Download To: Secretaries of Local Government Branches

Our Ref:
Contact:
LG/74/2016
Marilyn Bailey 020 7121 5789
UNISON Centre
130 Euston Road
London NW1 2AY
Tel: 0800 0 857 858
Fax: 020 7121 5101
Text tel: 0800 0 967 968
e-mail: [email protected]
unison.org.uk/localgov
To:
Secretaries of Local Government Branches
Regional Heads of Local Government
Local Government Equality Reps
6 December 2016
UNISON E-Quality Bulletin – Winter 2016
This circular attaches the Winter 2016 UNISON E-Quality bulletin and asks
branches to circulate it as widely as possible.
The attached UNISON E-Quality bulletin is a useful organising tool for providing
information on forthcoming Self Organised events, UNISON campaigns and issues
affecting members.
Branches are asked to circulate the E-Quality bulletin as widely as possible amongst
UNISON members and people within your communities.
With best wishes
Heather Wakefield
National Secretary
Local Government, Police and Justice Section
Equality survey 2016 - summary of results
Many thanks to all those took part in and who promoted our equality survey
to others. The summary results have been published and we are looking at
taking the findings into our bargaining agenda.
We are intending to run this survey on an annual basis so that we can
identify trends and see what progress is being made. We hope you will
participate again next year to let us know if anything has changed for you.
The summary of results can be found here.
Registration of visitors for 2017 national Black members'
conference
You can no longer attend the National Black Members’ Conference as a
delegate because the deadline for delegate registration has passed but you
can still attend as a visitor; there is no deadline for registration of visitors. If
you would like to attend as a visitor, you can apply to your branch to
nominate you as a visitor. The conference will take place at the Brighton
Centre, Brighton from 20 - 22 January 2017. For more information, visit the
conference website.
Updated Challenging Racism in the Workplace guide
The Challenging Racism in the Workplace guidance for UNISON branches has
been recently updated, the updated version is now available online here. It
can also be ordered from the online catalogue; stock number is 2969.
Race Discrimination Claims Protocol
The UNISON Race Discrimination Claims Protocol has been updated following
a review, the updated version is now available online here.
New UNISON Leaflets on Challenging Prejudice, Public
Services and Immigration
New leaflets have been published to support UNISON branches and members
in challenging prejudice and the toxic debate around immigration. More
information and the new leaflets can be found here.
Equality, Diversity and Racism in the Workplace report
A report has been released by the University of Manchester. This report is an
examination of all the Race at Work comments.
The report finds that “racism remains a persistent, if not routine and
systematic, feature of work life in Britain, thus contributing the organisation
of society in ways that structurally disadvantage ethnic minority workers”.
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The report filled with unedited quotes from people from all ethnicities and
sectors; some of which are truly shocking can be found here.
Impact of public spending cuts on LGBT people and
services
New NatCen research for UNISON on LGBT people and cuts, updating our
2013 research, is now online here. Please share widely. The findings make
grim reading but it’s important to get the message out. We will be taking
this up in our campaigns throughout 2017.
House of Commons to debate transgender equality
On Thursday 1 December, MPs will debate a motion on transgender equality,
following the Women and Equalities Committee report at the end of last
year. We will be contacting UNISON MPs. You can contact your MP via They
Work for You.
Developing UNISON’s work on intersex equality
UNISON has launched a workers rights factsheet on intersex equality.
UNISON is planning a strategy meeting early in the new year to take this
work forwards. If you are affected by the issues or want to get involved,
please email [email protected]. For a taste of the issues, watch this
wonderful video We are Here.
HIV Stigma: Not Retro, Just Wrong
Mark World AIDS Day on 1 December by taking part in National AIDS Trust
activities against stigma. They’re thinking about retro parties, retro bake
sales, retro ‘guess the person from the 80’s/90’s’ photo competitions and so
on. Anything goes: the aim is to get as many people talking about it as
possible. Find out more.
New out
Winter 2016/17 issue of Out in UNISON.
2017 national women's conference
National women’s conference is to be held in Brighton from 16-18 February
2017.
All branches are entitled to send at least one delegate, plus visitors, so if you
are thinking of attending, you just have time to register – the deadline for
delegates is 9 December, visitors can register until the start of conference
(space permitting).
