UNISON Ulearn 2017 by The Design Mill

LEARN SUMMER 2017 UNISON

In this issue… Getting everyone reading Making maths add up Supporting apprentices Boosting members’ confidence

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UNISON ULEARN MAGAZINE

Editor: Kathleen Jowitt & Davinder Sandhu Writer: Martin Moriarty Design & print: www.design-mill.co.uk Cover photo: Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk Published by: UNISON Learning and Organising Services

U LEARN SUMMER 2017

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To find out more about UNISON and how to join contact UNISONdirect on 0800 0 857 857 Textphone users FREEPHONE call 0800 0 967 968 Lines open from 6am – midnight Monday to Friday, 9am – 4pm Saturday Visit our website www.unison.org.uk Follow us on twitter @unisonlearning

MARCUS ROSE

Welcome

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/REPORTD IG

ITAL.CO.U

Welcome to this year’s edition of Ulearn, which once more celebrates the work we do to encourage more of our members into learning to help them move on in their lives. We are proud to offer such a wide range of opportunities for personal and professional development that help remove the barriers to progression our members face.

“We hope you feel inspired b y the stories in this year’s mag azine” Chris Tans ley &

Margaret

McKee

CONTENTS

4 6 8 10 16 30 34 38

English Maths Apprenticeships Employer partnerships Supporting members Supporting ULRs UNISON people Resources

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All over the country, our Lifelong Learning Coordinators and UNISON learning reps are helping members improve their English and maths and develop their professional skills with the help of our member learning offer, delivered in conjunction with The Open University (OU) and the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA). Now that the government has introduced the Apprenticeship Levy, the number of apprentices is set to increase right across the public sector: many of our branches are already working hard to ensure the best deal for these new members of the workforce. And we are addressing the learning needs of particular groups of members, for example by offering women

in Wales the chance to learn how to combat cyber-bullying and Black members in Scotland the opportunity to develop the skills they need to secure leadership roles at work. Whether you are a learning rep with several years’ experience already under your belt, or someone who is relatively new to the role, we hope you feel inspired by the stories in this year’s magazine to continue to support your co-workers on their learning journeys. ✱ Chris Tansley Chair Margaret McKee Vice-Chair Development and Organisation Committee, UNISON National Executive Council SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

Merseytravel ULRs have helped the organisation win one gold award already this year, and are looking to make that two later in 2017.

Merseytravel readers go for gold

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UNISON learning reps at Merseytravel continue to promote reading at the Liverpoolbased passenger transport organisation – accessing Kickstart funding to cover some of their costs. The ULR team helps recruit ever-increasing numbers of their colleagues to take the Reading Ahead challenge, where people pledge to read and review six books, poems, magazines, articles or online resources. “We have embedded the Reading Ahead challenge into the Merseytravel diary and have also engaged with other employers in our building to share the challenge,” explains ULR Ya-Ching Darnell.

U LEARN SUMMER 2017

“We have a lo workers sig t of n to the cha ing up llenge every yea r” Ya-Chi ng Darnell,

“We have a lot of workers signing up to the challenge every year and are aiming for gold this year.” To achieve the gold award, workplaces must enrol more

ULR

than 150 participants who complete the challenge. The success of the reading initiatives at Merseytravel, which have been helped by Kickstart funding, led

Promoting English at work

✱ More ideas about how to promote reading at work in the revised edition of Read Anytime Anywhere, our toolkit for ULRs. Find it under the Learning and Development tile on the Organising Space: https://organisingspace.unison.org.uk/OS/ Email us if you would like print copies. ✱ Order Quick Reads, Reading Ahead materials and UNISON book stickers. Find them under the Learning and Development tile on the Organising Space: https://organisingspace.unison.org.uk/OS/ ✱ Download Reading Agency learning resources to go with Quick Reads from: https://readingagency. org.uk/resources/?programme=quick-reads

English

Left: Merseytravel ULRs working alongside Liverpool City of Readers promoting reading at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, as part of the Move To Read project.

SET UP YOUR OWN BOOK GROUP

to the organisation’s own book club, Bookworms. Earlier this year, local author Tony Schumacher came to discuss his novel The British Lion with group members who had been reading it as part of Reading Ahead. “The idea behind the book club was to look at ways in which all staff could take part, regardless of their location or shift pattern and to encourage people to read all the time,” Ya-Ching explains. “The session with Tony was interesting and informative, as the group discussed characters, plot development and writing styles.” Merseytravel became the first employer outside the education sector to win a gold Liverpool Quality Reading Award earlier this year. “To be the first nonschool employer to receive the award emphasises the work that we do to facilitate reading with staff, the community and public transport users,” says Merseytravel Chair, Councillor Liam Robinson. To qualify for one of the Liverpool Quality Reading Awards, organisations are assessed on six criteria, including leadership and

It’s not hard to set up a workplace reading group like the Bookworms group at Merseytravel. All you need is a group of members who are interested in getting together every few weeks to discuss the book they have just read, and a room in your workplace you can book for the meetings. Use these questions from our toolkit, Read Anytime Anywhere, to help plan how to run your group. ✱ How will we pick each book? ✱ How long will each session be? Should we still come if we haven’t read or finished the book? ✱ Who will facilitate the meetings? Same person every time or everyone who wants to on rotation? ✱ What are the ground rules for discussion? For example: no interruptions, everyone’s opinion is valid, how late is too late. When you are facilitating the meetings, it’s good to prepare a few questions to focus the discussion and keep everything flowing nicely. Good jumping-off points include: ✱ Did the plot keep you interested? Were the characters believable/interesting/sympathetic? ✱ What was your favourite bit? ✱ What themes stood out? ✱ What messages do you take away from the book? ✱ Would you recommend the book to your friends? Contact Clair Hawkins to discuss how to get started. Tel: 020 7121 5116 Email: LearningAndOrganisingServices@unison.co.uk

management, workforce development and businesswide opportunities for reading for enjoyment, and are awarded gold, silver or bronze, depending on how well they do. Merseytravel took gold

at their first attempt, and everyone is hoping to match that by securing the Reading Ahead gold award too. “I suppose we could say we are going for the golden glow that will inspire our people to read!” Ya-Ching says. ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

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Go forth and multiply … and divide, add, subtract … Learning reps in the Blackpool Health Branch are helping their colleagues improve their maths skills, with the help of the charity National Numeracy and the Union Learning Fund.

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Blackpool Health Branch has persuaded Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to undertake a full numeracy review after unions and management successfully worked together to audit confidence levels in maths among all staff. UNISON learning reps Jane Eyre and Bev Herring have been working with maths charity National Numeracy and Trust management to boost people’s confidence with everyday maths. They began with the Numeracy Review, National

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Numeracy’s assessment process that identifies staff attitudes to maths and audits numeracy skills levels in the workplace: this provides the data to inform how

organisations can then develop strategies for change. Jane and Bev then helped convince the Trust to become one of the first NHS organisations to roll out the Challenge Online, the web-based tool designed to help people boost their numeracy skills. At the Trust, all staff were invited to complete an online

Promoting maths at work

✱ Numeracy Review: www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/numeracy-review ✱ Challenge Online: www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/challenge-online ✱ Challenge Tracker: www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/challenge-tracker ✱ Contact Clair Hawkins to discuss setting up a Numeracy Challenge. Email: LearningAndOrganisingServices@ unison.co.uk Tel: 020 7121 5116

Maths

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attitudinal survey, while support staff (in pay bands 1-4) had the chance to follow up by taking the Challenge as well. To encourage take-up, support staff who completed the 10-minute survey and took the challenge were entered into a draw to win £50 Tesco vouchers. Since not all staff have access to computers at work, Jane and Bev took the opportunity of last summer’s quarterly Workforce Showcase Event to promote the paper-based version of the challenge to catering, portering and other colleagues. In total, the ULR team helped more than 100 colleagues complete the paper screener, while the online version attracted around 600 responses (10 per cent of the total workforce). “The Trust have been very supportive in encouraging staff to undertake the Challenge,” Jane says. National Numeracy then

Get online…

You can find the toolkit under the Learning and Development tile on the Organising Space: https://organisingspace.unison.org.uk/OS/ For print copies, email us at LearningAndOrganisingServices@unison.co.uk All activity sheets are on https://learning.unison.org.uk/

returned to the Trust last autumn to feedback its findings from the surveys and make its recommendations for building on the initiative. “As a result of this challenge, the Trust has agreed to undertake a total review of numeracy in the Trust and we successfully bid from Union Learning Fund

(ULF) funds to purchase The Challenge Tracker and to recruit Numeracy Champions,” Jane explains. The Tracker provides supervisors and team leaders with the reports and data from the Challenge Online, so that they can track the progress of specific groups of staff in the organisation. ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

SASA SEVIC

The government’s new Apprenticeship Levy and public sector targets for apprentices mean UNISON regions and branches have a big opportunity to engage with the new recruits and existing staff on Apprenticeships.

