We are delighted to bring you a new branch newsletter with some of the main Green issues, including:
We hope you enjoy reading it, and it helps to demonstrate the breadth of UNISON’s work on climate and climate justice.
On 15 and 17 September we are holding webinars for members about the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) consultation. Both webinars are at 5pm, to make attendance easier for those working in schools. These webinars will be hosted by the National Secretary and School Sector Lead Officers.
The SSSNB is due to be implemented this autumn and will represent a big change to how pay and conditions are negotiated for school support staff across England. This meeting will be an opportunity learn more about the SSSNB, and what it means for your pay, terms, and conditions. We will discuss why it’s vital that you vote in the consultation and how to encourage your UNISON colleagues to do the same.
The meeting will take place on MS Teams, and the registration link is below:
Further information about the SSSNB can be found on the UNISON website:
Please make every effort to attend one of these meetings as it will be an ideal opportunity to find out how the SSSNB will impact you.
We are delighted to bring you a new newsletter summarising some of the main International issues of the previous period:
We hope you enjoy reading it, and it helps to demonstrate the breadth of UNISON’s work to show solidarity and support to working people around the world.
The branch can now report the results of UNISON’s industrial action ballot on the NJC pay offer for 2026-27.
When the results of 511 targeted employers UNISON balloted were analysed at a national level by the union’s elected NJC Committee of reps, it was decided there was no possibility of organising industrial action which would improve the national pay offer.
Aggregate turnout across the 511 employers was 28.4% and we simply did not get across the threshold in enough large employers to make industrial action viable.
It should be noted that the Tory government’s 2016 Trade Union Act which introduced 50% thresholds has been superseded by the Labour government’s Employment Rights Act 2025, and the 50% thresholds in strike ballots are due to be repealed imminently when new regulations are laid by Parliament.
It is also the case that electronic balloting – replacing outdated postal voting for most members – is also imminent.
What this means for your pay
UNISON of course accepts the verdict of its members and that is that insufficient numbers of members would be prepared to take action to improve the 3.3% offer made.
We therefore anticipate that the claim will be settled shortly for 3.3% and this applied to pay packets as soon as possible thereafter. In West Sussex, this is highly likely to mean the award will be applied from September 2026 and backpay (for the 5 months from April to August) will also be paid in the September payroll.
Members who have left employment of any NJC employer (not just those we balloted) since 1 April 2026 are entitled to be paid back pay in arrears, and for this to be added to their local government pension, if they are a member. Members should contact WSCC Payroll to request this.
Some UNISON members covered by the 2026-27 NJC pay settlement will be in receipt of Universal Credit. The pay award may result in a reduction in the amount of Universal Credit individuals receive as earnings will rise.
The 2026-27 NJC pay settlement is backdated to 1 April 2026 which means that employers will also be making a one-off payment of back pay owed to their employees.
This means that in September 2026 employees are expected to receive their new rate of pay, plus 5 months of backpay for the 3.3% increase (for April to August).
This may have an impact on universal credit payments in the following month/s. As Universal Credit is based on individual members’ own, personal circumstances, UNISON does not know exactly how individual members may be affected and cannot provide advice to individuals.
We suggest that members in receipt of Universal Credit who think they may be impacted in this way should contact their Work Coach. Members should explain to their Work Coach that whilst there has been a pay rise that increases basic monthly income, there has also been a one-off back payment that will not form part of regular monthly income. You can contact your Work Coach online or call the Universal Credit Helpline on 0800 328 5644.
If a member has a student loan and, if the receipt of the backpay lump sum puts the individual above the monthly repayment threshold, then a student loan repayment will be deducted from wages. However, if in the following months, wages return to below the relevant monthly repayment threshold then further student loan repayments should not be taken. At the end of the tax year if total wages for the year are below the annual student loan repayment threshold then the employee can request a refund of the student loan repayment/s that they have made.
Details on how to get a refund can be found here and information on student loans can be found here.
Please note, UNISON is not able to give personalised advice about student loan repayments. The repayment thresholds vary depending on which student loan/s the individual received.
Our new general secretary and registered social worker, Andrea Egan, shares her message of solidarity to council and school staff ahead of the imminent ballot on NJC pay.
UNISON’s industrial action ballot for council and school worker pay opens soon!
UNISON members working in council and schools need a significant pay rise above the employers’ offer of 3.3%. Read more about the claim and offer here.
UNISON’s NJC Committee recommends that members REJECT the offer as it falls well short of our claim and represents a pay cut at all grades. The West Sussex Branch Committee also recommends REJECT.
Branch Officers will be coming soon to WSCC Office Hubs and visiting schools to speak to members, deliver pay presentations and answer your questions.
If you work in a school, please contact our Schools Officer Amanda Francombe if you would like her to hold a meeting in-person or online for your colleagues.
Come and meet Branch Officers to discuss the ballot and find out what the offer means for you.
Stalls on site from 10.00am (come and say hello!). All Presentations are at 12.30pm.
