Wednesday 5th July marked the 69th anniversary of our nation’s greatest institution and most remarkable achievement – the National Health Service. In 1948, in the aftermath of global war, and in a country still rationing food, a system was established by which anyone – everyone – could receive the treatment they needed, funded by taxation and free at the point of use. Need, not cost, would be what determined the care you received.

The week beginning 3rd July 2017 Ray Gray, Regional Officer Y&H and his team, Karen Towner and Linda Cartwright, hit the road in the UNISON battle bus to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the NHS.

On Monday we were in York City Centre engaging with members of the public who willingly wrote messages of thanks and appreciation to our amazing NHS staff. Volunteers from Oxfam queued up to sign the birthday card.

On Tuesday we visited Harrogate District Hospital and again received a warm welcome. Ray Gray presented the cards to Philip Marshall, Director of HR.

Wednesday 5th July, the date of the anniversary, we were outside Hull Royal Infirmary and presented the signed birthday cards to Simon Nearney Director of HR and Terry Moran Chair who were overwhelmed by the personal messages and praise, not only from visitors and patients but from staff too.

Finally, on Thursday 6th July, we were in Sheffield City Centre and once again members of the public demonstrated their support.

 

You can see some photos from the fantastic UNISON Doncaster Raceday 2017 here...

 

UNISON RETURN TO LEARN AND WOMEN’S LIVES COURSES -

• Return To Learn leaflet
• Women's Lives leaflet

I am delighted to send you information about the very popular UNISON Return to Learn and Women's Lives courses.  We are recruiting to these courses in your area.

The courses are a fantastic free opportunity for UNISON members who have been away from learning for a long time.

The courses are run in a friendly and supportive environment with the support of a WEA (Workers' Educational Association) tutor experienced in working with adults.

We are holding information sessions during September/October 2017 in each town, starting at 6pm (please check dates and times on next page).  They will last for up to 2 hours. 

The courses will then commence in September/October 2017. Both courses are open to UNISON members only.

Return to Learn consists of 12 study group sessions run in the evening for two and a half hours and one residential weekend.

Women’s Lives consists of 10 two-hour study group sessions and one residential weekend.

If you are interested in finding out more about these courses please reserve a place at the information session by completing and returning the tear off slip inside the leaflet enclosed.  At the information session you can meet the course tutor, find out more about the course and decide whether or not you would like to take part. 

Details of the venues for the information sessions are as follows: -

RETURN TO LEARN COURSES:

Area	Information Meeting	Venue	Organiser
Barnsley	6.00 – 8.00 pm Monday 11 September 2017	Barnsley Town Hall, Room 10 Church Street, Barnsley S70 2TA	Felicity Sanderson 07966 254331 felicity.sanderson@wea.org.uk
Halifax	6.00 – 8.00 pm Thursday 5 October 2017	Orangebox,  1 Blackledge, Halifax, HX1 1AF	Rose Farrar 07880 565 459 rfarrar@wea.org.uk

WOMEN’S LIVES COURSES: (which are training courses for women)

Area	Information Meeting	Venue	Organiser
Huddersfield	6.00 – 8.00 pm Wednesday 4 October 2017	Huddersfield New College, New Hey Road, Huddersfield HD3 4GL	Rose Farrar 07880 565 459 rfarrar@wea.org.uk
Leeds	6.00 – 8.00 pm Tuesday 26 September 2017	Swarthmore Centre, Room 02, 2-7 Woodhouse Square, Leeds, LS3 1AD	Brian Chadwick 07966 255769 bchadwick@wea.org.uk
Sheffield	6.00 – 8.00 pm Wednesday 6 September 2017	The Circle, Conference Room, 33 Rockingham Lane, Sheffield  S1  4FW	Sue Taylor 07966 254324 staylor@wea.org.uk

For more information about the courses, please contact the relevant WEA Organiser listed above during office hours. 

We very much hope that you will decide to find out more about Return to Learn and Women’s Lives courses and we look forward to receiving your reply slip.

Yours sincerely

Rob Demaine
Regional Organiser, Education

 

 

You can find the latest ACTIVE magazine here...

 

Dean Royles (Director of HR at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust), Gary Cleaver (Regional Organiser UNISON), Tony Pearson (Regional Head of Health UNISON), and Denise Carr (Branch Secretary of UNISON at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust) at the signing of the new agreement.  

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the largest in the country, has today (Thursday) signed a new agreement with UNISON.

The West Yorkshire trust, which employs more than 17,000 staff, is obliged to charge for the work involved in deducting union subscriptions from pay. 

This is under new rules introduced this year applying to all employers with staff who belong to unions. 

Changes to trust IT and administration systems mean there is now less work involved in processing the subscription deductions, and the saving has been passed onto the union.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s director of human resources Dean Royles said: “We work in close partnership with unions, and believe our employees benefit from being members. 

“This agreement highlights our ongoing commitment to partnership working to improve the service we provide for patients and the working lives of our staff. 

“We want our trust to be the best place to work. I’m delighted that we have been able to apply the new legislation so quickly and effortlessly.”

UNISON Yorkshire and Humberside regional organiser Gary Cleaver said: “This agreement shows how progressive employers can work with unions. We hope others will follow Leeds Teaching Hospitals lead.”

UNISON assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said: “This is an encouraging step forward. It demonstrates the benefits of close relationships between employers and unions.”

Notes to editors:
- Public sector staff are entitled to have their union subscriptions deducted automatically from their pay at source.
-The Trade Union Act 2016 requires employers to make a reasonable charge to cover the cost of deducting subscriptions from pay.
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has reduced their processing charge from two per cent to one and a half per cent. 
- UNISON is the largest public sector union representing more than 450,000 NHS employees.