Giving apprentices the support they need “A rapid rise in

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The government’s new Apprenticeship Levy is expected to generate billions of pounds over the next few years that contributing employers can spend on developing highquality Apprenticeships. Employers whose payroll exceeds £3 million annually will have to pay the equivalent of 0.5 per cent of their pay bill to HMRC through the standard monthly PAYE system. The levy payment is then transferred to the Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS), the government contributes an extra 10 per cent on top, and the money is then available to the employer to fund Apprenticeship training. Local authorities and other 8

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public sector employers will be paying the Levy, just like their private sector counterparts. But in addition, they will have to ensure that apprentices make up at least 2.3 per cent of their

the numb er of apprentic es is on the wa y” Dave Pr

entis, UNISON G eneral Se

APPRENTICESHIPS TOOLKIT

cretary

Branches discussing Apprenticeships with their employers can find more detail about the Apprenticeship Levy and many other issues in our new Apprenticeships Toolkit, which includes a number of factsheets to help union officers, reps and ULRs. ✱ To order a hard copy of the toolkit please, email LearningAndOrganisingServices@unison.co.uk quoting ACT 256 ✱ The interactive version of the toolkit is available at www.unionlearn.org.uk/apprenticeships-toolkit/ ✱ Find out more through the TUC Education Apprenticeships eNote: www.tuceducation.org.uk/enotes

Apprenticeships

HELPING APPRENTICES DEVELOP THEIR CAREERS

“We organ ised the workshop to give th e apprentic es help an d support in ar the local a eas where ut doesn’t ha hority ve the sco pe to do so”

Learning and Organising Services staff have helped a dozen apprentices in the London Borough of Camden improve their job prospects with a one-day workshop earlier this year. As is the case with many local authorities, the Jon Tennis on, NLDO number of apprentices at Camden Council continues to increase, with close to 140 currently on the payroll. The activities and exercises focused on identifying career development goals for apprentices once they have completed their training and practical support that would help them jobsearch effectively, make high-quality job applications and perform confidently in interviews. “We organised the workshop to give the apprentices help and support in areas where the local authority doesn’t have the scope to do so, and overall the feedback from participants was very positive,” explains National Learning and Development Organiser Jon Tennison. Over the course of the day, the apprentices: ✱ worked individually to identify their career goals ✱ looked in detail at effective completion of job applications ✱ studied interview preparation and performance ✱ planned their next steps. “UNISON’s goal-setting workshop served as a valuable extra resource to encourage existing apprentices to think long-term, developing the tools and techniques to plan a workforce at any one future that will be fulfilling and meaningful to them,” says time. This means many Camden Council Apprenticeships Co-ordinator Nina Scuffil. local councils will have to “In addition, we think it’s important that apprentices train between 100 and understand the role of unions and how unions can 200 people through their help them in the workplace: this workshop gave them Apprenticeship programmes the opportunity to find out more about their rights as every year – a global employees and how to join a union if they want to.” increase of 200,000 new Camden Branch Secretary George Binette, who public sector apprentices addressed the workshop at the end of the day, was in England by 2020. struck by how little the participants actually knew about “A rapid rise in the number how trade unions can support them in the workplace. of apprentices is on the way “The session highlighted the scale of the challenge, but – let’s make sure they’re part UNISON activists need to rise to that challenge, both for the of our union, and getting the sake of those young people and thousands of others like them best possible deal,” UNISON as well as for the future of trade unionism itself,” George says. General Secretary Dave ✱ Watch this two-minute video about the supporting Prentis commented during apprentices’ development event we held earlier National Apprenticeship this year. youtu.be/YpgGmWgXLb0 Week earlier this year. ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

Newcastle City Branch are successfully working together to promote learning opportunities to staff at the northeast local authority.

Working together to promote learning

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Newcastle City Branch and the city council have opened three new Learning Zones in different parts of the city. These are ITequipped spaces where UNISON learning reps are on hand to provide support and guidance to learners. The Learning Zones enable council staff to get to grips with computers and the internet for the first time. “There are set opening times and people know they can book on to make sure there is space and they can have as much time as is needed within the opening hours to really cover what they want,” explains Branch Education Officer Wendy Aitman.

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“For the most part, the learners haven’t been on a computer before and might not even have used a mouse before, so we get them started so they can access things like our weekly update for members and the council’s update for staff, and a lot of them have been fascinated to see their payslips online.” The Learning Zone in the Welford Centre (which provides services to adults with learning disabilities)

Get online…

is fine We signed nine new learning agreements this year

was the first to open last summer, and is mainly used by homecare workers. The Learning Zone in the council offices on Newington Road covers frontline staff predominantly from highways services, including a number of apprentices. The third Learning Zone

unison.org.uk/get-involved/learningdevelopment/members/partnerships/

Employer partnerships

“UNISON CAN DO THINGS WE WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO DO IN-HOUSE”

Pam Perry, Human Resources Assistant Director The emplo ye “Partnership is hugely important. We take a joint perspectiv r approach to identify elements that benefit both the e trade union and the organisation. UNISON can do things we wouldn’t be able to do in-house and access the funding to do them, while we can support them by granting release time for staff to attend the events. For example, UNISON were keen to offer Mental Health First Aid sessions, so they came to talk to us about how we could do that in partnership. As a result, we facilitated the event and we paid for some of the elements and the union paid for some of the elements. Once a quarter, we hold the Council Joint Committee, which is a formal meeting of the elected members and the trade unions, and we submit a joint report about everything we have done in partnership over the previous quarter so that the elected members are aware of that joint work and the benefit and value it has for the organisation.”

is scheduled to open this summer in Condercum Road, aimed at localised and facility services staff. The branch holds ULR forums twice a year to help plan upcoming activities and Human Resources Assistant Director Pam Perry has spoken at the two most recent editions in further evidence of the strength of the learning partnership. “The forum is a chance for me to thank the ULRs for their continued contribution to the partnership approach to learning and development,” Pam says. ✱

“OUR ULRS WELCOME PAM PERRY’S INPUT”

The UNIS ON point of v iew

Wendy Aitman, Branch Education Officer “Pam Perry’s input into the ULR forums is always of real value to the learning reps, and I get really positive feedback from them about her contributions. Pam is keen that the ULRs know the importance of the work they do. When we attend the Council Joint Committee, I talk about the work the ULRs have been involved in, and this is a meeting that both the leader of the council and the chief executive attend. Pam commits her time to come to the ULR forum to ask the ULRs directly if they have any questions they would like to ask her or any ideas they would like to suggest, and they find that exchange particularly valuable.”

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Helping school staff develop their skills More than 50 staff from two schools in Poole have developed their knowledge and skills through member learning courses UNISON has organised on their in-service training (INSET) days.

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Last autumn, Area Organiser Georgina Knight and UNISON steward Julie Reed put together a set of taster sessions for staff at Twin Sails Infant School and Hamworthy Park Junior School, two schools that neighbour each other and are part of the Harbour View Federation in Poole. “Last year, Julie approached the executive head of the federation, Damian Hewitt, about our member learning programme: he’s a great person to work with as he’s

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an active member of the headteachers’ union and totally understands the union movement,” Georgina says. After surveying the staff at the two schools about what they would like to learn, Julie and Georgina decided to run taster sessions from Managing difficult behaviour and Power to be you, two of the workshops in the member learning programme. They booked tutors from The Open University (OU) for Managing difficult behaviour and the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) for Power to be you,

and successfully applied for a Kickstart grant from Learning and Organising Services to cover the cost of lunch for the 58 staff who attended. “Julie organised the survey of the members, handled all the booking forms, made all the lists of who was on what course and looked after all the logistics of which classrooms we were going to use,” Georgina says. The courses proved so popular with the staff that Julie and Georgina organised two one-day workshops for the latest INSET day after the Easter

“We’ve rais ed awarenes s of the opportun ities members have” Georgina Knight, Area Organ

iser

holidays. Once more, 58 staff enrolled for the Mental health awareness and Autism awareness workshops. The April workshops went down very well. “Great course overall – really interesting,” commented one participant. “Very knowledgeable tutor – good balance of talking and activities,” said another. “Very clearly explained, very useful tips,” added a third. While the staff work at adjoining schools, they don’t often get the chance to mix with each other, so they enjoyed learning together in the positive environment UNISON created. “They told me that they felt very comfortable, they felt at ease with the tutors and their colleagues, it was a very nice environment,” Georgina says. Organising the development programme at the schools has helped the union develop a positive relationship with the Federation. “ We’ve really built a relationship with the executive headteacher and the heads of the individual schools: they really understand we’re there to support our members,” Georgina says. That much is clear from Damian Hewitt contributing

