Inside
Medicines in Schools: Where are we going?
Ethical Care Charter: Council signs up
WASPI: Equal Pension Rights for Women
City and County of Swansea
Review
KICK OUT the Tories
The Tory manifesto is a bosses and racists’ charter full of pernicious attacks on workers and migrants’ rights. Launching it recently, Theresa May set out a series of fake promises such as building “affordable homes” and investing in the NHS.
But most of the manifesto is guff and rhetoric and most of the promises in it are predictably nasty. Your state pension will almost certainly be worth less under the Tories. May has pledged to scrap the “triple lock” which guarantees that the state pension will rise annually by whichever is highest - price rises, the rise in average earnings or by 2.5 percent. May’s manifesto paved the way for higher taxes on the poor. It drops the cap on national insurance, VAT and income tax—leaving them open for rises in the future. Bu contrast Labour’s manifesto is full of progressive policies - such as scrapping the Trade Union Act, abolishing tuition fees and a minimum wage of at least £10 - that everyone should vote for.
social care in their own home to pay for it if they have assets worth more than £100,000. Social care is already means tested. Currently only people with assets, including their home, of less than £30,000 (it varies across the country) can get full state funding for a care home. If people only need care in their own home, the value of their house is excluded from the value of their “assets”.
Dementia Tax The Tories want to force anyone who needs
Now the Tories wanted to include it. While the threshold will be higher, this
Public Service Not Private Profit
will force more people to pay for social care. The Tories have slashed billions from social care budgets and their proposals were so unpopular that within days May had issued a “clarification” (ie: a screeching u-turn) which dumped elements of the plan. Plans to give people the “right” to a year unpaid leave if they need to care for relatives are far from generous. How many of us could afford to take a year off without pay? The Tories
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continued from front page want the responsibility for care to rest on ordinary people - not the state. Winter Cruel The Tories also want to start means testing Winter Fuel Allowance, which would see some ten million elderly people losing the benefit. All pensioners can currently get up to £300 during the winter. May now wants to restrict it to those pensioners in ‘fuel poverty’, who spend more than 10 percent of their income on energy bills. Migration On immigration the Tories are even nastier. May falsely blamed migrants for “depression of wages and displacement of jobs” and reiterated the Tory promise to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands. She said she would raise the Immigration Skills charge to £2,000, a levy that’s paid by bosses who employ migrant workers from outside the EU. May’s manifesto pledges new controls to reduce the number of migrants from the European Union (EU). While not specified in the manifesto, this could mean extending racist measures that already affect migrants from outside the EU to all migrant workers. They want to increase the income threshold for migrant workers who want to bring their partners to Britain. NHS The Tory manifesto promises to increase NHS funding by £8 billion “in real terms” over the next five years. But
that’s nothing compared to the £22 billion worth of cuts they want to push through by 2020-21. Schools The Tory manifesto also suggests that “no schools will have their budget cut” due to a new funding formula. It even says the Tories will increase school funding by £4 billion by 2022. But as the NUT teachers’ union points out, that’s just £1 billion a year when schools face a £3 billion real terms cut in their funding. Workers rights May promised “a higher National Living Wage and proper rights and protections at work”. But behind the fanfare, there’s nothing to get excited about. The Tories say the minimum will increase to 60 percent of median earnings by 2020. This is currently forecast to be £8.75 an hour. But the “generous” new promise frees them up from previous Tory chancellor George Osborne’s promise of £9 an hour by 2020. Meanwhile, May promises to keep employment rights guaranteed by European Union law. She wants to let us keep what little workplace rights we already have and be glad about it. But a promise to cut “red tape” for bosses doesn’t bode well. Neither does a vow to “continue the difficult but necessary work of restoring our public finances”. That means more wage freezes for public sector workers, and attacks on terms and conditions. June 8th is our chance to kick the Tories out.
Women, trade unionists a in March calling for governm have been unfairly disad arrangements. The Wom demonstration coincided w They dressed in black and the suffragette movement
The 1995 Conservative Go women’s State Pension A equalisation, but does no implemented – with little o time to make alternative p devastating consequences
Council Budget: All that glitters is not gold On February 23rd Swansea’s councillors passed the annual budget. Included in the budget were ‘savings’ (ie: cuts) of nearly £16 million, a part of which is to be achieved by cutting 144 jobs. Believe it or not, this is supposed to be good news. All the budget papers prepared for councillors make it clear that the financial settlement for the Council for 2017-18 was more generous than usual; obviously a complete coincidence in a council election year. “Whilst it is a very positive settlement for 2017/18, it is unlikely that such a good settlement will be forthcoming in future years”, reads the Report on Medium Term Financial Planning presented to councillors in February. Even in a ‘positive’ year, the Council is still cutting £16 million from services and looking for a further 144 job losses. Council Tax is going up by less than in previous years but a 2.75% increase is still nearly three-times the pay rise most council and other public sector workers got this year.
