Many forces across the country will have an experience of shared service arrangements between forces sometimes know as collaboration. The North West is no exception to this but is concerned at the growth of collaboration arrangements that have, in our experience, proved to be an excuse for empire building and an opportunity to try and […]
Conference motions
Conference with further attacks on the police budget scheduled under the new Tory government over the next 5 years, we will see the concept of neighbourhood policing severely damaged and in some forces disappear completely. A recent report carried out by UNISON, the biggest union for police staff, shows that neighbourhood policing has taken more […]
Conference welcomes UNISON’s Police & Justice report, “’Home Guard’ Of Police Support Volunteers To Fill In For Police Cuts”, published in October 2014, which shows the disparity between police forces in England and Cymru/Wales in their use of Police Support Volunteers (PSV), the roles they are asked to undertake and the extortionate cost of PSVs […]
Conference notes that communications between branch, regional and national levels remains unsatisfactory as far as UNISON retired members are concerned. Conference is also concerned that there has been a failure to produce updated literature on retired members matters such as the Branch Retired Members Secretary’s Handbook, the UNISON Code of Practice for Older People and […]
Conference notes with alarm the Government’s revelation in January 2014 that it was seeking to cut £200m from the Student Opportunity Fund. Run by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The Student Opportunity Fund is open to undergraduates and taught postgraduates and provides non-repayable grants of between £100 and £1,000 for disadvantaged students. […]
Conference notes the increasing concentration of power in the hands of a few appointed executives on bodies such as pre 92 University Court (e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Kings etc.) and Post 92 Board of Governors (e.g. Greenwich, Hertfordshire, Sunderland etc.). The main focus of these bodies is on commercial interests (potentially at the expense of educational […]
Conference is appalled at the cases of grooming and sexual abuse in Rotherham. While we do not know the true scale the independent enquiry into Child sexual exploitation in Rotherham led by Alexis Jay gives a conservative estimate involving approximately 1400 children, adding: “It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that […]
Conferences is concerned to hear that homosexuality is criminalised in 76 countries in the world, including 40 African countries, and society persecutes and discriminates against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT) people in even more countries. In July 2011 it was reported that the Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma had spoken out against discrimination towards […]
Conference, despite the work done by the National Black Members’ Committee in producing a definition of ‘Black’ in UNISON in 2013 there continues to be questions about using ‘Black’ when addressing Black members. We have also found that branches and Regions in the union continue to use other definitions when describing ‘Black’ members, such as […]
Black communities must reject the economic policies of the coalition government. Austerity cuts continue to significantly impact on Black people and we cannot sit back and see our basic human rights eroded due to the colour of our skin. Conference, too often the colour of your skin determines your life chances and Black communities continue […]
Conference notes with concern the issues faced by our Black members living with long term conditions and hidden disabilities such as Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) more common in Black women, Sarcoidosis and Sickle cell. The fact that these conditions are not obvious can cause members to have their complaints for sick leave and requests for […]
Conference notes with concern the rise in support for UKIP, especially in the lead up to the 2014 Local and European Elections, the Newark by-election and now in the lead up to the 2015 General Election. Conference we have all heard UKIP’s hostile immigration, xenophobic, racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic views. We further note that […]
Conference notes the research commissioned by the Rowntree Foundation (Black Youth on the Margins, Ravinder Barn) published in 2001. This report noted that about 50,000 children and young people were looked after by local authorities in England in 2000. However there was no ethnic monitoring of those young people at this point. However in a […]
Conference, fibroids are small benign tumours that grow on the walls of the womb, inside and out, and can range from a single growth to multiple. For most women they give no cause for concern and grow unnoticed. But for others, the genetic disorder can mean heavy and painful periods and lead to fatigue and […]
Nelson Mandela once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world”. However, Conference is disappointed to hear that many Black women members and activists are not taking up the opportunity to attend UNISON training courses. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that there are two reasons for this. Firstly, it […]