A new report by the probation watchdog (HMI Probation) has found that the new private Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) are telling staff not to take action against offenders who breach sentence terms, due to the risk of being fined. The findin…Read more…
The government must rethink its plans for the NHS bursary
Today hundreds of healthcare students are descending on Parliament to lobby their MPs to protect the NHS bursary. The government decision in December’s spending review to scrap bursaries will leave student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals with huge levels of debt. And this fear of…Read more…
Prison reform will fail unless safety and staff retention addressed, says Justice Committee
An action plan is “urgently needed to reverse…[the]…rapid deterioration” in prison safety, concludes a new report by the House of Commons Justice Committee. Published just prior to the government’s Queen’s Speech announcement of a major overhaul of prison services, the report issues a serious…Read more…
#TTIPleaks show the UK government is actively choosing not to protect NHS and public services
Some have been using the Greenpeace leaks of negotiating texts from the EU-US trade deal known as TTIP to claim Britain should leave the EU to escape damaging trade rules being imposed on us by shady Brussels negotiators. But disturbingly, what they actually show (adding to evidence we had from…Read more…
Unaccountable providers, service chaos, workforce pushed to the limit: Probation after the ‘reforms’
A new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has found that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) does not know how well the companies responsible for running probation services are performing, due to “limitations around data quality and availability.” The findings follow the government’s controversial…Read more…
Owning the future: Public services for the 21st century
While attention is focussed on the growing financial crisis in the NHS, along comes another privatisation shambles to remind us all that the government’s funding squeeze is not the only threat to the future of our health service. The performance of non-emergency transport services since Coperforma…Read more…
NHS Brexit bonanza fails to convince
Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been hitting the Brexit campaign trail to claim that quitting the EU would free up the £350m a week they say we spend on the EU to give instead to the NHS. It’s hard to know which end of this one to doubt first. The BBC’s face checkers were…
The post NHS…Read more…
Vote for investment in public services, Scots urged
UNISON Scotland launches manifesto for 5 May Scottish Parliament poll: Public services and the good society
The article Vote for investment in public services, Scots urged first appeared on the…Read more…
HS2-TUC partnership: A major opportunity for workers, industry and passengers alike
No one person, organisation or body is more critical to the success of HS2 than the workforce that will build it. And that’s why everyone involved in HS2 has a responsibility to that workforce and must be committed to upholding the highest standards in every aspect of employment.
The post HS2-TUC…Read more…
Another graph for Nicky Morgan: Public service cuts make budget inequality even worse
The hapless performance of Education Minister Nicky Morgan on BBC’s Newsnight when confronted with evidence of the distributional impact of her government’s tax and benefit cuts made for cringeworthy TV. Morgan seemed genuinely shocked at the disproportionate losses inflicted on lower…Read more…
Schools take centre stage in #Budget2016
As trailed in yesterday’s press, a centrepiece of the Budget is a move to make every school in England an academy and to strip local authorities of their long-standing role in education. The signs were there that this was on the cards with the Times reporting earlier this month that there would be…Read more…
#Budget2016: No let up for the public services squeeze
2019/20 is shaping up to be a very tough year for public services, with enormous pressure on departmental budgets as the Chancellor attempts to achieve his budget surplus in that year. £3.5bn additional cuts to departmental budgets – excluding those protected areas of education, health,…Read more…
#Budget2016: Teachers’ pay under attack
The Chancellor’s announcement on academies in today’s budget represents, among other things, a significant attack on national pay bargaining in a sector that is overwhelmingly made up of women workers. The imposition of academy status on schools up and down the country matters to all of us. It…Read more…
How much does the Canadian government want a trade deal with the EU?
Before the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the USA comes the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada. It has been ‘agreed’ several times, but it’s not over yet. And it’s still seriously deficient…Read more…
Train operating companies must be laughing all the way to the bank
A recent report by the Office for Road and Rail Regulation (ORR, 2014-15) shows that our privatised railways are still heavily dependent on taxpayers subsidies, while private train companies continue to pay out millions in shareholder dividends. In 2014-15, the government contributed £3.5bn to the…Read more…
NHS cash crisis reaching a turning point for the worse
We are at a turning point in the growing cash crisis of the NHS. In many areas the threat of cuts and closures could soon be a reality. The NHS cash freeze has barely increased spending in real terms since 2010 while the population has grown and costs …Read more…
UNISON manifesto launch in North Wales
Union puts the case for public services with manifesto launch in Mold
The article UNISON manifesto launch in North Wales first appeared on the UNISON site.Read more…
UNISON response to Scottish Government council tax announcement today (2 March)
2 March 2016
Dave Watson, UNISON head of policy and public affairs said,
‘UNISON welcomes any progress on the council tax freeze. However after 8 years we had expected more than tinkering with the present system. This will not ensure that local government is properly funded, nor will it ensure a fair funding for local government. Scotland needs a fundamental review local tax funding for localRead more…
Cymru / Wales launches manifesto for public services
Union manifesto for May’s election says a Welsh government must work hard to protect our services
The article Cymru / Wales launches manifesto for public services first appeared on the UNISON site.Read more…
The NHS runs on goodwill– but how long can that last?
The 2015 NHS Staff Survey results are out and it is welcome news that staff are mostly happy with the support they get from colleagues and line managers. But life is far from easy in the NHS and the responsibility for that falls squarely on the Government. A recent King’s Fund report showed that…Read more…