Employer partnerships

HELPING STAFF BOOST THEIR PROSPECTS

Regional Learning and Development Organiser Edna Warwick has helped staff facing job cuts at a Dorset school improve their employability skills by taking part in UNISON’s job applications workshop course. This September, The Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy (IPACA) is set to join the Aspirations Academies Trust, and 40plus full-time jobs will be cut as a result. Faced with having to reapply for their own jobs, 16 teaching assistants (TAs) at the school took the chance to improve their prospects by taking part in the one-day workshop in April. Feedback was extremely positive. We are developing a new job skills workshop as part of the member learning offer. For more information, contact LearningAndOrganisingServices@unison.co.uk

a positive account of his support for staff training to UNISON South-West newsletter for school support staff in the spring. “It has always made sense to me to strive to ensure all staff, no matter what role they have, are confident and secure in what they do,” he wrote. The programme has also helped raise UNISON’s profile with members and potential members at the Federation. “We’ve increased membership and raised awareness of the opportunities members have through the member learning programme in the south-west, as well as the support we offer at work,” Georgina says. “With budget cuts, some schools provide

no training apart from what they have to do, so it’s been a real added bonus for these members.” For the future, the schools are keen to continue working with UNISON to help staff gain more knowledge and skills to help them in their roles, and Georgina is hopeful that the positive partnership will help more schools in the area to come on board. “I’m going to approach the other schools in our region and look at doing something with them as well, and Damian has said previously he would take his positive experience of working with UNISON to the head teachers’ forum and spread the word, which will definitely help,” Georgina says. ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

UNISON is building an effective partnership with the Corporate Health Group at Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council to help combat the stress staff are dealing with as a result of public spending cuts.

“The Healt hy Busy Peop Lives for le were of en tasters or benefit to mous m embers” Jane Gebbi e,

Assistant

Branch Se

Reducing the pressure through partnership

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Partnership working between UNISON and management at Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council (CBC) has helped staff better deal with work-related stress and reduce sickness absence at the authority. The joint work began last year with a series of stress awareness sessions delivered by UNISON’s Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF) project Connecting Learners. Hard-pressed staff at the authority enthusiastically welcomed the sessions. The branch is following up the successful project by supporting a week-long well-being campaign this spring, with Connecting Learners organising a number of mindfulness sessions to

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complement the activities. Neath Port Talbot is one of the very few local authorities in Wales to have managed to avoid making compulsory redundancies as a result of public spending cuts. However, the combination of voluntary job losses and

cretary

workforce restructuring has required staff to take on increased workloads, more responsibility and work in different locations. After logging an increase in stress-related sickness absences, the branch distributed a workplace stress

This February, Neath Port Talbot CBC became the first Welsh-based organisation to sign the TUC’s Dying to Work Charter, which aims to secure the rights of workers diagnosed with a terminal illness. “In pledging support for the Dying to Work Charter, an employer is demonstrating their recognition of the key role that they play in protecting the well-being of their workforce and their dependants,” commented UNISON Branch Chair Mark Fisher, who signed the agreement on behalf of all the unions at the authority.

Employer partnerships

TOO MUCH TO HANDLE

survey to all members, and the results confirmed that stress-related illness and poor mental health in general were big issues for the workforce. When the branch shared the survey results with CBC’s Human Resources Department and Corporate Health Group (which comprises volunteers and professionals who promote health and wellbeing in the workplace), the CHG started talks with the Connecting Learners project about how to respond. As a result, Connecting Learners developed, funded and delivered a series of short taster sessions on the theme of stress awareness called Healthy Lives for Busy People. Project Manager Karen Fisher developed and delivered the ten one-hour sessions at Port Talbot Civic Centre and the council offices at The Quays, using resources from Learning and Organising Services (LAOS), unionlearn and mental health charity MIND. Connecting Learners emphasised that the workshops were neither counselling nor stress management sessions, and would not be a substitute for professional help. The workshops would simply stimulate discussion about stress-related matters, help

According to UNISON’s 2017 survey of 10,000 members about stress at work: ✱ 87 per cent of respondents feel that services sometimes suffer due to pressure put on staff at work ✱ 67 per cent feel that excessive demands of the job are the source of their stress at work ✱ 60 per cent say their employers have not spoken to their staff about stress at work. Download your copy of Feeling the pressure? from: www.unison.org.uk/news/ article/2017/03/stress-survey/

participants identify the signs in themselves and others and learn where to access further help. Feedback from the sessions was generally positive, with participants pleased with the content and calling the workshops stimulating and interactive. But the unanimous view was that the workshops were not long enough at one hour, and the CHG has agreed that future sessions would be extended to two hours. “The Healthy Lives for Busy People taster sessions were of enormous benefit to our members,” explains UNISON Assistant Branch Secretary Jane Gebbie. Participants were able to evaluate their work-life balance and identify what pushed their own individual stress buttons, Jane says, and were able to seek further

help from the authority’s Occupational Health Unit or through UNISON branch officers signposting them to appropriate services. “The feedback from members about the training was that it encouraged them to look after their own wellbeing, both in and out of the workplace, utilising the information provided from the taster sessions,” Jane says. “It is without doubt a significant factor in reducing lost working days due to stress.” While the immediate feedback from the workshops was positive, the branch will be circulating a follow-up survey to ascertain whether the workshops have had an impact in the longer term, and whether any of the strategies, support agencies and so on were of benefit to staff. ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

ALL PHOTOS: SASA SEVIC

How Sharon turned her life around through learning Hospital catering assistant Sharon Thompson has transformed her life and career prospects after a chance conversation with a Bridges to Learning project worker helped rebuild her shattered confidence.

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Sharon Thompson was feeling very low three years ago when she first met Hazel Kjebekk (inset), a Bridges to Learning project worker and UNISON learning rep at South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust. They were about to go into a meeting with the personnel department to discuss some intense problems at work that had left Sharon’s self-esteem in tatters, and Hazel happened to be the only branch activist available that day. Sensing that Sharon needed to have her mind taken off her troubles before the meeting, Hazel thought 16

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the best thing would be to strike up a conversation about something positive. “I spoke to Sharon about learning mainly to distract her, as she was demoralised and emotional about issues in her working life,” Hazel says. Shortly after the personnel meeting, Sharon made an appointment with Hazel so they could pick up where they’d left off about learning. “It was definitely Hazel who planted the seed: I didn’t want to do anything like that until I got talking to her,” Sharon says. “At the time, I was going to work and that was it, but then I thought, ‘There’s more

to life than this – and there’s more to me than this’.” With Hazel’s encouragement, Sharon decided to enrol on a counselling course, as it was an area she had always been interested in. Ten years earlier, she had started studying child psychology but was unable to continue after gaining her Level 1 and Level 2. “I would have loved to have carried on and gone to university but it didn’t happen and I

Supporting members

“There’s m ore to life than t his – and there’s mo re to me than this” Sharon didn’t think any more about it after that,” she says. The two of them developed a plan to help prepare Sharon to study with a private counselling and training company based in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. To prepare herself for the course, Hazel encouraged Sharon to enrol on a confidence workshop available to hospital staff through Bridges to Learning. “It was very scary because I had to mingle with people I didn’t know and speak in front of people I didn’t know, but we all helped each other and I felt a little bit more confident,” Sharon says. The next challenge was a much larger event, the Bridges to Learning Health and Social Care Conference. “It was in a really big room with a lot of people, so I had to not be quiet and shy and really get out there and just face it all – and I made a lot of nice friends and learned a lot,” Sharon says. With her confidence restored and her appetite for learning reignited, Sharon recognised the only substantial obstacle left to enrolling on her counselling course would be the financial challenge of covering the fees as a single

Thompson

mother with a part-time job. But with Hazel’s help, she calculated she could generate enough money by taking on extra hours at work, and Hazel was also able to help her successfully apply for a UNISON learning bursary to buy a laptop that she could use to complete her assignments. After enrolling on the 18week Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills in September 2014, Sharon progressed to the Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Studies in February 2015 and is now close to completing her Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling. In addition to work, family and study, Sharon has also found the time to play her part in the Northern Region

Women’s Network, which campaigns on community issues such as poverty and homelessness. With Hazel’s help, Sharon has started building a whole new life through learning, after starting when she was at her lowest ebb. “A few years ago it would have been a totally different story, I wouldn’t have said boo to a goose: but my confidence and my own selfworth have grown, and now I will fight and I will get what I feel I deserve,” she says. Hazel says she can barely recognise the woman she first met outside that personnel meeting three years ago. “When I first met Sharon, there was a real sadness about her and she was completely demoralised,” Hazel recalls. “But now she’s just full of the joys of spring, so happy and bubbly – she’s like a completely different person. ✱

Applying for bursaries

You can apply for learning grants of up to £100 if you are studying at your own expense up to degree level. Find out more and download an application form at: www.unison.org.uk/get-involved/ learning-development/financial-support/

SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

Black members in Scotland have leaped at the opportunity to develop the skills they need to move into leadership and management roles at work.