reduced scope for voluntary redundancies.” Council job losses have had a devastating effect on Welsh communities; perhaps only the closure of the pits under Thatcher and her successors rivals the loss of jobs and incomes that have been inflicted on every community across the country. UNISON commissioned a report into job losses in Welsh Councils and found that 23,700 jobs have been lost since 2010, when the Tories and Lib Dems came to power. Biggest Hits If Swansea is anything to go by, councils in Wales are preparing for ongoing cuts to jobs and services for the foreseeable future. The Medium Term Financial Plan approved by councillors predicts cuts of £61 million in the 3 years following the current budget. It talks about a, “probable overall cut in spend of 20-30% (more in some areas) over the next few years”. Some of the services and directorates that are predicted to take the biggest hits in the next 3 years are in ‘Place’, with savings of 50%, Social Care Adults - 20%; Social Care Child and Family - 15%.
Redundancies The Council also isn’t prepared to rule out compulsory redundancies in this ‘positive’ year either. The Sustainable Swansea Report submitted to the Cabinet in December recognises that the scale of jobs shed in recent year means that many of the staff who could be tempted to take voluntary severances have already done so: “It is important, therefore, that the Council is open about the potential for compulsory redundancies in 2017/18 and beyond given the increased level of savings and the
There has been lots of positive PR recently about the £1.8 million increase in funding to schools (1.3% over 3 years) but what isn’t talked about is a 15% cut to the rest of the education budget, meaning a total reduction overall and that comes after several years where cuts to the education budget have been in the range of 3 to 5% annually. The papers outlining both the budget for the coming year and forward planning for the following 3 years that
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and campaigners for equality lobbied of Parliament ment action to support women born in the 1950s who dvantaged by the changes to the State Pension men Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) with International Women’s Day and budget day. d wear purple sashes invoking a traditional colour of .
overnment’s Pension Act included plans to increase Age to 65, the same as men’s. WASPI agrees with ot agree with the unfair way the changes were or no personal notice, faster than promised and no plans. Retirement plans have been shattered with s. WASPI members are supported by UNISON.
rs have approved, talk about different service nd finding new ways of doing things and oning services. Council staff and all who value ervices will fear that more services are ed with outsourcing, which invariably leads to a ervice and worse conditions for staff.
n is rightly concerned about the cuts threatening ervices and our members’ jobs. UNISON Cymru/ oduced a manifesto to campaign around in the the council elections in May. The manifesto opposition to cuts and outsourcing and a ent to the Living Wage.
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by the number of Labour councillors already eclaring for it, most councillors didn’t seem to g for cuts and outsourcing as a barrier to g the manifesto (http://bit.ly/2ovdRC4). ng our election manifesto was to be more than lip hen councils that claim to be anti-austerity should what UNISON’s Local Government Group has them to do, which is also UNITE policy and was mingly approved by the Wales TUC last year. sing the legal means available to them – l borrowing, capitalisation, etc. to set legal, nogets.
rs and election candidates that commit to voting ll outsourcing as well as all cuts to jobs and are to be applauded. Nevertheless it is clear we ct ourselves to change our lives.
Administration of Medicines in Schools Campaign Update In October 2015 UNISON submitted a pay claim to the council calling upon them to recognise that many support staff in schools, not just teaching assistants, administer medicines in schools. The aims of the pay claim were to: Raise awareness of the wide range of medical tasks that schools support staff carry out to enable children and young people with health needs to attend school and participate in activities. A robust training package with regular refresher training opportunities. Reassurance that staff carrying out these duties are covered by comprehensive public liability insurance policies. Proper remuneration to be paid to those who take on the additional duties in the form of two levels of payments.
of UNISON stewards and officers the Council has recognised the additional roles and responsibilities of staff in Ysgol Cryg Glas. UNISON’s hard work paid off in July 2016 when a new job profile was created for this group of staff which resulted in an increase in pay for staff. Medicines In December 2016 all schools members were sent an update of the campaign and asked to complete a survey to provide information on what medicines they were administering, whether they had received training and whether they felt confident and competent to carry out this additional role. We received more than 200 responses. UNISON believes that it is due to our pressure and campaign that the following things have been achieved.
Despite repeatedly asking for a response we did not receive a reply to our pay claim until March 2016 when the Council responded to say that they did not accept our pay claim as they believed that these duties were included in job descriptions. However, they focussed on the Teaching Assistant L3 job descriptions which we believed was unacceptable as many staff on other grades or within other jobs are administering medicines.
