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Policy and Strategy
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At its inauguration the Scottish Communications
and Campaigns Committee set out a remit which was adopted
by UNISON Scotland.
From time to time it sets other policy
objectives which will be reported here.
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 Communications & Campaigns Committee remit
Policy and Strategy updates
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UNISONScotland
Communications & Campaigns Committee
Remit
Remit
To assist UNISON Branches with all their
communication and campaigning needs and in particular to encourage
the establishment of branch newsletters.
To work with Service and Self-Organised groups in planning and
assisting with recruitment and campaigns.
To liaise with the Affiliated Political Fund
committee on campaigning work it might be planning around local
or national elections.
To establish and distribute a Scottish Newsletter aimed at all
UNISON members in Scotland..
To promote UNISON Scotland publicly, through
press relations, sponsorship and advertising.
To develop, with the Education and Training Committee, training
for UNISON members to enable them to take part in the communications
tasks above at all levels of the union.
To report to and assist the Scottish Committee
and Scottish Council in the distribution of Scottish communications
and in the planning and running of major cross-service campaigns
whether initiated at a UK or Scottish level.
To have sufficient decision-making power to carry out the above
remits, delegated from the Scottish Committee within UNISON's Scottish
policy.
Budget
In order to undertake this remit, the Committee should have an
annually agreed budget from the Scottish Council's budget. This
should be bid for by the Communications & Campaigns Committee,
agreed annually by the Scottish Committee and reported to the Scottish
Council.
Structure
The Communications and Campaigns Committee will consist of;
- 10 members elected from the Scottish Council,
of whom 4 should be women,
- 2 members appointed by the Scottish Committee, of whom 1 should
be a woman,
- 1 representative of each self-organised
group,
- 1 member of each service group unless that service group is
otherwise represented,
- any Scottish NEC member who serves on
the National Communications Panel.
Frequency
The Committee should meet at least six times per year, and should
operate by establishing smaller groups to deal with specific projects
and remits (eg a Scottish Editorial Board)
Servicing
The Committee should be serviced administratively and secretarially
from within the full-time resources of UNISON In Scotland. It should
elect a Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson from their number, one
of whom should be a woman.
UNISONScotland
Communications & Campaigns Committee
SCOTLAND'S PARLIAMENT
COMMUNICATIONS REQUIREMENTS OF UNISON SCOTLAND
Main principles
The main principles that UNISON should be following with regard
to its liaison witi a future Scottish Parliament are:
(i) that we should be the main spokesperson for Scottish Public
Services;
(ii) that we should be at the bean of 'building the coalition'
to defend and advance this anid our other policies, and that
(iii) we are and will remain pan of a UK organisation and need
to take part in/influence UK decisions/policies
1. Impact of Scottish Parliament
It is likely that there will be an early assent to the Scotland
Act. It may be that, afler election, the Parliament will start to
meet earlier than planned. The main effects of this, and how UNISON
Scotland should gear up for this, are listed below:
a) increased amount of legislation/discussion re Scotland (that
will affect UNISON members and their jobs) and therefore:
b) increased requirement for UNISON consultation/policies/views
and increased need to promote them;
c) increased attention from media - internal Scottish media and
UK media;
d) increased use of lobbying/PR firms by LAs/Trusts/Quangos and
private firms.
2 UNISON Scotland will need to:
- (a) communicate direct with the Parliament on these topics;
- (b) communicate with our members to tell them what is happening
- (c) to communicate with the public - campaigns etc to help build
the consensus.
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3 Scottish Parliament will be a different animal
(a) PR means no one party likely to doninate - means increasing
work with all parties in a four-party situation.
(b) More 'consensus' planned on decisions - need to lobby and campaign
with other outside bodies who we can get as. allies. (eg SCVO/single
issue campaign groups/community bodies)
(c) Increased use of 'telematics' to consult the electorate - need
to become much more technologically aware - particularly as far
as the web e-rnail and other communications rnedlia are concerned.
4 Much relevant will still be decided nationally - welfare/employment
legislation or indeed in Europe, therefore:
We need to keep our Links with London eg economies of scale/union
wide developments/campaigns etc.
All these areas have resource implications. These will not simply
be a matter for Scotland. We have to look at our existing structures
and resources and how we use these and also idenuify necessary other
resources - both technical (telematics etc) and staffing.
6 Recommendations
These are initial suggestions and are suggested for approval. They
will all require discussion elsewhere and this will probably mean
modification. It is suggested therefore that we submit them for
a policy decistion to the Scottish Committee.
(1) Separate Scottish insert tin UNISON magazine will be required.
Immediately begin discussions with communications to progress this
issue.
(2) Media strategy to deal with the increased media focus - need
to develop use of lay spokesperson in conjunction with a more co-ordinated
role for full-time officials. This needs to be done urgently and
alongside it needs to be an assessment of the need for greater full-time
support of media work.
(3) The need for a Scottish strategy to lobbying is obvious - how
this is tobe done and to what extent we need outside help is not.
We need:
- (i) to develop our informal links with political parties and
other interest groups
- (ii) to investigate methods of lobbying and make further recommendations
(4) Technology investigate what is to be used by the Scottish Parliament
and how best we could link in to it. Establish website and set up
working group to look at technical merits for Communications including
digital media, ISDN lines etc.
(5) To establish a briefing on existing UNISON Scotland policy
that could be regularly updated and circulated.
(6) To urgently establish a swift way of consulting on policy/legislation
that does not involve more meetings.
(7) To identity training needs arising out of the above and establish
courses to deal with them.
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Scotland's
public service union
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