Helping Black members “Learners progress at work took the

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Thirty Black members in Scotland have attended two two-day courses organised by UNISON to help them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to secure promotion at work. Funded through UNISON’s Scottish Union Learning Fund (SULF) project, the hugely successful courses ran over two Saturdays last December and again across two Saturdays in February earlier this year. Both courses were delivered by a Black tutor from Glasgow Clyde College,

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while a member of the Scottish Black Members Committee was also present every day to help address any individual learner’s employment-related issues. In addition, Regional Learning and Development Organiser (Lowlands & Uplands) Kevin Duguid attended every day to help facilitate both courses, which were each attended by 15 participants. Kevin organised the courses after a member of the Scottish Black Members Committee spoke to him about the

opportun ity to improv e their communic ation skills Kevin Dug uid, Regio ” nal Lear and Dev elopment

Organiser

ning

numbers of Black members taking advantage of the opportunities available through UNISON Learning. “We did a quick analysis and found that there was relatively poor participation on our member learning courses, so we decided to offer a two-day positive action course targeting Black

of Scotland’s population are Black but only 1.1 per cent of local authority staff are Black

members, in consultation with the Black Members Committee,” Kevin explains. Kevin got the ball rolling by emailing every Black member in Scotland for whom he had an email address on file to find out how many might be interested in attending the new course – and nearly 90 replied within 10 days. The course started by investigating the issues participants had come across when seeking promotion, which were then incorporated into the delivery of the main part of the course. Learners went on to identify the additional barriers Black workers specifically face when trying to move into management, as well as the management skills they required when looking to apply for leadership roles at work. Learners also took the opportunity to improve their communication skills (including public speaking, speech writing and report writing) and their leadership skills (including motivating team members and mentoring co-workers). Feedback from participants has been very positive. “It was well-informed, planned and executed: I feel better

Supporting members

LEARNERS GET INSPIRED IN KING’S LYNN

UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis opened the Inspire Centre, the new UNISON resource centre in the grounds of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, at the end of last year. Largely funded by UNISON branches and based in a former social club on site, the centre offers all members in West Norfolk access to training and development and first line advice and support for any work-related problems they have. “This is the way forward for UNISON,” Dave said at the launch. “We’ve got to get our resources to where members are, so if they have a problem they need to talk about or want training, they can come to a UNISON centre like this.” Trust Chief Executive Dorothy Hosein said that QEH was investing in the future by opening the new centre. “Home-grown staff are key to the future of this busy hospital and developing your own is the way forward: the redevelopment of this centre is testament to that,” she said. UNISON Branch Secretary Darren Barber said he was pleased that the union’s excellent relationship with the Trust had brought the new centre to fruition. “As public sector work becomes more and more outsourced, and members lose touch with traditional union organisation, we need somewhere they can come to access the union’s services,” Darren said.

equipped and motivated and will definitely recommend the course,” says Scottish Black Members Committee delegate Priscilla Maramba. Building on the success of

the courses, Kevin is currently in the process of developing an opportunity for the learners to progress onto an accredited leadership and management skills course in the autumn. ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

“These are people who have not been given an o pportunit y like this b e fore” Joe Beast all, Lo cal Organ

iser

Spreading the message way out west Three successful learning weekends have given members in Cornwall the confidence, knowledge and skills to fly the flag for UNISON back in their workplaces.

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Dozens of new workplace contacts in Cornwall are promoting UNISON learning in their workplaces after equipping themselves with the tools to spread the message at three hugely successful members’ learning weekends in the county. “Since we have members in more than 1,000 workplaces in Cornwall, it would be impossible for the regional team to go into all of them, so we thought we could instead empower our members to go into their own workplaces themselves to showcase the learning 20

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opportunities and the support that UNISON provides,” explains Local Organiser Joe Beastall, who organised the weekends earlier this year. Offering members the chance to build their confidence, identify transferable skills for the employment market and improve their maths, the original weekend in March was massively over-subscribed. “In times of public spending cuts, the staff training budget is usually one of the first things to go, so our members greatly appreciate us giving them these

opportunities and investing in their future,” Joe says. All the groups of members were very supportive of each other, with more than a quarter of the participants emailing afterwards specifically to thank the regional team for creating an ideal environment in which to learn together. “Many members have emailed to thank us for making such a positive and relaxed environment to learn in: the way people were getting along and helping each other in the activities and exercises was a testament to our members,” Joe says. “These are people who have not been given an opportunity like this before and they were able to open

Supporting members

IDENTIFYING YOUR SKILLS

up in front of other people who were – at the beginning of the weekends – complete strangers, but by the end they were all exchanging phone numbers and email addresses with each other.” Over all three weekends, there were many opportunities to share best practice and compare different approaches to resolving workplace issues. This was another way in which participants were able to grow in confidence, through the affirmation of their UNISON colleagues that they had done the right thing in a situation that might have involved – for example – challenging a more senior colleague. Many also commented afterwards that they had not expected to gain so many skills that would help them in their home lives, with the budgeting focus on payday lenders and credit unions particularly welcomed by many participants. “We were doing the maths around payday lending and showing how these companies take advantage of people in desperate situations,” Joe says. “In the

1 Divide a sheet of paper into five columns headed: ✱ at work ✱ voluntary work ✱ at home ✱ hobbies and interests ✱ any others. 2 Ask participants to think about all the skills they have in the different areas of their lives, and list them under the heading that fits best. 3 Ask participants what job skills they identified that they did not develop at work. This is one of the exercises in our revised new employability skills toolkit, Moving on at work. You can find the toolkit under the Learning and Development tile on the Organising Space: https://organisingspace.unison. org.uk/OS/. For print copies, email us at LearningAndOrganisingServices@unison.co.uk

feedback, quite a few of our members said how much of a positive that was and how much they found out in regards to personal finance.” Everyone who attended has taken a specially produced booklet about UNISON back into their workplaces and Joe has been following up with all participants to see how UNISON can support them to take their next steps as learners, workplace contacts or activists (more than 48 people who took part have volunteered to be workplace contacts

while five have signed up to become stewards and one wants to become a health and safety rep). “All these new contacts have gone back to their workplace and are talking about the learning opportunities UNISON offers, the workplace support we provide and the help from our charity There for you,” Joe says. “We now have all those people out there that we’ve equipped with the tools to help themselves and support their colleagues, which means the weekends have been a fantastic success.” ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

UNISON’s member development workshops have helped West Midlands schools staff with their professional development.

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More than 100 schools staff in the West Midlands have taken part in member development workshops that have helped them better engage with children displaying challenging behaviour. In addition, the series of workshops in Sandwell and Wolverhampton has led to more new recruits joining the union and encouraged more members to take on the union roles of contacts and stewards to support their colleagues with workplace issues. Regional Learning and Development Organiser 22

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Gurdeep Singh has been organising the programme of Open University (OU) workshops for the past year – but it hasn’t been a solo effort, he points out. “I’ve worked really closely with the regional organiser, the area organiser and the local organiser: it was their local knowledge of the schools and their contacts within schools that really facilitated the whole process,” Gurdeep explains. The team started by contacting head teachers in Sandwell and Wolverhampton, asking them to pass on details about UNISON’s Managing

Singh, Reg ional Lear and Devel ning opment O rganiser

Behaviour courses to any staff they thought would be interested and organise paid release for people to attend. “We stressed to the heads that the courses would be beneficial to their staff: we were asking them to release staff to acquire practical skills they could use in their dayto-day working lives back in school,” Gurdeep explains. The one-day courses were over-subscribed as soon as they were organised: the 20 places available on the first course in Sandwell were filled almost immediately, so the team organised a second course shortly afterwards, and the same happened

PAUL BOX/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

Giving staff the tools they need in school

“We’re able to member le make arning a central th em recruitme e of our nt activity in schools ” Gurdeep

Supporting members

SYLWIA WINS LEARNER OF THE YEAR AWARD

in Wolverhampton. “The way the courses have filled up so quickly shows that we are meeting a real demand for professional development, and the schools wouldn’t have agreed to release their staff if they couldn’t see the value of what we are doing,” Gurdeep says. “As the workshops are delivered by tutors from the OU, members get to work with experts who are able to contextualise their experiences and who listen to their examples, which makes for a really good, holistic learning experience where people in each group learn from each other.” The courses have helped build a stronger UNISON presence in several schools in Sandwell and Wolverhampton. “We already have a number of contacts in schools who are prepared to disseminate our information to their colleagues,” Gurdeep says. “But courses like these give us the chance to explain why we need contacts and why we need stewards, and have allowed us to convert existing contacts into stewards.” The success of the schools staff member learning programme means that Gurdeep is now discussing rolling out the programme more widely in the region,

