Pay all care workers living wage, says UNISON

UNISON is calling on all employers to pay the living wage to care workers and all councils to adopt UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter in its Social care manifesto for Scotland to improve working conditions for some of the worst paid public workers in Scotland.

UNISON manifesto Social Care in Scotland is launched today (Monday 2 May) (See on website)

Improving the quality of care means seriously addressing workforce issues, the most important of which is pay. Despite the introduction of the Chancellor’s new UK ‘Living’ Wage which sets an hourly rate of £7.20 for workers aged 25 and over, many employers do not pay for time to travel between visits or make other cuts to terms and conditions. UNISON believes that all providers should be required to pay the Scottish Living Wage (currently £8.25 in Scotland) through the procurement process.

Time for childcare promises to be backed by resources

UNISON is calling for fine words and promises to increase childcare to be backed by extra resources for children, parents and the workforce, in its Early Learning and Childcare Manifesto 2016.

Currently Scotland’s childcare provision is patchy, complex and expensive. We need a radical overhaul of childcare provision to ensure that it provides what families actually want: an affordable, safe nurturing environment for their children. This will mean extending flexible working and leave for parents; and fair pay, training and career paths for those working in childcare, as well as more resources put into extra hours.

A balanced workforce for policing that delivers

Since the establishment of Police Scotland police staff have borne the brunt of a process of centralisation, budget cuts and politically driven targets. This process has been bad for policing, bad for communities and bad for staff. UNISON Scotland calls for policing in Scotland to be properly resourced with a balanced workforce responsive to locally determined priorities.

The new Chief Constable has said he is committed to developing a “sustainable operating model”. Cutting millions from budgets and demanding the same, or more, work from a dwindling number of Police staff is not a “sustaining operating model”. UNISON Scotland is opposed to neither change nor efficiency, but cutting tens of millions from budgets year on year cannot continue without adversely impacting on policing. Those who seek to govern Scotland should also seek to ensure that Scotland’s Police Service is adequately resourced to keep Scotland safe.

UNISON calls for a coherent strategy for social care services

Launch of UNISON Scotland social care manifesto for local government elections

Councils need a coherent strategy to ensure the sustainability of social care services, says UNISON. Launching the union's social care manifesto for May's local elections today (Wednesday), UNISON Scotland's Depute Convener Stephen Smellie said councils need to focus on putting care before cost.

Stephen Smellie, UNISON Scotland Depute Convener, said: "Social care staff are expected to perform miracles by helping people to change their lives. But increasing levels of unemployment, homelessness and poverty place ever greater demands on services and staff are constantly overstretched.

"We'll be challenging all the candidates in the forthcoming elections on their commitment to social care, and asking them to support the principles in our manifesto. We want to know that they are committed to putting care before cost when it comes to delivering the services that people depend on."

Dave Watson, UNISON's Scottish Organiser, said: "Budgets are continually being cut and this has led to real fears about the sustainability of services. Councils need a coherent strategy for care services to reverse cuts in funding, boost staffing levels and cut service charges.

"Care services continue to be designed and imposed from above and this needs to change. People need to have a real say in how services are delivered in their communities and the only way to ensure that is to put users and staff at the heart of service design and delivery."

You can download a copy of the UNISON Scotland social care manifesto online at http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/socialwork/minimanifesto.pdf.

UNISON Scotland's local government manifesto can also be found online at http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/publicworks