08/09/2026
Joint statement from Mark Ferguson, UNISON Scotland Convenor, and Louise Noble, UNISON Scotland Deputy Convenor
UNISON Scotland: Reform Must Protect Our Members, Public Services and the People Who Rely on Them
Public services across Scotland are entering a significant period of change. Discussions around public sector reform, changing structures and new ways of delivering services will understandably create questions and concerns for UNISON members.
As Convenor and Deputy Convenor of UNISON Scotland, we want to reassure our branches and members that UNISON will be at the table, representing your interests and making your voice heard throughout this process.
Reform cannot simply be about structures, reducing costs or asking an already stretched workforce to deliver more with less. It must be about protecting and improving the public services our communities depend upon and recognising the people who deliver them every day.
Our priorities are clear: protecting jobs, terms and conditions, public services, local accountability and the voice of our members.
UNISON Scotland will continue to engage with proposals as they develop, but we will challenge any reform that seeks to achieve savings at the expense of workers or the services they provide.
Social care must be central to the discussion. We are particularly concerned that the impact of reform on social care is properly understood and given the attention it deserves.
Social care workers provide essential services to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, yet the sector continues to face significant challenges around staffing, recruitment and retention, funding, pay and working conditions. It raises the question whether the new “Collective Bargaining” arrangements will bring the changes needed for our members or simply provide a vehicle to continue suppressed pay, terms & conditions and poor working arrangements.
Reform provides an opportunity to address some of those longstanding problems, but only if the voices of social care workers and their trade unions are genuinely part of shaping what comes next.
Social care cannot be treated as an afterthought or considered in isolation from health, local government and the wider public sector.
Decisions made in one part of our public services inevitably have consequences elsewhere.
We will therefore be engaging with the Chairs of UNISON Scotland's Committees to ensure that the implications of public sector reform are being considered across our structures and, importantly, that issues affecting social care are being identified and brought together as part of our wider response.
Reform with workers, not reform done to workers.
Our members have considerable knowledge and experience of the services they deliver. They understand better than anyone else where systems work, where they could work better, and how services can be improved to meet changing needs. Too often, workers are consulted only after proposals have already been developed.
That cannot be the approach to public sector reform. Reform must be about improving services, not a smokescreen for cuts.
Meaningful trade union engagement must happen at the earliest possible stage, with workers having a genuine opportunity to influence proposals rather than simply being informed about decisions afterwards.
We will work across UNISON Scotland's branches, service groups, committees and other structures to make sure information is shared and that the experiences and concerns of members on the frontline inform our response.
Where reform can improve services, strengthen the public sector and deliver better outcomes for communities, we will engage constructively.
Where proposals threaten jobs, undermine terms and conditions, weaken local services or accountability, lead to outsourcing or privatisation, or simply attempt to deliver cuts under the banner of reform, UNISON will challenge them.
Keeping our members informed.
We recognise that uncertainty itself can cause concern.
Members should not have to rely on rumours or speculation about what reform could mean for their jobs, workplaces or services.
As proposals develop, UNISON Scotland will work to ensure branches receive information that they can share with members, and we will continue to communicate openly about developments and what they could mean for our membership.
We also want to hear from branches. The experience of reform will not be identical across Scotland or across different services, and it is essential that local knowledge feeds into our national response.
Public services are delivered by people. Any serious discussion about their future must therefore begin with the workers who keep them running.
Our message to UNISON members across Scotland is simple:
You will not face this period of change alone.
UNISON Scotland will continue to stand up for your jobs, your terms and conditions, your services and your communities.
We will engage. We will scrutinise. We will challenge where necessary and above all, we will make sure the voices of UNISON members are heard.