Nursing auxiliary Sylwia Rzepka, who works at the Northern Health & Social Care Trust, has won the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ (ICTU) Learner of the Year Award (sponsored by The Open University). ICTU Assistant General Secretary Owen Reidy presented Sylwia with her award at the annual ICTU Union Learning Reps conference in Belfast in March. Sylwia, who moved to Northern Ireland from her native Poland 10 years ago, began thinking about becoming a nurse while she was working two jobs, as a domestic in Antrim Hospital and a careworker in a nursing home. When she spoke about it to her hospital manager, they suggested she enrol on The Open University K101 Introduction to Health & Social Care, that was being run by UNISON in partnership with the Northern Health Trust. “Doing the K101 gave Sylwia the confidence to apply for a post in the Trust as a nursing auxiliary and also helped with the interview, as it showed she was keen and enabled her to discuss health and social care topics that she had studied,” says UNISON Regional Organiser Fidelma Carolan. “In addition, it has also improved her English – both verbal language and writing – as she has had to use the dictionary, check out words and write down her thoughts and ideas in the essays and discussion fora.” Sylwia has been encouraging other cleaners at the hospital to enrol in learning, and is considering her own next steps after completing her K101 in June.

beginning with local government branches. UNISON in the West Midlands recognises how the member learning offer should be central to organising in

schools. “As so few schools currently offer training to staff, we’re able to make member learning a central theme of our recruitment activity in schools,” Gurdeep says. ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

JANINA STRUK/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

Boosting confidence through self-defence Health service workers in Leeds marked International Women’s Day by learning how to deal with threatening situations on the street.

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Two dozen women health service workers are feeling more confident while out and about in Leeds after taking a self-defence class organised by UNISON learning rep Gail Cammish. Gail, who is a project manager for NHS Digital, the company that looks after the IT needs of the NHS, organised the two-hour course for International Women’s Day in March this year. It proved so popular that Gail set up an equally successful follow-up only a few weeks later – and is still fielding requests for

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further re-runs later this year from women who have heard how much their colleagues have got out of it. “Everyone who took part in the workshop found it very positive: it made them feel they would have the confidence and the moves if anybody did try to assault them,” Gail says. The Stay Safe women’s personal safety workshop is delivered by the Huddersfield-based social enterprise Freedom Personal Safety, who are trained and accredited to deliver specialist selfdefence courses to women and young girls.

“It was on eo most valu f the able couple of hours I have spe nt” Sofia Layt on

The workshop mixes practical advice, such as not being distracted by talking on a mobile phone when walking home alone at night, with practical work in pairs practising the most effective techniques to stop an attempted assault. One of Gail’s colleagues, Sofia Layton, signed up for the workshop after she had to fend off an attempted attack while waiting for her bus home, when one member of a group of aggressive young men thrust his hand in her face. “Thankfully my instinctive actions were to push his hand to the side away from

Supporting members

“Everyone wh part in the o took workshop found it very pos itive” Gail Camm ish,

UNISON le

arning rep

my face and shout a couple of choice words right at him,” Sofia recalls. “The lad backed off and ran off to his friends.” When the invitation to the UNISON workshop arrived only a few days later, Sofia enrolled immediately. “I’m not sure I would have signed up had I not had that experience shortly before and I really didn’t know what to expect but it was very enjoyable and really well run: it was one of the most valuable couple of hours I have spent,” she says. “I felt comfortable in the session and I learned some really very useful things that make me feel more able to look after myself, even if I find myself in a situation that is more threatening than that.” Sofia’s account of her experience at the bus stop and in the workshop has been published on the staff intranet, which is encouraging more women to ask Gail to run the class again. “That’s driven it forward, people seeing the story and thinking, ‘I probably need to do that workshop,” Gail says. ✱

BUILDING LEARNING LINKS ACROSS LINCOLNSHIRE

UNISON branches in Lincolnshire have joined together to invest £3,500 in member learning across the county with the launch of the UNISON Learning Lincs project. The project builds on a successful programme of cross-branch member learning that has already included two editions of UNISON’s popular employability workshop Your skills, your future and two sessions of the union’s confidence-building course, Power to be you. The cross-branch learning initiative started when Jeanette Reay (who works at NHS Property Services in Spalding) and Lincolnshire Health Branch Lifelong Learning Coordinator Karen Lee organised Power to be you workshops in Spalding and Lincoln and opened them up to members of all branches in the county. That meant that members from local authorities, the police and Higher Education were able to attend, as well as health workers. In addition, Lincolnshire Police Branch learning rep Nigel Wass has organised dementia awareness and trans-awareness sessions, again for members of all branches. Karen says that the second Lincoln Power to be you workshop, when all the participants happened to be women, was a particularly powerful experience for everyone attending. Several participants were moved to tears when they delivered their three-minute talks about the difficult life experiences they had had and what they had gained from taking part in the course. The group has stayed in touch, and everyone met up for breakfast in the run-up to Christmas to continue to support each other. Working across branch boundaries has turned out well, Karen says. “I think it’s better to run a greater number of courses across branches than one for a particular branch: it works better, you bet a better mix of people.”

SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

When you need to speak in front of 100,000 people Helping migrant workers develop their confidence skills empowers them to speak up in the workplace and the community.

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Filipino member Araial Ilustre, who is part of the UNISON Filipino Activists Network, gained so much from the confidence training course he attended earlier this year that he volunteered to speak in front of 100,000 demonstrators at the massive NHS rally in March. Araial was one of 12 members of the Network who took part in the Power to be you one-day workshop in January, delivered by Clair Hawkins from Learning and Organising Services and Susan Cueva from the Strategic Organising Unit. “Many of our migrant

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Power to be you…

Look out for Power to be you confidence workshops for African migrant members and EU migrant members later this year.

workers feel they need to boost their confidence before speaking up about issues to their manager or their colleagues,” Susan says. “While many Filipino workers speak English, they don’t necessarily feel they have a grasp on all the nuances of language so they don’t feel confident about speaking up because they worry about using the wrong expression or saying the wrong thing.” The workshop opened by encouraging participants to identify the issues they felt passionate about in

their workplace, community and family. “When you have to talk about something, it’s good to chose a subject you know about or feel passionate about,” Susan says. Working in pairs and in groups, they then moved on to how to research, prepare and structure their contributions, and from there looked at practical techniques to help them prepare a written or oral presentation. After practising in pairs talking about their chosen

Supporting members

“Even the mo participan st shy ts had the courage t o sp and say so eak up mething” Susan Cue va,

Strategic

Organisin

g Unit

topics and feeding back to each other on what they did well and what they could improve, the participants were invited to finish the workshop by addressing the whole group. “Even the most shy participants had the courage to speak up and say something about what they had prepared, so Clair and I felt that went really well – and the feedback they gave was excellent,” Susan says. In response to a request from the NHS march organisers for a Filipino NHS worker to address the rally, Araial volunteered to speak about his experience of the health service as a migrant worker. “He was really nervous, of course, but I helped him with some of his preparation and practice,” Susan says. Araial was also one of two participants who volunteered to become UNISON learning reps at the end of the course. “These workshops are really important for anyone thinking of becoming active in UNISON: confidence is one of the most important skills that we can teach our members as a trade union,” Susan says. ✱

SPEAKING UP ABOUT YOUNG BLACK MEMBERS

Wolverhampton teaching assistant Tamar Dixon (on the left of the picture, with her mother, Sharon, who is also a UNISON activist) moved the first motion at this year’s Black members’ conference after attending a confidence-building workshop last November. Tamar proposed a motion from the national young members’ forum on how the union could better engage with more young Black workers. “UNISON has helped me progress as a young Black member and as an individual,” she told the 600 delegates. “I joined UNISON in December 2015, and within the first five months I attended the national young members’ conference for the first time. A few months later, I then attended a young women’s confidence skills workshop and now here I am today as a first-time delegate. Now isn’t that progress?” Course tutor Davinder Sandhu has watched Tamar grow in confidence since attending the workshop last year. “When Tamar arrived on the confidence course she was a little reserved, having experienced challenging times in previous employment, but quietly confident,” Davinder says. “It has been fantastic to see her go from strength to strength to the point where she has spoken at Black members’ conference: she will definitely be a future leader in any context she sets her heart on.” ✱ You can watch Tamar’s speech at Black members’ conference on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LkWEd8gAtlY

SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

“The truth is online sexist abu se of ordin ary women an d girls is a n everyday phenome Jane Gebbi non” e

Assistant

Branch Se

cretary

UNISON Cymru/Wales has pioneered a new training course to help women stand up to cyber-abuse.

