Conference notes and welcomes efforts by employers and policy-makers to diversify routes into the healthcare professions. We are now seeing the development of a variety of options into different professions including traineeships, secondments, apprenticeships and postgraduate fast-track routes like Nurse First. However Conference is concerned that there does not appear to be any overarching strategy […]
Conference motions
Conference welcomes the acknowledgement of the need to tackle bullying across the health service and to promote equality and diversity. However, conference believes that health employers’ equality intentions are not always backed up by effective actions. Conference notes that with health employers across the UK, essential and mandatory equality and diversity training is increasingly delivered […]
Conference welcomes the work done by the Service Group Executive and the devolved nations in setting up the Devolution Working Group and congratulates them on the work done so far. However we still have a bit to go when finalising the Conference agenda and particularly guest speakers. Health is a devolved matter so when the […]
Conference notes that the structure of our SGE has pretty much remained unchanged since the formation of UNISON nearly a quarter of a century ago. However within this time period there have been considerable changes to both the NHS and to pay for healthcare workers. The UNISON definition of Low Pay is based on the […]
Conference congratulates the Scottish Health Committee on a successful Scrap the Cap campaign which has led to the Scottish Government publicly announcing an end to their 1% public sector pay policy. Conference notes that this was down to the organisation within branches by both activists and members which included the Scrap the Cap Facebook page […]
Conference recognises the continued under-funding of education and training for NHS staff. The NHS Constitution states that employers have a responsibility for ensuring the ongoing learning needs of their workforce are met. Maintaining skills and supporting personal development is a vital part of supporting a quality service that fully meets the needs of patients and […]
The NHS nursing workforce is changing owing to the growing shortage of registered nurses. In an aging workforce, large numbers are retiring owing to the sheer pressure they are under trying to juggle staff shortages and more complex patient needs. They are worn out and demoralised and to add to this the intake has dropped […]
Conference notes that work-related stress is one of the biggest health hazards in the workplace. Conference notes the latest estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which shows the total number of cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2015/16 was 488,000 cases, a prevalence of 1510 per 100,000 workers. The data also notes […]
UNISON has a long standing history of campaigning and helping those who face discrimination. In the past few years UNISON has made great strides in helping our transgender members. However there is still more to be done. A survey of non-binary trans people done this year by the Scottish transgender alliance showed that 60% of […]
Conference applauds the work done by our union on highlighting the need for increased staff-to-patient ratios, including the 2017 “Safe Staffing” survey. However, conference is concerned to note that reports from NHS staff working in the community, the majority of whom are women, suggest that they are subject to the same levels of stress and […]
This conference notes; that this government is attempting to blame and scapegoat the relatively small number of migrants who use NHS care. They estimate the horrible phrased “health tourism” as £200million. Somehow this is identified by the government as a key problem for the NHS when they have cut £22,000 million, over 100 times more, […]
Conference notes that bank holidays are calculated pro-rata for part-time workers and believes in fair and equitable treatment for all. Giving part-time employees a pro-rata Bank Holiday entitlement frequently leaves members who work on Mondays with a loss of annual leave. For example in the leave year 2017/18 an employee who works 16 hours over […]
Conference welcomes the pay max campaign as a way of preparing members for potential industrial action over our pay claim of 3.9 percent and £800. It is also positive that all health unions have lined up and are behind the claim and that the claim announcement received a great deal of publicity and meant that […]
Conference welcomes Unison recent guidance on apprenticeship pay and recommends it to all branches when negotiating pay rates for apprentices, as we believe that apprentices should be paid the rate for the job and not used to undermine our terms and conditions or be exploited because of their enthusiasm to work in the health service. […]
This Conference welcomes the work undertaken by UNISON to recruit and organise student health care professionals. This Conference notes, however, that there is inconsistent practice between regions as regards whether a student health care professional should be allocated to a health care or higher education service group branch. This Conference believes that there are clear […]