If you can’t meet us in-person, we are holding the following online meetings on MS Teams:
The ballot opens on 9 July and runs until 6 August. New members joining up to 23 July will be able to vote in the ballot, so please encourage non-members to join us!
UNISON’s NJC Committee met and agreed very clearly to REJECT the employers’ offer of 3.3% on behalf of members. The Committee was clear that the offer falls significantly short of what members in councils and schools need and deserve.
West Sussex branch has also discussed and formally voted to recommend Reject to our members, for the insulting and derisory offer.
The NJC Committee agreed that members must be asked whether they are willing to take industrial action to improve the offer. The ballot will commence on 9 July and end on 6 August.
The ballot will be both targeted and disaggregated.
We will only ballot members in employers where we have a good chance of exceeding the 50% turnout thresholds, and where those employers are of a certain size. The West Sussex branch has 13 employers in the NJC ballot.
West Sussex County Council is our largest employer by far, and includes all our members working as support staff in maintained schools. 85% of our NJC members are covered by and will be included in the ballot. If you are not, there will be other ways we will include you in our pay campaign. Watch out for emails about this.
This means that UNISON can take action wherever we exceed the current 50% turnout thresholds in individual employers. We are not reliant on getting over the 50% threshold across all the 360,000 NJC members we have across thousands of employers across the country.
If you don’t have a rep in your workplace ahead of this crucial ballot, find out more here about how you can decide amongst your work colleagues who this should be and elect them to the role.
More info will be coming soon for the branch as we will be organising a series workplace visits. If you would like a visit and presentation on the ballot to your workplace, school or team, get in touch with us to organise this.
As reported previously, UNISON submitted a pay claim for members on 1st December 2025 for the following, presuming a one-year pay deal:
A meeting was held on March 24, 2026 between the employers and unions, and in the afternoon a letter was received by the unions making an offer, as follows:
The employers:
As reported previously, WSCC has agreed that the same arrangements as applied in 2025-26 for WSCC staff on local pay (mostly team managers on HAY pay scales) will also apply next year in 2026-27. So if there is a formal UNISON consultation on the offer, you will be included in it alongside NJC colleagues.
The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is a very different public sector pension scheme to other schemes, in that it takes in employee contributions and employer contributions and invests these to make returns, with all three sources of income then funding the pensions of retired members.
The teachers’ pension scheme, for example, only has employee contributions and employer contributions and central government pays out pensions to retired teachers thereafter out of general taxation.
The LGPS across the country is split into individual funds, and UNISON West Sussex members are, unsurprisingly, members of the West Sussex LGPS Fund.
The West Sussex LGPS has 95,000 members, made up of active contributors who are in work, retired members, and ‘deferred’ members who contributed at one or more points in their careers but are not yet taking a pension.
There are 250 active employers in the scheme, ranging from West Sussex County Council to Chichester College Group to Multi Academy Trusts.
Because the West Sussex LGPS invests its employee and employer contributions, it now has reached a point where it holds a staggering £6 billion in investments on behalf of its 95,000 members. This £6 billion is your deferred wages.
The core aim of the West Sussex LGPS is to invest your deferred wages in ways that provide a profitable return, so the pension income you are guaranteed through the scheme can always be paid without having to ask for higher contributions. But how that £6 billion is invested matters because investing a sum as large as £6 billion can have huge social, economic and environmental impacts.
The West Sussex LGPS fund must therefore, by law, produce an ‘Investment Strategy Statement’. This must set out the social, environmental or corporate governance considerations which are taken into account in the selection and disposal of investments. This year, your LGPS Fund is refreshing its Investment Strategy and to this end is surveying West Sussex members for your views on what types of investments it should make on your behalf.
For example, should the Fund invest in:
The £6 billion in funds in the West Sussex LGPS is not their money. It is yours. It only exists because of the deferred wages of workers, like you, saving for your retirement, through a beneficial pension scheme negotiated at a national level by your trade union, UNISON.
That’s us! Public service workers who educate, protect, rescue, care, nurture, nourish and plan for the residents who use our services. Sometimes the people who use the services we provide are the most vulnerable adults and children in our communities.
If we spend a working lifetime caring, educating and protecting, why would we tolerate having our deferred wages being used to do the opposite? Ruining health, killing innocents, oppressing populations, undermining our communities, destroying our environment.
The Investment Strategy survey is your chance to have your say.
UNISON is urging all its members to take part.
It’s important there is a high turnout in the survey. Please tell your work colleagues.
The survey is long and important in all its areas, but it is not compulsory to answer all questions in order to be able to submit a response.
Even if you are not able to complete all of the survey, please ensure you complete the fifth section, titled Responsible Investment, which is questions 15 to 20.
We are recommending the following answers, which are in line with UNISON’s democratically established policies and priorities, as determined at its annual conference.
Go to Recommendations on questions 15 to 20
The survey closes on 5th July. The West Sussex Pension Committee will then meet on 29th July to consider the results of the survey and to agree its Investment Strategy.
UNISON Branch Secretary, Dan Sartin, is one member of the Pension Committee, but the majority of its members are elected County Councillors.
If you have any questions, get in touch!