Standing up to online bullies

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UNISON Cymru/ Wales ran the first-ever training event in Wales to raise awareness of online abuse against women last autumn, when it launched the new course, Combatting Cyber Violence and Online Bullying. The pioneering pilot was run in Cardiff on 25 November last year, to coincide with International Day for the Elimination of Violence towards Women & Girls. The one-day course both helps women understand the nature and the scale of online abuse and supports them to become advocates against it. “We’ve all heard of women politicians or celebrities suffering disgusting abuse online just for being famous and female,” says UNISON Neath Port Talbot Assistant Branch Secretary Jane Gebbie. “The truth is online sexist abuse of ordinary women and girls is an everyday phenomenon and it’s probably

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happened to someone you know or someone living in your neighbourhood.” The course has two key elements that make it unique, explains DigiSkills Cymru Project Manager Richard Speight, who helped develop the course with the Wales learning team and regional women’s group: ✱ it’s targeted at adults in the workplace, rather than

children and young people ✱ it uses Open Badges digital technology to capture evidence for accreditation and provide immediate recognition to the learners. To mark the launch of the pilot, UNISON Cymru organised an evening event, where Vale of Glamorgan councillor Lis Burnett spoke about her own experience of online cyber-abuse.

Go online:

You can watch a video at: https://youtu.be/6_B0m8Uhp_c You can watch a presentation about the course at: https://prezi.com/vf6lw2soj6a-/combattingcyber-violence-online-bullying-23217/

STAND UP TO ONLINE HATE

10,000 explicitly aggressive and misogynistic tweets targeted 6,500 unique Twitter users in the UK over a three-week period monitored by cross-party think-tank Demos. Internationally, more than 200,000 aggressive tweets using the same hate-words were sent to 80,000 people in the same three weeks.

Supporting members

AND YES, WE DO BYTE! “I tweeted asking for recommendations for a local hairdresser and a local blogger took exception and attacked me for finding time to have my hair done,” she said. “While he wasn’t to know that my request was so I could look reasonable to attend my sister’s funeral, it struck me – and many of my followers – as completely inappropriate.” However, Lis emphasised how it’s not only women with a public profile that are targeted for misogynistic online abuse. “Grown adults and young people alike have told me how they have withdrawn from social media following a torrent of abuse related to an innocent post, and how they feel alienated and without a voice,” Lis said. UNISON Area Organiser Jenny Griffin says that the course has been a real success: not only has it broken new ground, but it has attracted interest from a wide range of branches and employers. “Since November, we have had numerous branches, employers and institutions contacting us to deliver the training, including Dyfed Powys Police, Torfaen and Neath Port Talbot Council, Coleg Gwent and many more,” Jenny says. ✱

More than 20 women members took part in the new one-day course Women Byte Back, where they listened to the stories of women computing pioneers and learned about education and career opportunities in IT. Learning and Organising Services joined forces with the Strategic Organising Unit for the event at The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, home of Britain’s code-breakers during World War Two. “I wanted to learn more about what I could do using social media to try and attract women to come and join UNISON, but also to get active, because it’s the best thing you could ever do,“ explained Epsom and Ewell Branch Secretary Serena Powis. At the height of its work, more than twothirds of the 10,000 staff onsite at Bletchley were women, and a group from the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens) were brought in to operate Bombe crypto-analysis machines and later the Colossus code-breaking computers. Some of the surviving Wrens came back to Bletchley to give a presentation on their experiences during the war, which was the highlight of the event for many participants, with one of them describing it as “inspirational and hilarious.” As well as practical sessions examining effective techniques promoting online safety and tackling cyber-bullying, there was a tour of The National Museum of Computing, which includes a multimedia tribute to female pioneers of IT in its new Women in Computing gallery. Feedback from the event was enormously positive, with one member calling it “the best day ever”, another saying it was “excellent in every way” and a third calling it “very inspiring.” Watch a five-minute video about Women Byte Back at: youtu.be/h0qrHSGFmGY SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

ALL PHOTOS: JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

Learning for the future Learning reps, lifelong co-ordinators and learning and organising staff got together earlier this year to plan continuing to help UNISON members access the learning they need.

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Around 75 learning reps, lifelong coordinators and learning and organising staff took part in this year’s ULR conference, Learning In A Changing World, at UNISON Centre in February. Both General Secretary Dave Prentis and Assistant General Secretary Roger McKenzie thanked UNISON learning reps for the work they do to promote all aspects of learning in the workplace. “It’s the work that you do – and I’ve said this at many of our conferences – that is actually the jewel in our crown: every year, thousands of our members 30

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access learning opportunities through what you do,” Dave said in his keynote speech. “We all know member learning isn’t just about personal development, although I believe that’s important in itself: but it’s often about providing the necessary training required to do jobs in our public services.” He promised that UNISON would continue to invest in members’ personal and

“My comm itment to our union lea agenda ha rning s never been stro n ger” Dave Pren tis,

UNISON G

eneral Se

cretary

professional development. “My commitment to our union learning agenda has never been stronger: we will ensure that the resources that go into the union learning agenda will remain to help ordinary people to learn, to better

Giving generously…

Participants at the event raised £317.91 in a collection for the refugees in the new camp at Dunkirk.

Supporting ULRs

SHARING THE KNOWLEDGE

themselves and to play a greater part in our society.” Roger added a message of his own about learning, self-esteem and dignity. “Learning is a key part of how we get the message across about respect and dignity: congratulations to all of you for all you do to get the message across to members and people who should be members,” he said. Later on in the morning, neuro-diversity specialist Kim Brown ran a taster workshop on dyslexia and dyspraxia awareness, while Zoe Clayton guided participants through the resources on The Open University’s (OU’s) PEARL website. Over lunchtime, Learning and Organising Services staff showed participants some of the digital resources available on UNISON’s revamped learning portal, learning.UNISON and the different areas on the secure social learning microsite, the Organising Space, as well as the new unionlearn digital resource Use-IT. Afternoon workshops shared best practice from Wales, Scotland and Bridges to Learning and looked at member learning and the new Moving On toolkit. ✱

Three dozen UNISON learning reps picked up lots of good ideas for promoting workplace learning from the presentations and workshops at the latest North West Learning Conference last October. In a plenary session, ULRs Mary Graves (Knowsley), Karen Holloway and Ya-Ching Darnell (Merseytravel) and Diane Moore (Wirral) told participants how they had used Reading Ahead to promote reading in their workplaces. The session inspired Trafford Branch Lifelong Learning Coordinator Amanda Childs to launch the challenge in her branch and promote her local library. The workshops covered some of the current key issues in lifelong learning, including the new Apprenticeship Levy, mentoring apprentices (led by Merseytravel ULR Tony Norbury), using social media (led by Blackpool Health Branch ULRs Jane Eyre and Bev Herring), UNISON’s member learning offer and understanding your payslip. Many of the ULRs who attended Tony’s mentoring workshop followed up by enrolling on a two-day course on the topic, which took place in January this year. ULRs also took the chance to learn their way round the new unionlearn digital learning resources, Use-IT, by using it to complete initial assessments in English, maths and IT.

WE’RE NOT LEAVING THEM BEHIND!

✱ 13 million UK adults lack basic digital skills ✱ 6 million UK adults have never used the internet ✱ 8 million working adults in England have below-functional maths skills ✱ 5 million working adults in England have below-functional English skills

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“Supportin g learning r eps is by far the be part of the st job” Gavin McC an

RLDO

JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

When you’re a UNISON learning rep, you can rely on the knowledge, advice and support of your regional learning team. Gavin McCann, one of our most experienced Regional Learning and Development Organisers, explains how he approaches the job of supporting ULRs in the East Midlands.

Working with ULRs to help more members get learning

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“My job is to help our branches use learning as way of helping members and supporting UNISON’s broader aims. First of all, I work with our branches to identify what we want to do, what are our aims and objectives and how we are going to put them into practice. It’s important to find somebody who will take on the vital role of the Lifelong Learning Co-ordinator (LLC) to lead on behalf of the branch and support any new learning reps (ULRs). As we

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have 200-plus ULRs, it’s not possible to support everybody individually, so I spend a lot of time helping the Co-ordinators. I find out how we can identify new ULRs, get them trained and get them active. I’m here to support LLCs and ULRs so they can organise learning in their workplaces, access Kickstart funding and get courses off the ground in their branches. If they want to talk to management, or to their branch, or if they want to run an event, I will

always try to be there. When I sit down with a ULR, we look at how we can develop a communications strategy so members know who their ULR is; how we can recruit more ULRs for the branch and support them when they come forward; how we can organise learning events in the workplace and support our members to start learning; and how we can talk to management and negotiate a learning agreement. We sometimes find learning reps can feel isolated in their

en very “Gavin has be er the years, innovative ov nly ULRs but inspiring not o s with his gue also his collea arning” passion for le

Supporting ULRs

hu, Davinder Sand ber Learning ficer for Mem Education Of

workplaces or geographically, so we’re trying to create links in their towns and their counties. In Lincolnshire, for example, we have the forum where all the ULRs can come together, share their experiences and work together across branch boundaries. For instance, a learning rep in a hospital will be in a different branch from a ULR in the district council, but if they work together to put on a course they stand a better chance of filling the places

