The number of people who can remember what health provision was like for ordinary working people before Aneurin Bevan created the National Health Service diminishes year by year. His vision of free medical treatment for everyone “from the cradle to the grave” is as powerful now as it was in 1948. Obviously as time has […]
Conference motions
Conference notes with concern that cuts to local authority budgets and the costs of Covid are impacting disproportionately on the salaries of our members in employed by private contractors who deliver local government outsourced services – including social care, school meals and refuse collection. Many employers delivering outsourced services are engaging in a race to […]
Social work teams across the country provide a vital service to our communities by supporting those who are often society’s most vulnerable – including children, older adults, and individuals with physical or learning disabilities. Social work teams have continued to provide this care during the pandemic, often by making difficult decisions and quickly adapting to […]
Conference welcomes the UK government’s U-turn on mandatory vaccinations, and condemns the government for creating the problem in the first place. Conference welcomes UNISON’s role in contributing to the government’s change in policy. Conference opposes any further push to extend mandatory vaccination into social care services in England. UNISON is strongly supportive of the vaccination […]
Conference recognises that since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, UNISON members in local government have seen a dramatic change in how and where they work. According to the Office for National Statistics, in the UK 36% of the employed population did some work at home in 2020. UNISON’s 2020 equalities survey found that 40% […]
Conference notes that school support staff have worked tirelessly in schools throughout the pandemic to support pupils, parents, and their communities – from ensuring free school meals provision, to deep cleaning schools, to covering classes when teachers were isolating. Conference believes they are the unsung heroes who rarely get the recognition they deserve by the […]
Conference notes that UNISON members in councils, schools and across local government have been on the front line of the fight against Covid and have been instrumental in ensuring that vital public services could continue during the pandemic. This has meant they have been more exposed than most to the physical and mental impacts of […]
Conference, funding cuts and the government’s long-delayed plans to address social inequalities is one of the major causes of in-work poverty experienced by Black Workers and the cause of severe inter-generational inequality in Black communities. Recent funding increases have not undone £15bn of cuts in central government grants to local authorities between 2010 and 2020, […]
Conference notes that the Equality Act 2010 has now been in place for over 10 years and despite both the House of Lords and the United Nations stating that it fails disabled people there are still no plans for a review. Since it’s implementation the world has changed significantly with COVID being just one major […]
Conference is concerned that the recent pandemic, poorly funded local authorities and the government’s proposals to reform planning are combining to make hopes of better access for disabled people a distant dream. As the country started to reopen after the first lockdown local councils were told to do whatever was needed to help kickstart the […]
Conference is concerned that 60% of all people who have died from COVID were disabled and nearly half a million people have had long COVID for over a year, yet the government have not issued any guidance on supporting disabled people at risk of COVID once restrictions have ended. So called Freedom Day could almost […]
Conference is concerned to hear that a forum established by Justin Tomlinson, the Minister for Disabled People, to ‘bring the voices and expertise of disabled people into the heart of government policy making’ appears to have been shut down amid concerns that the government will launch their long awaited Disability Strategy without any meaningful consultation […]
Conference notes that as we move past more than a year since COVID-19 hit these nations, we can already see the devastating affects it has had on those impacted by Post-Covid-19 Syndrome. Common symptoms of Post-Covid-19 Syndrome include (but are not limited to) fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, difficulty concentrating, pain and changes in […]
Conference notes that disabled women face barriers to participation in our union, in the workplace and in society. Over one million of our members are women and a large proportion of these are disabled. Although UNISON has rules about gender proportionality which mean, for example, that where there are two seats at least one must […]
Conference notes that an unfortunate and unwelcome result of the national lockdown has been a reported increase in domestic abuse and domestic violence. Often isolated and shut off from previous support networks, victims can struggle to access support or alert others to their situation. Perpetrators of domestic abuse have been able to use the restrictions […]