| UNISON City of Edinburgh Branch |
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Branch Officers Elected President:
J Galletta (City Development) Rule Changes Passed Replace all instances of "Departmental Committees” with "Shop Stewards Committees”. Policy Motions Passed Pay Campaign Review (AGM 2001) This Branch notes the anger and disappointment of many members at the latest pay offer and about the organisation of the dispute. It congratulates members in this branch for their solidarity, organisation and support for the strike action. This branch meeting acknowledges the view of some of its membership that during the current Pay Dispute there has been, at times, a lack of consultation with the membership prior to Scottish Local Government Forum meetings on how our delegates both contribute to debate and vote. We therefore call on the Branch Committee:
Irrespective of the result of the ballot, this Branch believes there is a need to review the campaign in detail and to learn lessons from it. This review should take place at the end of the dispute. The review should be extensive involving full consultation with and feedback to all Scottish Local Government Branches and examine all aspects including:
Edinburgh
Leisure Crèche Redundancies (AGM 2001) This Branch condemns Edinburgh Leisure for the closure of five crèche facilities with the loss of 15 jobs and it condemns the City of Edinburgh Council for confirming those cuts at its Budget Meeting on 15 February. The loss of these facilities will exclude many people from using public services and will threaten our members with redundancy. This branch notes that this is a further example of the lack of accountability inherent in ‘arms-length' organisations. We therefore resolve to:
Resource
Crisis in Social Work Childrens Services (AGM 2001) This Branch notes that members in the Social Work Department are working under intolerable stresses due to acute shortages of resources, especially in residential and foster care for children and young people. It also notes that preventative services, like children's centres, are constantly under threat from budget cuts. It notes that the Edinburgh Inquiry stated that: · Residential care should be a positive choice and to achieve that flexibility the Council has to accept that residential units need to operate under-capacity · The welfare of children in the Council's care is a corporate responsibility across the Council Despite these recommendations, this branch notes that members constantly face situations where they have to compromise standards of practice and which can potentially leave children at risk and employees vulnerable. These include: · Regular absence of resources to accommodate children who need to come into care for their own safety or the safety of others · Residential staff working under extreme pressure and having to comply with unacceptable practices like ‘hot bedding' whereby children are placed in another child's bed when they are away from the Unit · Residential staff having to work with young people who are inappropriately placed or mismatched with resources This branch believes that these problems contribute to a difficulty in recruiting staff. It also believes that there is a risk of blame being laid on individual staff due to circumstances outwith their control. This branch believes that this is a resource rather than organisation issue and that many aspects of service provision are only being sustained through staff goodwill. Key elements of the Edinburgh Inquiry cannot be met in the context of successive cuts to budgets and within the current funding arrangements for the Department. It calls on Branch Officers to: 1. Set up task groups of relevant members to gather evidence for a co-ordinated campaign to build public and political awareness of the crisis 2. Set up a confidential reporting system to allow members to report situations that may leave them vulnerable 3. Seek to work in partnership with initiatives coming from the British Association of Social Workers where these match UNISON aims and objectives 4. Call on the City of Edinburgh Council to recognise the corporate responsibility it accepted in the Edinburgh Inquiry recommendations and adequately fund the Social Work Department to fulfil those recommendations. Cuts
in Social Work (AGM 2001) This Branch states its opposition to the recent package of threatened closures and cutbacks in the Social Work Department. At the time of writing, it is not clear which places are threatened but the possibility is that children's centres, residential units for the elderly and/or a day centre for adults with learning difficulties are affected. Local councils are not given sufficient funding by central government to fund services properly. The service users and the public deserve more services not less. The money is available. Gordon Brown recently boasted of having £18 billion in the government's war chest. The cuts and possible redundancies follow from the council's refusal to pay a £5 minimum wage. Both attacks flow from a government which prefers policies in favour of business and increasing profits rather than meeting the needs of working people, policies which have seen the income gap widen and 1 in 3 people now living in poverty. This branch resolves to oppose this attack and agree to the following: 1. We recognise that any closure should involve wider layers than those providing the service. UNISON should initiate a public campaign involving the service-users, local communities, trade unionists and any member of the public opposed to the closure. A public meeting should be called as a first step in this process. 2. We recognise that industrial action and occupations will be a vital part of opposing this budget cut. Recent experience with the pay dispute proves that the council will not be willing to stand up to new Labour and that determined action by UNISON and other trade unions will be necessary. Salary
Protection in Job Evaluation (AGM 2001) This meeting views with concern the potential for our existing agreement on Salary Protection to be undermined as a result of the implementation of Job Evaluation as part of Single Status. The Single Status Agreement provides Salary Protection for only 3 years in instances where posts are downgraded following Job Evaluation. Our current agreement with the council provides that protection without limit. We call upon Branch Officers to take whatever action required to ensure the current level of Salary Protection remains in place. |