April 2017

available – and all the members in that town will benefit. I also work closely with the regional education team and act as a link between the Regional Education Organiser (REO) and our ULRs. Our REO Angela Gerrard is responsible for member learning and puts together a whole learning programme which is there for the ULRs to use – that really helps, because it means they have learning already planned

WEDNESDAY 19 Travel to Chesterfiel d to meet the branch ’s new ULR to talk throug h UNISON’s learning offer and prom ise support THURSDAY 20 Support the ULRs at Notts County Council by attending the workpla ce learning committee – discussed the Functio nal Skills strategy and Learning at Work Week with ULRs FRIDAY 21 Travel to Corby for th e launch of the branch’s Reading Ahea d challenge in partnership with the library and featuring best-selling author Lo uise Jensen MONDAY 24 Meet new Leics County Lifelong Learning Co-ordinator to put to gether a plan of actio n for their one day a we ek facility time TUESDAY 25 Facilitate Notts ULR forum with 11 ULRs from five diffe rent branches

ready for them to advertise. For many ULRs, when they first get started, it’s about helping them build their confidence. That’s why I always encourage learning reps to run the Reading Ahead challenge because it’s a brilliant way of announcing themselves to their members and to the wider workforce. It’s fairly straightforward to get going, the employer is likely to be supportive and it’s very positive. But I would always encourage learning reps to promote the learning they are interested in and they think will get a good response. For example, we have a new ULR in a council depot who is keen to organise something about men’s health and his lifelong learning co-ordinator is going to help with that too. After 14 years in this role, I have seen many of the things that can go wrong and many of the things that can go well, so I try to use that experience and share it across the region. Supporting learning reps is by far the best part of the job. It’s a real privilege to be able to work with such genuinely decent people.” ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

Roll out the red carpet… Meet some of the UNISON learning reps whose dedication and hard work has been recognised by other organisations over the past 12 months. TUC Reps Awards: Darren Barber Queen Elizabeth Hospital Branch Secretary and union learning rep Darren Barber won the Organising Rep of the Year Award at last year’s TUC Congress in recognition of his sterling work building the East Anglian branch. Since he was elected branch secretary in 2011, Darren has made lifelong learning a top priority at the Trust, where he currently leads a team of seven ULRs. Two years after he became branch secretary, Darren was able to help formalise the constructive partnership work with the Trust’s workforce development and education team in a lifelong

“Lifelong le arning helps you ho conversat ld ions that you’ve nev er able to ha been v e before” Darren Bar ber, Branc h Se cretary

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learning agreement, which was signed in autumn 2013 and renewed last year. “Lifelong learning helps you hold conversations that you’ve never been able to have before, and then get to know people on the courses who start doing things afterwards because they can see they’re not by themselves – I think that’s been very influential in what I’ve done,” he says. Campaign for Learning Impact Awards: Dorset County Branch Dorset County Branch and Dorset County Council have won the Campaign for Learning’s (CfL’s) 2016 Impact award for unions and employers working in partnership. UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis and CfL National Director Julia Wright jointly presented the award to the branch during this year’s ULR conference, Learning in a Changing World, which was held at UNISON Centre in February. The branch put together a packed programme of

“We would n’t be here with out all our ULRs – it combined ’s a ef from ever fort y o ne” Amanda B rown, Branch Se

cretary

learning opportunities during last year’s Learning at Work Week (LAWW), including one-day UNISON courses such as Your skills, your future every day, plus 25 separate drop-in sessions covering digital skills, health and well-being, customer care, Apprenticeships and many other issues. “The joint work we do is absolutely amazing,” commented Branch Secretary Amanda Brown, who collected the award with several members of the branch team at the UNISON event. “We wouldn’t be here without all our ULRs – it’s a combined effort from everyone.” Unionlearn ULR Awards: Jane Yugire & John Wears UNISON learning reps topped two of the five categories

UNISON people

Above left: Darren Barber and Frances O’Grady. Above right: Dave Prentis and Dorset County. Below left: Jane Yugire. Below centre: Jane Eyre (left) and Bev Herring. Below right: John Wears. ALL PHOTOS: JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK (EXCEPT JANE & BEV)

at unionlearn’s first ULR Awards last summer. Newcastle City Branch ULR Jane Yugire won her award for her work supporting Apprenticeships and apprentices at the local authority. UNISON Bridges to

Learning Project Coordinator John Wears, who works at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, won his award for supporting learners with numeracy. UNISON learning reps also secured commendations

in two of the three other categories: Blackpool Health Branch ULRs Jane Eyre and Bev Herring for their numeracy promotion work and UNISON South Tyneside Branch Education Officer Hazel Kjebekk for supporting apprentices. ✱ SUMMER 2017 U LEARN

Meet the new members of our team

“I’m part o f that movemen t to make peo ple’s lives bette r” Kathleen Jo witt

ALL PHOTOS (EXCEPT ORELEO): JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

Your chance to put faces to names of the new staff in Learning and Organising Services. Oreleo Du Cran National Learning and Development Organiser (ULF) Oreleo originally trained as a UNISON learning rep while he was working at Newham Borough Council, and had progressed to become branch education officer and Lifelong Learning Coordinator before securing a job with unionlearn. After five years’ work for unionlearn’s Southern and Eastern region at Congress House, Oreleo joined the LAOS team in April, where he is responsible for supporting branch-based projects, promoting Kickstart funding and supporting ULRs. “What I most enjoy is networking and helping people,” he says. He also has learning goals of his own: “While I was at the TUC, I started Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS – now the Level 3 36

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“What I m ost enjoy is networkin ga helping pe nd o ple” Oreleo Du Cran

Award in Education and Training), so I would like to pursue that teaching element if I can. My learning isn’t finished.” Kathleen Jowitt Assistant Education Officer After working for UNISON for seven years (four years in the South-East region and three in the Business Community & Environment service group), Kathleen moved to LAOS last September.

Communications is a significant component to Kathleen’s role: she is the social media lead, as well as editor of Ulearn. Kathleen also looks after the branch welfare officers’ and national committee skills training and keeps track of activist training data. “Learning is one of the really valuable things we do on a personal, day-to-day level for our members: it’s one of those things where you can see you’ve made a difference to people’s lives,” Kathleen says. “While my role doesn’t involve lots of that face-toface contact, I do like feeling I’m part of that movement to make people’s lives better.” Hazel Marsh Learning & Workforce Development Officer Hazel Marsh joined the LAOS team in January after 12 years’ work on Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF) projects and 16 months on UNISON’s

UNISON people

“Learning sho be someth uld in that shou g ld b core busin e ess” Hazel Mar sh

Schools Fighting Fund project. Hazel is looking after UNISON’s learning partnership with The Open University, e-learning and support for schools staff. “I want to help more branches understand the value of promoting learning, to help them see learning isn’t an add-on – it’s something that should be core business, something that can engage with non-members and bring them into the fold,” Hazel says. Clair Hawkins Learning & Workforce Development Officer After working as teacher, careers adviser, support worker and organiser, Clair

“I think th ere is a huge lin k between le ar and organ ning ising” Clair Haw ki

Hawkins has brought a wide range of skills from all those jobs into her new role in the LAOS team. Clair is the strategic lead for English, maths and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) – a subject she taught for eight years at Lambeth College. She will also be working with private companies to get them involved in learning. “I think there is a huge link between learning and organising that is really important to UNISON,” Clair says. “When people feel more confident, more assured and more assertive in the workplace because they have been able to access education, they feel more able to tackle things and stand up for what is right.” ✱

AU REVOIR, EMMA

Emma Lipscombe emigrated to New Zealand in the autumn, where she is now working as an education campaign organiser for E tū, New Zealand’s largest private sector union. Emma originally trained as a UNISON learning rep in Newcastle, spent a year with the TUC Organising Academy, travelled through South America and then returned to Newcastle to work on the branch’s community organising project. During her four years at LAOS, Emma completed her Open University degree in International Studies (the OU was also part of her portfolio), creatively supported ULR development, and edited Read Anytime Anywhere, Making Every Penny Count and the recently revamped Learning For Everyone. “From my own personal experience, I know how much being involved in the union and going back to learning built my confidence, and confidence builds our members – I’m a real example of that,” Emma says.

