Trans Pride Brighton takes place this year on Saturday 19th July 2025

UNISON West Sussex marched with UNISON branches from the South East in 2024 at Trans Pride Brighton, celebrating UNISON’s Year of the LGBT+ Worker.

Following this year’s UK Supreme Court ruling, some public services and other facilities have begun enforcing policies which impact the safety, dignity, and inclusion for trans individuals. It is more important than ever that we campaign for trans equality and stand in solidarity with trans people who are at the sharp end of a manufactured culture war.

Find the UNISON West Sussex branch banner at Jubilee Square, Brighton at 11.00am before we move off together to the Trans Pride assembly point in Victoria Gardens.

Or meet us in Brighton station on the concourse by catching one of the following trains. We will leave for Jubilee Square following the arrival of the 10.43am train.

If you have any queries ahead of Trans Pride, get in touch with us. We would love to see you there.

Trains coming from Havant, Bognor and Littlehampton, travelling through Chichester, Barnham, Worthing and Shoreham, arriving Brighton at 10.35am

Trains coming from Horsham, Crawley and Three Bridges, travelling through Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill, Barnham, arriving Brighton at 10.43am

Quilter Financial Advisers are offering free, 1-1 personal finance surgeries to all UNISON West Sussex members.

Dates & venues:

• Tuesday 8 July: Bridge House, Worthing (appointments available 10am-4pm)
• Wednesday 9 July: County Hall, Chichester (appointments available 9am-3pm)
• Thursday 10 July: County Hall North, Horsham (appointments available 10am-4pm)

To take advantage of this opportunity and request a free 30-minute consultation with an adviser at one of the venues above, please fill in the online booking form. Please note that appointments are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Request a financial advice consultation

Help on offer:

The consultation comprises a 30 minute one-to-one meeting with a fully-trained and expert financial adviser. Request an appointment if you would like to find out whether you could benefit from advice that may help you to:

• build a nest-egg tax-efficiently for yourself or for your children or grandchildren;
• boost your pension provision to enjoy a comfortable retirement;
• protect your family’s income;
• take your pension and get the best possible income.

For more information, download a flyer for each event below:

• Worthing – 8 July 2025
• Chichester – 9 July 2025
• Horsham – 10 July 2025

UNISON’s 2025 School Uniform Grant Programme will open for 24 hours from 12 noon on Wednesday 28 May 2025.

UNISON’s charity, There for You, is offering help for members on a low income with a one-off, non-repayable grant of £75 per school-aged child which will be paid in the form of a voucher.

Applications will be made online. The grant will be open for 24 hours from 12 noon on Wednesday 28 May 2025 and close at 12 noon on 29 May 2025. You will not be able to apply before this time.

Apply here from 12 noon on 28 May

We anticipate high demand for these grants. Please ensure you read the below information to check if you are eligible for the grant, as well as for further information about what information you will need to hand to apply.

If you are unable to complete the application online due to an accessibility need, please contact UNISON on 28 May 2024, either by email: sug@unison.co.uk or by calling UNISONdirect on 0800 0 857 857.

Am I eligible to apply?

Applicants must:   

• Be a UNISON member and have paid at least four weeks’ subscriptions as of 28 May 2025. Subscriptions must be up to date.
• Not have received a grant from UNISON Welfare since 28 November 2024, excluding the Winter Essentials Grant or the Step into Spring Grant.
• Be financially responsible for school-aged child(ren) and receiving Child Benefit for them**. By school-aged, we mean children aged between 4 and 17 years old, who will be returning to school in the autumn.

And EITHER:

Be on a low income, meaning a net household income* of no more than £26,413/year (£2,201.08/month).

OR:

Be in receipt of means-tested benefits. This includes:

• Universal Credit
• Housing Benefit
• Child and/or Working Tax Credits
• Pension Credit
• Means-tested Jobseekers Allowance
• Means-tested Employment Support Allowance
• Income Support

* Net household income includes your monthly take-home pay from work (plus your partner’s, if you have one), any income from child maintenance payments, any income from student finance loans or bursaries, pensions (excluding Pension Credit) and any income from people living with you (e.g. adult children or lodgers). 

** Where members either have no recourse to public funds and their household income is above £26,413/year or have no recourse to public funds and don’t receive Child Benefit; an assessment will be undertaken to see whether they would be eligible for benefits if they did have recourse to public funds. 

How do I apply?

All applications should be made online. Make sure you have your membership number to hand. Eligible members will be chosen at random from the applicant pool and contacted to submit supporting documents. Due to limited funds and in anticipation of high demand, we regret that we will not be able to help all members who apply.

What if I don’t know my UNISON membership number?

We cannot accept applications without a membership number. This can often be found at the bottom of any emails you have received from UNISON. Alternatively, please contact UNISONdirect on 0800 0 857 857.

