratic control […]
This Conference notes that large-scale privatisation is growing as a response to political ideology and finance pressures. This affects individual UNISON members in the Local Government Service Group and also affects our ability to organise collectively and effectively. TUPE and the “Two-Tier Code” were designed to provide legal protection for transferred and new employees, although […]
This Service Group welcomes the Love Your Libraries campaign launched by UNISON in February. Library services make an essential contribution to local communities and educational achievement. However the service has suffered years of funding cuts and the threat of closures is growing. Despite the pressures, many libraries are developing innovative and imaginative ways of serving […]
Conference notes: The recent policy by the Government to encourage Local Authorities to be the lead in commissioning all public services (“place shaping”) in a local area. This is in the context of all the major parties approving the privatisation of public services and the ongoing economic crisis with calls from all the major parties […]
Conference welcomes the decision by government to agree new LGPS regulations that extend pensionable service for civil partner survivors’ pensions to include pre-1988 service, so that entitlement is equal to that of married couples. Conference acknowledges that the issue of survivor benefits for civil partners has been pushed by UNISON at every opportunity, in responding […]
This Conference notes: The Children and Young Person’s Act 2008 and the piloting of independent ‘Social Work Practices’ to care for ‘Looked after Children’. That ‘Looked after Children’ are a very vulnerable group of young people who are cared for by the state either due to them being removed from the care of their family […]
Conference notes with concern the increase in absence monitoring within local government. Conference believes that the management tools used have a detrimental and disproportionate affect on women employees, when employers may use such scoring systems in the process of selection for redundancy, or as an excuse for dismissal when seeking to cut staff numbers. Schemes […]
Conference notes our own NJC campaign for better services and better jobs; that public spending is coming under further attack; and local government is bearing the brunt of these attacks. The union needs to mobilise to defend our members’ jobs and to protect services vital to our communities. Conference also notes the Public Works Campaign […]
This Conference notes the increasing challenges facing the nursing and midwifery family workforce. Following the Darzi Review nurses are being subjected to increasing scrutiny. They are expected to demonstrate their contribution to patient and service-level outcomes, using yet to be fully determined metrics, which are based mainly on the negative elements of care for example […]
Conference notes that in the current financial climate many NHS organisations are not taking into account the valuable role therapy services play in delivering efficient, cost-effective and patient-centred services. Many NHS organisations need to make significant financial savings, causing them to cut therapy services and freeze vacant posts. This short-sighted approach fails to recognise the […]
Conference recognises and welcomes the ongoing campaign to gain recognition for cleaners in the NHS as part of the healthcare team. Initiatives such as the successful UNISON Cleaners Conference 2009 and Clean Hospitals Committees help raise the profile of Cleaners and demonstrate how they play an integral part in patient safety and care. UNISON sponsored […]
Conference broadly welcome the setting of some limits to the privatisation of NHS services set out in the Secretary of State’s speech to the Kings Fund in September 2009, and the agreement through the NHS Social Partnership Forum which followed. Conference is however concerned that a number of drivers towards privatisation such as the Framework […]
Conference notes the interest in reciprocal community unionism within UNISON and at the fringe meeting at last year’s health conference. Internationally, it has been persuasively argued that trade unions face a legitimacy crisis. There is a pressing need for our union to project an identity and mission that has an impact in communities beyond our […]
This Conference demands that the Service Group Executive approach NHS Employers for the purpose of negotiating an NHS wide policy agreement on Security and Privacy of Information Technology to include best practice guidance on access to employees’ data respecting privacy and ending cavalier practices within IT departments. UNISON to provide training programs to ensure branches […]