The branch can now report the results of UNISON’s industrial action ballot on the NJC pay offer for 2026-27.

The headlines in West Sussex:

• In our largest employer (the largest by far), West Sussex County Council, members voted for strike action with an 80% YES vote. However, the turnout of members who voted was 28.5%, significantly less than the government’s mandatory participation rate of 50% for a strike ballot to be lawful;
• Members in 13 separate employers in West Sussex were targeted for balloting (this is because some schools are treated legally as separate employers, as are all academy schools);
• We got over the government’s 50% ballot threshold in only 1 of these (a school – Bourne Community College – but this would not be on its own a large enough employer to take industrial action which would have an impact).

The headlines nationally:

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It should be noted that the Tory government’s 2016 Trade Union Act which introduced 50% thresholds has been superseded by the Labour government’s Employment Rights Act 2025, and the 50% thresholds in strike ballots are due to be repealed imminently when new regulations are laid by Parliament.

It is also the case that electronic balloting – replacing outdated postal voting for most members – is also imminent.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.

Backpay for members who have left employment since 1 April 2026

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.

Universal Credit

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.

Student loan repayments

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.

Council office meeting schedule

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.

• Parkside, Horsham: Wednesday 8 July (Goodwood Room)
• Arun Civic Centre: Thursday 9 July (Meeting Room 102)
• County Hall, Chichester: Wednesday 15 July (Martlets Conference Suite)
• The Library, Crawley: Tuesday 21 July (Meeting Room 3 – 3^rd Floor)
• Glebelands, Shoreham: Wednesday 22 July (Meeting Room 9)

Online meeting schedule

If you can’t meet us in-person, we are holding the following online meetings on MS Teams:

• Online Council Members Meeting, Monday 13 July, 12:30-1:30pm. Join: Link to Meeting
• Online School Members Meeting, Tuesday 14 July, 4.30-5:30pm. Join: Link to Meeting
• Online School Members Meeting, Wednesday 15 July, 4.30-5:30pm. Join: Link to Meeting
• Online Council Members Meeting Monday 27 July, 12:30-1:30pm. Join: Link to Meeting

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!

Latest

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.

1. Targeted

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
• The Kemnal Academies Trust
• Bosco Catholic Education Trust
• Schoolsworks Academy Trust
• REAch2 Academy Trust
• Hurst Education Trust
• Bohunt Education Trust
• The Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust
• Woodard Academies Trust
• Ormiston Academies Trust
• Bishop Luffa Learning Partnership
• The Bourne Community College
• Woodlands Meed

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.

2. Disaggregated

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.

Elect a workplace rep!

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.

The claim (what we demanded from the employers)

As reported previously, UNISON submitted a pay claim for members on 1st December 2025 for the following, presuming a one-year pay deal:

• An increase of at least £3,000 or 10% (whichever is greater) across all NJC spinal column points
• A minimum pay rate of £15 an hour for the NJC pay spine
• A two hour reduction in the working week
• An increase of one day annual leave
• The ability of all school support staff to take a day of paid leave during term time
• The abolition of Level 1 Teaching Assistant role and instead all Level 1 role holders be moved onto Level 2

The offer (what the employers responded with)

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:

• 3.3% uplift across all NJC spinal column points and allowances.

The employers:

• REJECTED A minimum pay rate of £15 an hour for the NJC pay spine
• REJECTED A two hour reduction in the working week
• REJECTED An increase of one day annual leave
• REJECTED The ability of all school support staff to take a day of paid leave during term time
• REJECTED The abolition of Level 1 Teaching Assistant role and instead all Level 1 role holders be moved onto Level 2

For members on HAY, Agenda for Change and SMG4 grades

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.

Key facts

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.

How to invest £6 billion?

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:

• Companies which profit from oil and gas i.e. fossil fuels, which impact on climate change and the environment
• Companies which profit from industries which can have anti-social impacts on communities, such as gambling
• Companies which profit from products that are known to be harmful to health, such as tobacco
• Companies which profit from armaments and weapons, which can often impact on innocent civilians and children in conflict areas and sometimes can be wholly insidious in their design, such as landmines and phosphorus bombs
• Companies which profit from operations in conflict-affected regions of the world where there are profound concerns about systematic violations of human rights and international law.

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.

Who are LGPS scheme members?

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

Next steps

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!

Following our successful fundraising events in 2025, we’re excited to share two upcoming events in West Sussex.

1. Crawley Library Office, Third Floor, Wednesday 10th June, 10.30am-1pm.
2. Chichester County Hall, Reception Area, Thursday 11th June, 10.30am-1pm.

We will be selling Palestinian goods with proceeds going to non-profit organisations in Palestine. Sale items will include jewellery, olive wood decorations and soaps from Palestine. We will also be selling homemade cakes and biscuits with proceeds going to Women In Hebron.

Women in Hebron is a unique cooperative that seeks to economically empower Palestinian women and their families, as well as encourage the passing down of Palestinian culture and traditional handicraft products to younger generations. Women in Hebron is our UNISON President’s currently selected charity to benefit from fundraising in her presidential year.

More information about Women in Hebron can be found on their website and also from when their charity’s founder visited UNISON’s offices in London.

UNISON representatives will be at the events in Crawley and Chichester to answer any queries you may have about how UNISON is involved in global issues.

We would recommend coming early for the widest selection of goods and treats.

Cash and card payments will be accepted. Thank you in advance for your support for this worthy charity.

Download a poster for your UNISON noticeboard.