How will you contact me?

Acknowledgement
Successful online submissions will receive an automated message confirming your application has been received. If this doesn’t show in your ‘inbox’, please check your ‘junk/spam’ folders.

Processing time
We will require further evidence to support your application, and we will be in touch via email to request this within a week of your initial application.

You should not expect to receive an immediate decision. It could take up to 12 weeks before your application will be completed. Please do not send chasing emails as we will be unable to respond.

If I have recently received a grant, can I apply?

If you have received a grant from UNISON Welfare since 28 November 2024, excluding the Winter Essentials Grant or the Step into Spring Grant, you will not be eligible to apply for a School Uniform Grant.

Any questions?
Email: sug@unison.co.uk

UNISON Recruitment & Fundraising Event

Thursday 22nd May, 11am-2pm
County Hall Chichester
Pegler Lounge (behind Reception area)

You are warmly welcomed to a UNISON fundraising event for Palestine.

We will be selling a range of items from Palestine:

• Ceramic goods
• Art Prints
• Keffiyahs
• Olive Wood decorations
• Olive Oil

Plus, a cake sale with all proceeds going to Project Pure Hope. There will also be information regarding the benefits of joining UNISON. Come and chat to us!

As members know, the branch consulted with you in December to establish the union’s pay claim which was submitted to Local Government employers on 31st January.

The claim

The claim was for:

• an increase of £3,000 on all pay points
• a clear ‘roadmap’ to reach a minimum pay rate of £15 an hour
• an increase of one day of annual leave, with no loss of pay
• the right of school staff able to take at least one day of annual leave within term time
• a reduction in the working week of two hours for all staff

The offer

The Employers’ Side has now given a response to UNISON and made an offer as follows:

1. With effect from 1 April 2025, an increase of 3.2 per cent to be paid as a consolidated, permanent addition on all NJC pay points 2 to 43 inclusive
2. With effect from 1 April 2025 an increase of 3.20 per cent on all allowances
3. With effect from 1 April 2026, the deletion of pay point 2 from the NJC pay spine.

All other elements of the union’s pay claim have been REJECTED.

Next steps

A meeting of UNISON’s elected NJC Committee has agreed that UNISON will CONSULT its members with a recommendation to REJECT the offer. The consultation will be by email and members will be able to vote using an electronic ballot. It will open on 23 May and close on 20 June.

For members on HAY, Agenda for Change and SMG4 grades

In January, WSCC confirmed its intention that the award for staff on HAY, Agenda for Change and SMG4 grades will mirror the NJC award for the pay year 2025-26 when settled. This was in response to a request made for this by the UNISON West Sussex branch, so is welcome.

The English Devolution White Paper the UK Government published on 16 December is the Government’s statement of its plans for wide-ranging reform of local government. This includes proposals on devolution but also wider plans for local government reorganisation (LGR).

West Sussex County Council has signalled its intention to be a fast track, early adopter of the Government’s plans, working alongside East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove unitary authority.

As well as likely changes to the boundaries of West Sussex and a new elected political leadership to cover all three areas, the Government wants the two-tier authorities involved (like West Sussex) to undergo a process to become unitary authorities, which would mean the end of borough and district local government as we know it. To usher in these changes, early adopters would cancel the 2025 local elections to make space for the work and reorganisation required.

Needless to say, the implications of all this for West Sussex branch members are huge.

On 6th January the WSCC Chief Executive met with Dan Sartin, Branch Secretary, to discuss these urgent, short notice developments. Whilst much remains uncertain, and much of this is outside the control of WSCC, Dan made the following points:

• Concern that Devolution & LGR will be a huge distraction at a time that public services are in crisis due to long-term underfunding
• That the real issue preventing the efficient delivery of public services is chronic lack of funding, and that Government should be addressing this first and treating it as an emergency
• That the cancelling of elections would be the wrong thing to do. There have been no elections in West Sussex County Council since 2021, and residents need their democratic say.
• That we needed commitments to ‘No Compulsory Redundancies’
• That we needed commitments that whatever new entity takes the place of WSCC as we know it, that there would be no return to outsourcing of services
• That the branch would take these points up with UNISON nationally to flag the urgent need to seek assurances from national Government that concerns about redundancies and outsourcing would be addressed in legislation.

The branch has a number of regular meeting opportunities with both the Chief Executive and Director of HR and Organisational Development, and the branch is using these to stay abreast of developments. The branch will naturally engage with the Council as soon as more detail is known, and certainly ahead of any employment processes that might be necessary and would impact on staff e.g. TUPE, consultation.

The council is committed to transparent dialogue with UNISON. The branch leadership met with the Chief Executive again on 20th January where Devolution and LGR was discussed, amongst other matters.

The branch is committed to ensuring that members’ interests and those of public services are front and centre of these developments, and is working hard to do so.

