UNISON opinion: This is what community looks like

By UNISON’s assistant national officer for community, Haifa Rashed I often get asked, what is the community service group? It seems a simple question, but even as an officer in the sector, it’s not simple to answer. I can tell you who we represent. UNISON has 85,000 members in community, they are: housing officers, care workers, support workers, admin workers, project workers, children’s services workers and more. I can tell you who those members work for. They work for charities large and small, non-profits and housing associations. I can even tell you where they work. They can work in people’s homes offering frontline support and care, in women’s refuges, in LGBT+ spaces, in leisure centres or in offices like any other sector. But when you look at the community service group as a whole, it’s hard to sum it up in one sentence and say – this is who we are. It may seem a bit of an academic exercise, but it has real consequences and tells us a lot about the issues community members face. The range of roles, employers and workplaces make it a real challenge organising and representing members in the sector. There is no unifying pay structure and no national terms and conditions. Moreover, many community members in UNISON sit within local government and health branches and this can have an isolating effect on them. All of this makes it harder for workers in the sector to demonstrate their collective strength. In turn, it makes the sector’s conference ...
Source: UNISON Health care news - Category: UK Health Authors: Tags: Article 2024 National Community Conference and Seminar Community and Voluntary Sector Source Type: news