Ends

 

SHOW RACISM THE RED CARD
WEAR RED DAY - FRIDAY 20th OCTOBER 2017
#WRD17

There are many ways in which you can get involved with Wear Red Day on Friday 20th October. We can't wait see the creative ideas you come up with, but quite simply it's all about uniting against racism for one day, wearing something red and donating £1 wherever you are!

AT WORK
You and your fellow colleagues can get involved by coming to work sporting something red for the day. It can be as subtle as a red tie, red hair clip, or even red socks.

AT SCHOOL
Pupils, teachers and support staff can join together in holding a non-uniform day. Schools could also run a sponsored penalty shoot-out competition or other activities to raise further funds.

ON MY OWN
Individuals can also get involved. You can just wear red wherever you are and donate £1.

Facebook: Facebook.com/theRedCard

Twitter: @SRtRC_England

Instagram: ShowRacismtheRedCard

 

School Uniform Grant - Application form
School Uniform Grant - Questions & Answers

If you have any problem with filling in the form please don't hesitate to get in touch with the branch

 

You can download a copy of the report here...

The project we have been running in the Gambia with the Bijilo school reached its peak when Wendy Nichols made it her Presidential project, during her term as President, this concluded in June last year. Over the 5 years UNISON have been involved in this project your assistance has allowed us to develop the school vegetable garden, equip the school with gardening equipment, improve and secure the perimeter wall protecting the garden, install water tanks and improve water supply, install and improve toilet facilities, build a secure equipment store and with the money from the Presidential appeal build and equip a four classroom block to improve the schools capacity.

The time, however, has now come to move on from the school and look at other areas to assist in. During her Presidential visit to the school to open the classroom block, Wendy and Jim Bell, the project co-ordinator, met with representatives of one of the three public hospitals in the whole of the Gambia, Serrekunda Hospital. This meeting resulted in a memorandum of understanding between Y&H UNISON and the Hospital which will be the focus of our efforts going forward. You can download a copy of the report here...

Return to Learn and Women’s Lives will run from September 2017 in the following areas:-

Women’s Lives – Huddersfield, Leeds and Sheffield
Return to Learn – Barnsley (inc. Wakefield and Rotherham), Bradford and Halifax

More information about venues and times will be available from July 2017. For more information or to register your interest in these courses please contact your Regional Education Administrator: Tanya Shearer: email: t.shearer@unison.co.uk,
Tel: 0113 218 2330.

Find out more...

• Return To Learn leaflet
• Women's Lives leaflet

You can find more courses on our education page here...

 

Welcome to the 2017 Regional Education Programme. Once again we have endeavoured to offer courses to suit everyone, as Lifelong Learning is still high on our agenda. We have courses tailored to the needs of activists and members alike and there are a number of new courses designed to further develop the skills of our activists. Working with our partners such as the WEA and Northern College we have increased our learning offer and increased the range of courses and learning opportunities available.

You can find the 2017 Education Programme here....

In addition to our Regional Education Team, our Organisers will be working with branches, among the other organising duties they undertake, to develop Lifelong learning and ensure activists are trained to the highest up-to-date standards.

The programme is designed to increase the access to the most up to date training UNISON can offer both for new and developing existing activists. UNISON needs to increase its activist base, and attract better equipped and motivated activists. The courses provided are directly aimed at building confidence and developing skills abilities. We are sure that both you and UNISON will benefit from the experience. It is never too late to learn.

Branch development is vital in recruiting and organising and retaining members.
We are constantly striving to increase membership and provide a better service. Increasing membership and developing new activists from all sectors of the union will make us stronger and more representative of our members.

It is now 7 years since the Regional Council increased the charges to branches for training courses and I am pleased to be able to report that the charges should remain unchanged for 2017. The only exception being the Branch Officer training weekend as the increased cost of hotel accommodation has made it inevitable that we will need to raise the charges slightly.

Unfortunately, due to Tory Government cuts there have been significant reductions in general further education funding and TUC funding has also been drastically cut. As a result of effective lobbying by the TUC, the previous Coalition government’s intention to remove fee remission was postponed to August 2016 thus enabling the region to keep charges to branches unchanged.

But sadly it may be necessary to review the charges moving into 2018 but we will work hard to keep any increase to a minimum.

No one should be out of pocket attending UNISON courses. Branches and the Region will continue to contribute to ensure this, and access is freely available to as many members / activist as possible. Any additional travel costs or carer costs can be claimed from your branch, but you do need to speak to your branch and get their agreement in advance (details of help can be found within this programme).

We also offer for clarity a separate members only training programme detailing some of the courses/workshops UNISON offers for non activist members. You can obtain a copy of this from your branch education co-ordinator or Branch Secretary. You can always find it on our web site www.unison-yorks.org.uk/education.html.

Working together with other Trade unionists to achieve common goals is at the fundamental core of our organisation and we offer many opportunities for development.

So please access and enjoy our learning offer and don’t be afraid to comment on things that went well or not so well as we are always striving to improve your learning experience and all feedback is carefully considered and used to improve our delivery.

You can find the 2017 Education Programme here....

Wendy Nichols
Regional Convenor

 

These courses are a fantastic free opportunity for UNISON members who have been away from learning for a long time. The course start this autumn so visit our Education & Training page for more details and to apply.

 

UNISON Yorkshire & Humberside Region have sponsored The British Amateur Rugby League Association for many years and this relationship continues to flourish.

You can find the latest photos here...