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How the OU can open doors for you

“PEARL pla ce strong em s a phasis on part-tim e and flexib study ility” Hazel Mar sh, Le

arning & Workforce Developm ent Officer

From short, free, online courses to higher level learning, The Open University (OU) offers a huge range of learning opportunities tailored to the needs and aspirations of UNISON learners. PEARL

✱ Website developed in collaboration with partners including UNISON. ✱ Signposts wide range of educational opportunities. ✱ Includes ‘advise me’ tool that generates personalised advice on the best options. ✱ Features inspirational case studies. PEARL (part-time education for adults returning to learn) is a new website that UNISON and other partners including unionlearn have helped the OU develop. It’s designed to support adults, particularly those who may be looking to identify their first steps towards improving their long-term career prospects. PEARL will help you find all levels of courses and learning opportunities to suit your needs, ranging from short, online courses that do not carry any credit right through to Higher Education learning offered by colleges and universities. PEARL places a strong emphasis on part-time study and flexibility, to enable people to continue in work while pursuing their studies. The ‘advise me’ tool is easy to use: simply complete a five-minute questionnaire about your study options and the tool generates personalised suggestions about the kind of study that might be suitable. ✱ www.pearl.ac.uk

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Resources

OpenLearn ✱ Free learning resources website with around 11,000 hours of learning materials, including 8,000 hours taken from OU undergraduate and post-graduate courses. ✱ Courses include subjects such as Health, Social Care and Early Years. ✱ Some courses on OpenLearn allow learners to gain a free digital badge on completion (known as Badged Open Courses – BOCs). OpenLearn is the OU’s web access point for its open and free online resources. You can improve your study and employability skills in a range of subjects including money and finance, project planning, digital skills, communication skills and leadership and management. You can also browse subject categories to explore new topics or look for reference material for a course you are already studying and discover hundreds of free courses lasting from one to 100 hours. When you create an OU account and enrol on a course, you will be eligible for the free statement of participation or digital badge if the course offers one. ✱ www.open.edu/openlearn

Online badged courses 4 Planning a Better Future: ✱ UNISON and other introductory course for partners have helped the anyone considering OU develop a suite of six changing jobs, wondering online badged courses. how to move up the ✱ Courses are aimed at ladder or return to people who wish to improve work after a break. their skills, knowledge 5 Taking Part in the and career prospects in a Voluntary Sector: number of specific areas. introductory course ✱ Completers receive for people considering a digital badge for their volunteering or aiming social media profiles. to progress within the voluntary sector. 1 Introducing Practical 6 Starting Your Small Healthcare: introductory Business: introductory course for healthcare course for anyone thinking support staff who might of setting up a small be looking to enhance business or becoming their knowledge and self-employed (or has skills in order to improve done so recently). Covers their career progression structures, customers and within the health sector. responsibilities and looks 2 Supporting Children’s at the common features Development: of particular shared by successful small interest to Teaching businesses, as well as the Assistants (TAs) and common pitfalls to avoid. other schools staff. ✱ www.open.edu/ 3 Caring for Adults: openlearn/spnintroductory course for carers or those courses ✱ considering a care role.

Find out more…

Further information is online at: www.open.ac.uk/choose/unison Contact Hazel Marsh email: LearningAndOrganisingServices@unison.co.uk

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As a UNISON learning rep, you can get to grips with some important learning issues by working your way through the expanding series of e-notes on the revamped portal, learning.unison.org.uk

Dyslexia awareness

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dyslexia

These are the key elements of the e-note. in our ✱ Definitions. Defines dyslexia and its connections own words with other Specific Learning Difficulties. ✱ Checklist. Fill in the dyslexia checklist to get an overview of the common characteristics of dyslexia. ✱ Equality Act. Includes an overview of the Equality Act 2010. ✱ Dyslexia assessments. What’s involved in the two main types of dyslexia assessment. ✱ Useful tips.. Suggestions for supporting colleagues with dyslexia at work.

IMPROVE YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF DYSLEXIA Support members and organise around the issue in your branch. Dyslexia in Our Own Words Ref: ACT185. To order, email LearningAndOrganisingServices@unison.co.uk

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JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

Making the most of e-notes

E-notes ar ea easy to us ll e, f interactiv ully e, a feature sh nd ort quizzes

“The pre-U LR e-note would be good to u se at branch meetings to show exac tly what is involved in being a ULR”

Jane Eyre , Lead ULR, Blackpool Health Bran ch

✱

What are e-notes? Short online learning modules, designed to signpost and support you between training courses. What do they look like? They’re fully interactive, with lots of photographs, graphics and videos, plus short quizzes to test your knowledge. Are e-notes easy to use? Yes! Just click on the title you’re interested in and it will open in a new window on your computer. How long do they take? Each e-note tells you roughly how long it will take. But if you run out of time or need to pause for any reason, you can pick up where you left off the next time you log in. Where can I find them? You can find the full list by logging on to learning.unison.org.uk. Do I need an account? Yes: but they’re easy to set up. ✱

Look out for…

Our new Apprenticeship e-note – out soon!

Resources

Are you thinking of becoming a ULR?

These are the main sections of the e-note. ✱ Introduction. Highlights the aims of the e-note. ✱ Let’s get started. Sets out what ULRs do and helps you identify the skills you need to be a learning rep. Includes a short video of current ULRs discussing what they get out of being learning reps. ✱ What training do you get? Sets out the training UNISON will provide to help you in your role. Breaks down how to organise a learning survey, run tasters for UNISON member development workshops and promote our popular short courses, Return to Learn and Women’s Lives.

BECOME A ULR: WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE? Foldout leaflet and poster featuring first-person stories from current ULRs about what they enjoy about the role. Stock No: ACT227

TEST YOUR E-NOTE KNOWLEDGE

Find the answers to these questions in our e-notes. ✱ What is the minimum type size to use to make sure people with dyslexia can more easily read written documents? (Dyslexia awareness) ✱ How many care workers in the UK are regularly paid below the National Minimum Wage? (Are you getting paid the National Minimum Wage?) ✱ Now that schools have a legal duty to support children with medical conditions in schools, can schools require support staff to undertake medical duties? (Coping with care, dealing with health needs in schools) ✱ How many standards are included in the Care Certificate? (Introduction to the Care Certificate) ✱ Do UNISON learning reps manage casework? (Are you thinking of becoming a ULR?)

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PETER EVERARD SMITH

Stretch yourself with our new toolkit We’ve revamped the Learning for everyone toolkit to help ULRs promote more informal learning sessions at work.

✱

We have comprehensively overhauled our informal learning toolkit, Learning for everyone, to help UNISON learning reps set up, organise and deliver successful informal learning sessions in the workplace. The toolkit is full of helpful suggestions about getting informal learning underway in your workplace that will help you engage members, involve your branch and get your employer on side. Using the practical tips, activities and exercises in the toolkit, you will be able to engage members and potential members in sessions on a wide range 42

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of themes, from book clubs to tackling stress to understanding their payslips. It also covers working with partner organisations such as The Open University

The toolk it is full of help fu suggestio l ns about getting in for learning u mal nderway

(OU) and other learning providers, The Reading Agency, National Numeracy and your local library. ✱

Order your copy…

To order your copy of Learning for everyone, email LearningAndOrganisingServices@ unison.co.uk quoting ACT007 To order promotional materials for learning stalls and events, contact LearningAndOrganisingServices@ unison.co.uk or 020 7121 5116 Already a ULR? You can order Learning in your Workplace ULR posters to personalise with your contact details. ACT265

Resources

WE CAN HELP COVER THE COSTS OF YOUR ACTIVITIES

You too can kickstart learning in your branch or region by applying for Kickstart funding from Learning and Organising Services (LAOS). Up to £250 is available to support learning activity that engages existing and potential members.

You can use the funding to support learning stalls, pay for venue and catering costs for learning tasters or purchase resources and equipment for learning centres. For further information, contact Jon Tennison or Oreleo Du Cran. Email: LearningAndOrganisingServices@unison.co.uk Tel: 020 7121 5116

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW INFORMAL LEARNING?

You can find the answers to all these questions in our Learning for everyone toolkit. 1 How many learners did LAOS support in 2015? a) around 4,000 b) around 10,000 c) around 12,000 2 What percentage of the members surveyed in 2011 said lack of confidence in Functional Skills stopped them from becoming active in the union? a) more than 5 per cent b) nearly 10 per cent c) more than 17 per cent 3 What is the largest Learning Grant available to UNISON members studying at their own expense up to undergraduate level? a) £50 b) 100 c) 250 4 Who or what is PEARL? a) an award-winning UNISON learning rep who has told her story in this year’s Ulearn b) a type of stitch used in knitting c) a website that helps people find the best route back into study

Answers: 1 (c); 2 (b); 3 (b); 4 (c); 5 (a)

5 What work did the mainly Asian women carry out at Grunwick, site of the famous 1970s industrial dispute? a) film processing b) clothes making c) food preparation?

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To find out more and how to join contact: UNISONdirect TELEPHONE 0800 085 7857 textphone users FREEPHONE 0800 096 7968 Lines open 6am to midnight Monday to Friday and 9am to 4pm on Saturday Visit our website www.unison.org.uk Follow us on twitter: @unisonlearning Stock No: ACT266