This year we will be running seminars on grass roots campaigning; the
menopause; the WASPI campaign and women’s pensions; involving young
women members; women’s health and safety and supporting a fragmented
workforce.
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We also have some great speakers lined up – Angela Rayner MP, Shadow
Secretary of State for Education, and Paula Donovan from Aids Free World
speaking on the campaign to recognise child marriage as child labour.
We look forward to seeing you in Brighton. Find out more about the
conference here.
Group B Strep Support
UNISON is hosting the parliamentary launch of
the "Why Guess When You Can Test?"
Campaign.
We are supporting the Group B Strep Support
campaign, following on from a motion to
women’s
conference
seeking
to
raise
awareness of this infection. The shocking but
true facts are that Group B Strep infection in
newborn babies is usually preventable yet on
average in the UK:
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
One newborn baby a day develops group B
Strep infection
One baby a week dies from group B Strep
infection
One baby a fortnight who survives the
infection is left with long-term disabilities
– physical, mental, or both.
We are asking MPs to sign up to the campaign
to persuade the NHS to provide the ECM test
which is already available and in use in
Canada, USA, France, Spain and Germany and which would stop healthcare professionals
having to guess whether a pregnant woman is
carrying the potentially harmful Group B Strep
bacteria.
Please write to your MP and ask them to
support the campaign, and sign the pledge.
More information can be found here.
UNISON affiliates with Disability Rights UK
UNISON has recently affiliated with Disability Rights UK, the leading charity
of its kind in the UK, run by and for people with lived experience of disability
or health conditions. As a member organisation, UNISON’s regional offices
will each receive a copy of the Disability Rights UK Handbook, a
comprehensive guide on benefits and services for disabled people as well as
email updates, access to specialist benefits support for complex cases and
opportunities for collaboration in current and future campaigns. Find out
more about Disability Rights UK on their website here.
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Papworth Trust report– ‘Brexit – what’s next for disabled
people?’
Gavin Callaghan, Policy Manager for disability charity the Papworth Trust,
addressed UNISON’s disabled members’ conference in Brighton on 31
October. He discussed the findings and key questions raised by the Papworth
Trust’s report ‘Brexit – what’s next for disabled people?’ For example,
research by the trust since June’s referendum revealed that the Leave
campaign’s suggestion of spending £350m extra on the NHS was a huge
motive for disabled voters who chose to vote to leave the EU. Read the
report here.
Disabled Members publications
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Record of decisions for the 2016 Disabled members conference can be
downloaded here.
Want to find out more about the government’s Access to Work
scheme? See our factsheets here and here.
Factsheet on reasonable adjustments in the workplace can be found
here.
Disabled Members Facebook page
Have you seen the Disabled members’ Facebook page yet? Like us here to
receive news updates and information of interest to disabled members in
UNISON.
Self-Identification for disabled members now available on
MyUNISON
Did you know you can now self-identify as being disabled on MyUNISON?
Simply log in to your account here, click on ‘my details’, then ‘personal
details’, then click ‘edit’ in the ‘About you’ section at the top. You will find a
dropdown menu to the question ‘do you identify as disabled?’ where you can
select ‘yes’.
Government Green Paper on Work, Health and Pensions
The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health have
released a green paper, which sets out the government’s proposals on ways
to halve the disability employment gap between disabled people and people
with long-term health conditions. They state:
‘We need to understand why disabled people and people with health
conditions might be unable to get a job or keep one, and to recognise the
wide range of conditions and circumstances they face.’
The consultation is open to individuals and organisations. UNISON will submit
a response and if you wish to respond as an individual the deadline is
11.45pm Friday 17th February 2017 and the website for submitting
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responses can be found here.
E-Quality Bulletin
Since the E-Quality bulletin has been launched, we have issued regular
updates on equality issues including the Equality Bill and its passage through
Parliament. We have also kept you up to date with UNISON's responses to
various consultations on the Statutory Codes of Practice and non-statutory
guidance.
We have provided progress updates on UNISON’s Equality Scheme and
information on how UNISON can support and provide training for branch
officers. It is hoped that it is a useful tool for providing information on
forthcoming Self Organised events as well as UNISON campaigns and issues
affecting members.
Please continue to let us know if there are issues you would like included in
future editions of the bulletin. We would also welcome feedback on the ways
that you have been able to use the bulletin as an organising tool.
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