After UNISON’s new General Secretary Andrea Egan met with Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, UNISON successfully gained a commitment to finally review the 45 pence per mile mileage rate that had been static since 2011.

Following this review, which UNISON members were encouraged to take part in by the West Sussex branch, the Government did announce its decision to increase the tax free mileage rate to 55 pence, with immediate effect and with this decision backdated to April 2026.

This is great news, but what does it mean for you?

If you work for an employer paying more than 45 pence mileage, such as West Sussex County Council, you will no longer pay tax on the mileage you are paid when conducting business for your employer. This means you will no longer need a P11D. This brings some small but immediate relief.

However, most employers do not pay anywhere near the new tax-free rate of 55 pence to their employees. Therefore, UNISON West Sussex branch must lodge claims with every employer to ask them to increase their rate to at least the new 55 pence allowable under HMRC rules.

For our largest employer, West Sussex Count Council, we have already advised them that we intend to put in this formal, written claim for members and for backdating what we agree to April 2026. We are formalising this claim now.

It is complicated by the fact that WSCC is an NJC employer and mileage rates are derived from the NJC Green book. We are awaiting a steer from the national union in this regard.

Once submitted, we will roll this claim out to all our other employers.

Get in touch if you have any questions on this.

The UNISON West Sussex branch has significant concerns about Local Government Reorganisation, or LGR, which we have reported on before. Real concerns exist about what a damaging distraction this change will be, at a time of chronic and unresolved local government funding cuts.

UNISON West Sussex took this position – that the Union should oppose and campaign against  LGR until such time as Local Government has been stabilised by restoring full and fair funding to services – to the Union’s national Local Government Conference in 2025. The West Sussex branch motion was adopted unanimously.

However, if LGR is to proceed, the West Sussex branch favours a one unitary solution for West Sussex, if we are to have such change forced upon us. The branch has responded to the first statutory consultation to put this view across.

As we now know, the Secretary or State Steve Reed has deferred his decision for Sussex and come up with a third footprint which no-one wants and is bound to be a damaging failure.

UNISON West Sussex will take part in the second statutory consultation to oppose the latest proposed footprint from Steve Reed and to assert again that we favour a single unitary solution.

We are now in a period where we are working with other West Sussex UNISON branches and considering how we will be best organised and resourced to support members and engage with the employers if LGR goes ahead.

If you have work colleagues not yet in the union, ask them to join. The disruption to staff from LGR caused by TUPE processes and reorganisation of teams should not be underestimated and all staff will need UNISON in their corner as individuals, as well as collectively, should LGR go ahead.

if you have questions, please contact us at office.unison@westsussex.gov.uk.

We know that when problems come up at work that can be an incredibly stressful time.

UNISON West Sussex supports our members at such times, through our network of trained reps, and through our branch office in Chichester where we have branch officers and employed staff who can support you.

You must though seek our help as early as possible and not leave it to the last minute. 

We have had a spate of cases recently where branch members wanted advice at very short notice or even on the day they were due to meet their manager. Also, members have called us  seeking formal representation on the day the meeting was due to happen.

We cannot meet your need for support without adequate notice, so please if you receive an invitation from your employer to a formal meeting, don’t sit on it – take action immediately and contact the branch to organise representation and advice as soon as possible.

If your employer invites you to a formal meeting, you’re entitled to ask for it to be rescheduled to accommodate your trade union rep’s availability. Do not therefore accept a date or a rearrangement with your employer before speaking to us, or you will lose your one opportunity to rearrange the meeting!

This is our process for seeking support, when a problem arises and you need advice.

984 members sought support from the Chichester office in 2025, and 322 of those members had formal representation in meetings.

If you’ re reading this and think you’d like to support your fellow members when they have problems at work, get in touch or sign up using our rep nomination form. Full training is given and paid time off from work for training and attending and preparing for meetings is arranged. It can be very rewarding, and definitely adds to your skillset and knowledge. Get in touch if that this sounds like something for you.

UNISON has joined with other education unions in raising concerns about government proposals that could eventually see all state schools required to join academy trusts.

The joint statement, issued by unions representing school support staff and teachers across the education sector, warns that further large scale academisation risks increasing fragmentation across the school system while diverting funding away from frontline education.

At a time when schools are already facing significant financial pressures, staffing challenges and increasing SEND demands, the unions say there are serious concerns about the impact further structural reorganisation could have on pupils, staff and local communities.

The statement highlights concerns around:

• Funding being diverted away from classrooms and support services into structural chang
• Decision-making becoming more remote from parents, staff and communities
• The impact of inconsistent employment practices across academy trusts
• Ongoing workload and recruitment pressures affecting both teachers and support staff
• Leadership time being diverted away from supporting pupils and implementing SEND reforms

The unions also point to the lack of clear evidence that academisation alone improves educational outcomes, while parents consistently prioritise high-quality teaching, support and properly funded schools over changes to structures and governance.

The joint statement was issued by UNISON, NASUWT, NEU, AEP, GMB, Unite and Community.

UNISON believes that school staff deserve properly funded schools, fair employment practices and transparent decision-making. Schools are already able to collaborate effectively through a range of existing partnerships and federations without unnecessary disruption or additional financial cost.

School support staff are already under enormous pressure. Our priority should be ensuring schools are properly funded and supported so they can meet the needs of pupils and staff, rather than creating further disruption and uncertainty through large-scale structural change.

UNISON will keep the pressure up to ensure these damaging plans do not come to pass.