At the Branch Committee held on the 11th August, the Branch endorsed an  emergency motion that lays the ground for the branch to fight any potential cuts to jobs and services that come out of the councils budget issues.

Coming hot on the heels of the announcement of a £10 million shortfall in the Council budget this year, the motion makes it branch policy to "use all available means to oppose service cuts and redundancies throughout the Council, upto and including industrial action".

Whilst not commiting the branch to any specific action, it means that the branch can move quickly to counter any proposals the Council brings forward.

"We will oppose redundancies and cuts to services wherever they happen" said Darren Turner (Branch Secretary). "What is needed is the political will to say No to what the government  is proposing. Local government is the most efficient part of the public sector, and more councils need to be going back to the government and telling them they can't find any more savings, they've already squeezed everything possible out of the system."

The branch is encouraging members to write to their local councillors urging them to oppose budget cuts. The branch will also be running events to tie in with national and international days of opposition over the coming months.

The School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) was set up as a statutory body on 12^th November 2009. One of the initial commitments of the parties, already worked on by the shadow body, was to develop a new grading and pay structure specifically for school support staff, based on a tailor made job evaluation system and national role profiles.

The SSSNB has now developed draft national role profiles and a bespoke job evaluation scheme for school staff. These will be tested against real jobs during this summer through a sample of 10 local authorities in a sample of 750 schools. The testing phase is to be conducted from May to October 2010 with consultancy support under the direction of SSSNB.

UNISON is conducting a consultation with members working in schools.