A guidance document entitled ‘Managing Medication in Schools’ has been developed and is expected to be issued to schools in the Autumn term (2017). This document assures staff that there is no legal duty to administer medicines and that it is a voluntary role. In our survey 58% of members did not feel completely confident and competent to carry out the role of administration of medicines in their school. UNISON believes that this will enable those staff to decline from administering medicines in the future should they wish to do so.
Unacceptable
Malpractice
Due to this UNISON responded in April 2016 to submit a formal grievance on behalf of all UNISON members who may be requested to undertake the administration of medicines in schools.
The findings of our survey also showed that 43% of members who were required to administer medicines had not received appropriate relevant training. Face to face and electronic training opportunities are being developed to allow staff to gain the skills required to carry out the role competently and confidently.
The matter was discussed at a meeting in May 2016 where the Council insisted that the issue of administration of medicines would be addressed through the JE appeals. Despite having little confidence in this we agreed to hold off on the formal grievance until the conclusion of the JE appeals. We were told that they would be completed by the Summer break however that date slipped and at the end of October 2016 we were informed they had all been concluded. Since the start of UNISON’s campaign we have made several steps forward in getting the Council to recognise the extent of the issue. Due to the pressure
Medical malpractice insurance has been applied for that details all of the tasks that staff are required to carry out. This should provide reassurance to staff that they are fully and properly covered. UNISON is very pleased that we have achieved so much for the benefit of our members who are being asked to fulfil these duties. However, we are still campaigning to obtain additional payments for all schools support staff in Swansea who take on these additional responsibilities.
Council signs up for 'ethical care' Swansea has become the latest council to implement UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter banning 15-minute care visits and zero-hour contracts. Rob Stewart, the leader of the council’s Labour group, signed a commitment with UNISON branch secretary Chris Cooze and regional secretary Margaret Thomas pledging that “the charter will be implemented in full” at “the earliest possibility” in the next council term. The charter contains a set of commitments to protect the dignity and quality of life for vulnerable people and the workers who care for them. It states that: ♦ 15-minute client visits undermine the dignity of clients and that the length of visits must instead be matched to clients’ needs; ♦ Homecare workers must be paid at least £8.45 an hour and be paid for travel time; ♦ Zero-hour contracts will be prohibited.
YOUR UNION
Welcoming the signing at a ceremony outside Swansea Guildhall, Chris Cooze said: “Swansea Labour group’s signing our ethical care charter and their endorsement of UNISON’s manifesto for the local elections shows a genuine understanding and commitment to good quality local public services.” Ms Thomas added: “Our most vulnerable members of society are being denied the
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care they need because of inadequate funding of social services in Wales. “The volume of clients carers are asked to look after means they are often forced to see people for just a quarter of an hour or less. Carers have long complained this denies their clients the dignity they deserve.” And she pointed out that “fragmented and under-resourced care leads to additional and unnecessary strains on the NHS”. Implementing the Ethical Care Charter in Swansea “would be step change in the provision of quality care in Wales and would benefit thousands of clients and carers and their families across the city,” added Ms Thomas. “We hope other councils will now work with
UNISON to introduce our charter.” This makes Swansea the first local authority in Wales to commit to the charter and its standards, and the 28th in the UK. The charter is a key element in the union’s Save Care Now campaign. More than 500,000 adults in the UK rely on homecare workers to get them out of bed, wash them, brush their teeth, help them take their medication and much more. At the same time, thousands of care workers are deeply concerned about the state of the care sector in the UK, but many are afraid to speak out publicly as they risk losing their jobs. The campaign helps make sure their voices are heard and works to improve the homecare sector.
Unison Office, Rm 153-G, The Guildhall, Swansea 01792 635271
unison@swansea.gov.uk Branch Secretary: Chris Cooze
Unison has many trained union reps throughout the council, schools and FE colleges. We will advise, support and represent you collectively and individually on issues from sickness, disciplinaries to legal matters inside and outside the workplace. If you need advice or representation please contact the Senior Steward(s) or Contact for your department below or go to your workplace steward. Alternatively please contact the branch office. SENIOR STEWARD SOCIAL SERVICES ALISON DAVIES 01792 636351 / 07941757853 SIMON JONES 637559/ 07858411470 DAVID WHITE 635180/ 07870465697
SENIOR STEWARDS ENVIRONMENT IAN ALEXANDER 07584505793 PAT LOPEZ (CAVE ST) 07557560097 MARK OTTEN 07789485009
SENIOR STEWARD REGENERATION (OUTDOOR LEISURE) JOHN LLEWELLYN 07920560208
EDUCATION CONTACT JOHN AUSTIN 07796275039
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This newsletter is produced by the City and County of Swansea Unison Branch. Any letters, comments or suggestions for articles should be posted to the branch address or emailed to Unison@swansea.gov.uk. Correspondence is not guaranteed to be published and contents may not necessarily reflect Unison policy.