Latest News

Come and join us every Wednesday in Dorchester

'Speaking out for the Public Services you rely on’
Weymouth and Portland District Trades Council working with the Joint TU's GMB/UNISON/UNITE

Dorchester 4 August 2010

Add your name to the petition TODAY!!

petition

If you have difficulty downloading the petition please contact the Branch (01305 224436)

 BUDGET NEWS

Heather Wakefield - UNISON's Head of Local Government wrote an article on the Public Finance websites called"Council workers still frozen out"

UNISON national press release

Misery goes on for local government workers. Some councils are refusing £250 pay rise

Read the article Polly Toynbee wrote in the Guardian 27 June 2010

 Double Standards - The Current Position on NJC Pay

Read The article in Public Service on the proposed cuts

LGA - Local Government Employers Circular - Reducing Workforce Costs... from this you should be able to identify measures already taken and get a picture of what is in store for us unless we Recruit & Organise to resist.

Edinburgh City Branch of UNISON of fighting privatisation and mention other councils as an example of why not to go down that route

Personalisation is the name given to the creation of a more responsive system of personal social care with the introduction of personal budgets and direct payments for service users.

UNISON supports the principle that everyone should have as much independence, choice and control over their own care and support arrangements as is right for them.
UNISON believes that the current funding gap is likely to mean that personalisation promises more than it can deliver.
UNISON workers in social care have in recent years seen their jobs and roles change, mass privatisation, closing down of local services and ever tighter rationing of care.
As a result of underfunding personalisation is becoming synonymous with less choice, increased privatisation and growth of an unregulated care service. UNISON's personalisation campaign aims to build a powerful coalition for sustained investment in social care to deliver:
Real independence, control and choice for service users
A valued well paid, trained and skilled social care workforce
Services which are well funded through public provision
A standardised employment and regulatory framework for all personalisation care workers

UNISON launches Who Cares: Who Pays? ? report on personalisation

UNISON is the largest trade union at Dorset County Council.  We negotiate for better pay and conditions, help individuals in trouble and campaign for a safer, fairer society. 

A report on A review of social workers’ pay and progression

Still part of the job ? Why history of violence against social care workers is repeating itself

We can afford a fairer society, the current recession was not caused by excessive public spending.

Click on link below for more information. \

We can afford a firer

UNISON ALTERNATIVE BUDGET edundancies in Local Government (LG/43/2009)

ISA Registration

For all

Yesterday the Government announced that they intend to review the vetting and barring scheme and bring it back to 'proportionate and common sense levels'.  As a result,the ISA  registration element of this sceme has been stopped and will not go ahead as planned on the 26 July 2010.  Details of this review are currently being finalized by the Government and will be published in due course.  As a result of the announcement, the CRB have issued a statement confirming that;

Elements of the VBS introduced in October 2009 will continue, and existing requirements concerning the CRB will remain in place.

Therefore, the County Council will continue to have a duty to refer information to the ISA on any individual who has been removed or moved because they have harmed or there is a risk of harm to children or vulnerable adults.  It will also continue to be a legal offence should the County Council   knowingly employ an individual to work in regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults who has been barred from working with that group.

CRB disclosure checks will continue to be made on post undertaking regulated or controlled activity and DES has been updated following the review of positions.  However, no ISA registration will be required at the moment.

The new CRB forms will continue to be launched by the County Council as detailed in the June 2010 Team Brief.  After 16 July no old CRB application forms  will be accepted for processing.  Recruiting managers issuing CRB\ application forms directly should ensure that new forms are issued after 12 July 2010, and destroy any stocks of the old form.  Stocks of the new form can be ordered from the HR Mediated Access team.

The dates for stewards training for 2010 are now available on the training page.