The importance of health care assistants in the success of UNISON’s rebanding campaign was highlighted at conference today.
The motion ‘organising with healthcare assistants’ addressed the impact of HCAs on the Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign over the past three years.
Proposing the motion for Greater London region, Michelle Davis, branch secretary of South London and Maudsley branch, spoke of the members who helped to secure over £200m in back pay and gain recognition and respect for the work that they do.
“We are so proud of their achievements,” she said. “Conference, it was our health care assistants who stood on picket lines day in and day out, in some branches, and sat across the table alongside their branch leadership, with chief executives in talks with Acas.
“Health care assistants have contributed to the growth of our union throughout the Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign. And so it’s important to galvanise and retain health care assistants and strengthen these activist bases within branches.
“We know too well the concerns that our health care assistants and others face in the NHS on a daily basis. Violence and aggression, unsafe staffing levels and stress in the workplace, amongst other issues. So, who better than our healthcare assistants to not only support other health care members, but actively secure and deliver on UNISON’s key health care campaigns.”
Delegates passed the motion, which calls upon the service group executive to run a national health care assistant seminar in 2026 – to better understand the priorities of the HCA workforce and identify how they can be involved in future campaigns.
The executive will also utilise the direct experience of HCAs and their reps in the union’s endeavours to increase job evaluation capacity and to help other staff groups campaign for changed job re-evaluations, where evidence shows there is a genuine case for re-banding.
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