Campaigns
Positively Public Briefings
Monthly briefings providing the latest campaigning, privatisation and good practice news. Link to another page on this siteAvailable here
National news

UNISON welcomes assurances over NHS reform

(09/05/08) Government pledges staff and patients will be the driving force for change

For safety’s sake

(08/05/08) Meat inspection to remain in public control

Everyday heroes

(06/05/08) Say ‘thank you’ to the special people who care for the UK’s sick children

Food for good

(01/05/08) UNISON calls for school (and hospital) meals to be sourced locally
News list >

Ingredients for success

The Local Government Service Group and Positively Public Unit of UNISON commissioned APSE (the Association of Public Service Excellence) to carry out research into what makes a good in-house service and what the ingredients of success were.

Documents & Links
Ingredients for Success
Link to a PDF document on this siteAcrobat PDF
This involved eight detailed case studies and interviews with both staff and managers. Four distinct service areas were chosen for the study, with two studies in each of housing, home care, building cleaning and libraries with an example from each of the four countries of the UK.

The main aim was to demonstrate how factors such as staff, trade union and user involvement and consultation, experience, expertise and inter-service co-operation can all contribute to service improvement and good in-house services. The good practice demonstrated in these examples should encourage others to learn valuable lessons as part of delivering continuous improvement.

CONTACT DETAILS
• The UNISON contact for the Positively Public campaign is Margie Jaffe.
Positively Public
1 Mabledon Place
London WC1H 9AJ
Email: positivelypublic@unison.co.uk
Recent documents
NHS @ 60
Document containing a mix of serious articles (including one by Dave Prentis), light-hearted features and potted histories to illustrate why it's essential that we continue to celebrate and defend the NHS as it turns 60
Link to a PDF document on this siteAcrobat PDF version
Machines, markets and morals

This pamphlet from the think tank Compass calls on the government to end the marketisation of the NHS and instead allow staff and users to shape the service democratically.Link to a PDF document on this siteAcrobat PDF (1709088 bytes)

PFI cost to the NHS
This study analyses the cost of using private finance to build the first 12 operational PFI hospitals by 2001-2002. It shows that PFI creates budget inflexibilities that increase pressures on the NHS to cut its largest cost: the jobs, working conditions and pay of staff, therefore impacting on the quality of healthcare services.
Link to a PDF document on this siteAcrobat PDF (70277 bytes)
The UK Public Library Service - facing the challenges
This factsheet highlights the challenges the public library service faces and UNISON's campaign to defend the service, which is very popular and valued by local communities.
Link to a document on this siteLibrary factsheet (366592 bytes)
Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
This fact sheet outlines the arguments against PFI.
Link to a document on this siteWord document (375296 bytes)
All Positively Public reports >