If members have any concerns or questions at this stage, they can contact the branch office in the usual ways.

The West Sussex branch committee cordially invites all branch members – including Retired Members – to the branch’s Annual General Meeting 2025.

The branch AGM will take place over 3 separate meetings.

• Monday 24 March, 1.00-2.00pm: MS Teams
• Tuesday 25 March, 1.00-2.00pm: MS Teams
• Wednesday 26 March, 6.00-7.00pm: MS Teams

All members are invited (including retired members). Meetings will be held virtually via the Microsoft Teams online meeting platform. You can attend by: PC/Laptop; Tablet; Smartphone; Landline telephone. If you have not got MS Teams installed on your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone, visit the Microsoft Team website where you can download it for free.

Meeting links

Monday 24 March, 1.00-2.00pm
Click here to join the meeting
Or phone in (audio only): call 020 3794 0272 and use phone conference ID: 216 072 815#

Tuesday 25 March, 1.00-2.00pm
Click here to join the meeting
Or phone in (audio only): call 020 3794 0272 and use phone conference ID: 824 504 582#

Wednesday 26 March, 6.00-7.00pm
Click here to join the meeting
Or phone in (audio only): call 020 3794 0272 and use phone conference ID: 283 878 318#

If you would like a Microsoft Outlook calendar invite to be sent to you with the meeting link for the session you are attending, please get in touch: office.unison@westsussex.gov.uk

We will be holding a raffle at each of the three AGM meetings with the same great prizes at each event:

• 3 x prizes of £50 Amazon or One4All shopping vouchers, at each event

To win a raffle prize you will need to be present at the AGM. Names of AGM attendees will be downloaded from MS Teams during the meeting and put into the draw. Only one prize can be won per member. The draw for three prizes will take place at the end of each meeting. You must be present when the draw is made to claim your prize.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Meeting papers

Download (PDF, 1.29MB)

As members will recall, the branch consulted with you in December to establish if there was support for the proposed pay claim of:

• an increase of £3,000 on all pay points, plus a clear ‘roadmap’ to reach a minimum pay rate of £15 an hour.

414 members took part and 82.8% were in favour of the claim. This was reported to the national office alongside the consultation reports of other local government branches where members are on NJC pay.

UNISON has since met with the other NJC trade unions (Unite and GMB) and the following now stands as the claim for 2025-26:

A headline claim of an increase of £3,000 on all pay points, along with claims for:

• A plan to reach a minimum pay rate of £15 an hour
• An increase of one day of annual leave, with no loss of pay
• The right of school staff able to take at least one day of annual leave within term time
• A reduction in the working week of two hours for all staff – while recognising the complexities this would involve for some groups of staff, we want to discuss them with the employers as part of meaningful negotiations.

This amended claim has since received final assent from the relevant committees of all three unions, and was sent to the NJC employers on January 31st.

The Employers’ Side is hosting briefings from mid February until mid March, to get the view of local authorities on what offer should be made to staff. We are urging the Employers to make an offer as soon as possible after that, and to engage in meaningful negotiations. The National Employers meet on 22 April and we hope to receive a pay offer after this.

For members on HAY, Agenda for Change and SMG4 grades

As you will know, your annual cost-of-living pay award each year is arrived at after a local process which follows NJC awards and is informed by the NJC award.

Since 2021, WSCC has agreed to a formal UNISON request that it should mirror NJC awards for staff on HAY, Agenda for Change and SMG4 scales. WSCC has also previously agreed that the pay year for HAY staff would align with NJC staff, being applicable from 1st April each year.

In December 2024, following a meeting with the Chief Executive, the branch secretary wrote formally asking that the mirroring arrangement be replicated again.

WSCC has in January confirmed its intention that the award for staff on HAY, Agenda for Change and SMG4 grades will mirror the NJC award for the pay year 2025-26 when settled.

In the TUC’s ‘❤UNIONS’ week, have you ever wondered what UNISON does in your workplace?

Come along to ‘Introduction to UNISON’ sessions for staff at West Sussex County Council, scheduled for 30 minutes in the lunch break. Dan Sartin, Branch Secretary of UNISON West Sussex, will explain the union’s role in the workplace and answer questions.

All 3 meetings are on MS Teams, but 1 is hybrid and will have the option to attend in-person in Chichester.

• Tuesday 11^th February, 12.30-1.00pm, MS Teams only
• Thursday 13^th February, 12.30-1.00pm, Hybrid: MS Teams and Committee Room 1, County Hall
• Friday 14^th February, 12.30-1.00pm, MS Teams only

Click the links above to attend by MS Teams on any given day, or drop by in person on Thursday in Chichester.

If you’d find a calendar invite helpful, please let us know and we will send you one.

Information on joining UNISON is on our Join page.