Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) are designed to be a forum for local commissioners across the NHS, public health and social care, elected representatives and patient representatives from local Health Watch to discuss how to work together to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for the people of their area. They are intended to provide […]
Conference motions
Conference notes the importance of national bargaining in the health service to ensure the delivery of equal pay and equality in terms and conditions for all NHS staff. It is important for all of us, but particularly so for minority groups of health service staff and those at most risk of experiencing discrimination, such as […]
Conference notes that many health employers across the UK continue to target the nursing wages bill for cuts, and are using unsustainable tactics, such as freezing posts, not replacing registered nurses when they leave or retire and converting vacant registered nurse posts to lower grades and lower salaries. In the meantime, student nurses are being […]
Workers in the NHS have always worked long hours with minimal breaks and the safeguards introduced by the European working time directive have often been either ignored completely or not enforced in many areas due to being short staffed or excessive workloads. There is now a move from NHS organisations to finally come into line […]
Conference notes that despite numerous attempts to ensure that employers have a consistent approach to dealing with flexible working requests, there are still widespread differences. As a significant number of health staff are shift workers, and therefore more likely to require flexible working patterns, it is important we are able to address this issue. Particularly […]
Conference recognises that the day of action for Pensions Justice on 30th of November was a major success in mobilising UNISON NHS members. Conference notes that the build up to this day of action saw a sharp increase in recruitment as well as the drawing in to activity of many previously inactive members. Conference notes […]
Conference notes that there have been attempts to make substantial changes to Agenda for Change terms and conditions, mostly among foundation trusts, such as making all incremental progression dependent on high levels of attendance, compliance with training, etc or in other areas imposing incremental freezes on top of the national pay award freeze. Conference further […]
UNISON reaffirms its position on regulation for Healthcare Assistants. While welcoming the move to regulate Healthcare Assistants, we remain concerned with the lack of progress in some areas and the fragmented approach across the UK. The NHS is increasingly reliant on Healthcare Assistants but as some high profile cases have shown there are huge variations […]
Conference notes that UNISON is committed to models of reciprocal community organising and that these approaches in a health context necessarily involve seeking to forge alliances with service user and wider disability groups and social movements. UNISON should also be congratulated for the excellent booklet ‘Working with local communities to fight cuts and privatisation: a […]
Health Conference notes that it is not unusual that NHS and other health care staff are subject to disciplinary action as a consequence of the reporting of adverse incidents which have resulted from human error. There is a pressing need to develop a process for dealing with adverse incidents that reserves disciplinary action for the […]
UNISON: the principal union for staff within the Science, Therapies and Technical occupational group
Conference notes that the PTA and PTB sector committees will be merging to become the Science, Therapies and Technical occupational group. This new occupational group will cover a wide variety of different staff roles within the NHS. Conference further notes that the Government’s current financial and reform agenda is having a damaging impact on this […]
Mental health services have always been under-resourced in relation to the scale of health need. Since the foundation of the NHS they have suffered from the social stigma associated with mental illness; firstly housed in remote, locked “asylums”, they were never the recipients of proportionate increases in funding as health services budgets increased; staff received […]
Conference believes that the NHS needs to attract and retain the best Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) to ensure good quality services to patients. However, the AHP workforce is ageing, with a fall in the youngest age group and a rise in age groups of 45 and over. This creates difficulties in attracting new staff, since […]
Bucks Health branch of UNISON recognises all the hard work and effort that has gone into getting a yes vote for the pensions dispute, despite the state of the economy and with many fearing for their jobs. We note that the lead given by the union leadership and branch activists has been successful in getting […]
Conference notes that the Tory-led Government continues to wreak havoc on the NHS. Across the UK, spending increases in the NHS are stopping, at a time when inflation and other cost pressures are increasing, resulting in tighter budgets, demands for efficiency savings and staffing reductions via voluntary severance and vacancies being left unfilled. Conference notes […]