A senior trade union leader today called on the Government to put collaboration not consumerism at the heart of public service reform. Writing exclusively in “Participation Nation: The Challenge of Reconnection” Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, urges the government to drop market reform proposals in favour of a participatory approach to public service delivery. Speaking ahead of the launch of the pamphlet he said:

"The government should adopt a new strategy for public service reform - one based on real democratic participation instead of top-down targets and competitive markets. People shouldn't have to make a false choice between private firms that just want to cut costs and increase profits for their shareholders. Our public services must be genuinely accountable to the communities they serve, and staff and users should work together to find the best ways of improving them. But if this is going to work, the government has to listen to what communities are calling for and invest in the workforce that can help to make it happen. Otherwise all the talk about 'empowerment' and 'involvement' will only lead to more cynicism and disillusionment."

 
 

This year’s annual NationalDelegate Conference (NDC) is in Brighton. It starts 10am on Tuesday, 19 June, and lasts until Friday afternoon. It is the union's ruling body and decides upon campaign priorities and policies.

To anyone who hasn’t been before I would recommend clicking onto the UNISON website and watch the short video of last year’s NDC at Bournemouth. The NDC is huge, you don’t realise how big an organisation UNISON is until you go to conference and see how widespread geographically the membership is. You’ll hear accents from all over the British Isles (and much further afield).