Category: Anti – Racism

Barnet UNISON members working in Nursery Schools and Early Years settings need our help. Petition

Anti - Racism, Austerity, COVID 19, Health and Safety, Local, Schools, UNISON Campaign

Dear Members

Barnet UNISON members working in Nursery Schools and Early Years settings need our help.

Today 1820 people sadly died from COVID, yesterday it was 1600 and until today that shocking statistic was the highest COVID death rate since the pandemic.

Whilst all schools have closed to all but pupils of key workers and vulnerable children Nursery Schools and Early Years have been bullied into remaining fully open.

This was not a decision based on the science but on politics and the consequences are that more and more people are being admitted to hospital which in turn puts an intolerable pressure on our NHS workers.

As a Barnet UNISON member I am asking you to sign this petition and also to share it widely in solidarity with all our members working in Nursery Schools and Early Years Settings

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSco9gGrDAS-iDqWONtAcY81-2vjTiaPy4E28fLVHPFlE8czwA/viewform

 

Breaking News:  Early Years/ Nursery Schools zoom meeting Sunday 17 at 11am

Anti - Racism, Austerity, COVID 19, Health and Safety, Local, Report, Schools, UNISON Campaign

Sunday Jan 17, 2021 11:00 AM 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82065448996?pwd=M0pkRExzc0o5OVFNRUtPM2xFN0U1UT09
Meeting ID: 820 6544 8996
Passcode: 121124

 

Please click on this link to our website with reasons behind this being called.

Breaking News: Government threat of funding cut to Heads of Nursery Schools and Early Years

Breaking News: Government threat of funding cut to Heads of Nursery Schools and Early Years

Anti - Racism, Austerity, COVID 19, Local, News, Schools, Solidarity, Uncategorised, UNISON Campaign

URGENT: Please read the document issued by the Department of Education yesterday evening.

You can read the full report by clicking on the link below.

Coronavirus-related support for submitting an Early Years Census 2021 return

 

This report is an attempt to:

  1. Defy the science by forcing all Nursery Schools and Early Years to re-open
  2. Bully the Nursery Schools and Early Years with threats of serious funding cuts if they don’t fully reopen immediately
  3. Pick a fight with the Trade Unions.

Summary of the report as follows:

This report changes things seriously for Nursery Schools and Early Years setting because it states that unless they fully reopen they will not get the funding they have had for the previous terms.

As we all know thee above settings are opening for pupils of key workers and vulnerable children.

The Government in this report are saying that is not good enough and that they need to fully reopen.

Nursery Schools and Early Years settings need all of our help. Most parents and members of the public will not be aware of this latest attack.

Please help share this post.

 

 

 

 

 

Barnet UNISON asking for the NSL Parking Service to be suspended during lockdown.

Anti - Racism, Austerity, Health and Safety, Local, National, UNISON Campaign

Barnet UNISON statement:

When lockdown was first instigated in March last year the Parking Service was temporarily suspended not just in Barnet but across a number of London Councils.

We are now in a more critical situation in that this latest COVID strain is clearly more transmissible with 1 in 30 Londoners testing positive for COVID.

The London Mayor has stated “We are declaring a major incident because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point. If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.”

Our members are genuinely fearful that there is a very real and present risk to themselves and a risk to their families. There is increased risk of contracting COVID when travelling to and from work on public transport and it is widely accepted that there is an increased risk for members of the BAME community. Please note a high proportion of the NSL workforce are from the BAME community

Our members working for NSL are at a loss to understand why the Parking Service which is not an emergency service is carrying on as business as usual.

The spirit of the lockdown appears to be trying to limit the mixing and movement of people to only those services which are critical.

Parking Enforcement is not am essential/critical service.

Barnet UNISON will be organising a zoom meeting for our NSL members and will be reporting back to them as to what I have been doing on their behalf.

We are asking that in light of the mounting pressure on our London Hospitals and NHS staff can the decision to keep Parking Services be reviewed as a matter of urgency?

End.

 

Barnet UNISON is hosting a presentation and discussion by Nafsiyat on intercultural therapy

Anti - Racism, Austerity, Local, News, UNISON Campaign

 

Guest Speaker: Baffour Ababio Clinical Lead, who works for Nafsiyat

“Nafsiyat is an intercultural therapy centre, committed to providing effective and accessible psychotherapy and counselling services to people from diverse religious, cultural and ethnic communities in London. Our team is made up of experienced, fully qualified psychotherapists and counsellors from diverse backgrounds who are sensitive to the particular therapeutic needs of cultural minority groups.

We provide short-term intercultural therapy in over 20 different languages, via referral, to individuals, groups, and couples. We also offer long-term, privately funded therapy via our Nafsiyat Choice service.”

https://www.nafsiyat.org.uk/index.php/about-us/

Barnet UNISON comment.

The recent traumatic events, both the murder of George Floyd, yet another reminder of systemic racism, and reports that BAME communities are at a greater risk of dying from COVID-19, which only serves to highlight existing health inequalities, calls for greater support for our BAME members.

These recent events have bought to surface many unresolved traumatic events, in so many BAME individuals, therefore it is important that we recognise how deeply ingrained emotional traumas are imbedded.

Studies have shown prenatal and early childhood experiences have lasting emotional and psychological effects. A 3 year study recognised the link between childhood experiences; known as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and current health status in adults.

Whilst ACEs explored the impact of traumatic childhood events, there is an emerging line of research exploring the impact of transgenerational transmission of traumatic events onto the next and subsequent generations.

Also known as ‘intergeneration trauma’, this research is illuminating how historical and cultural traumas affect survivors’ children for generations to come, passing the symptoms and behaviours of trauma survival along the family line.

Racism and inequalities are often addressed from a surface layer, but now is the time for the physiological and psychological impact of enduring global and systemic racism and discrimination, to be at the forefront of beginning the journey towards healing, health and wellbeing.

Cultural specific counselling should be provided by employers to facilitate better understanding of an individual’s background, ethnicity and belief system in order to empower and support ‘all’ people to improve their health and wellbeing, without fear of biased views and stereotypical beliefs about them.

We have Clinical Lead, Baffour Ababio, from Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre, who will provide a 1 hour presentation about the service provided at Nafsiyat on Tuesday 14th  12.30- 2pm; short term intercultural therapy for a range of issues, from day-to-day worries to complex psychological conditions.

 

At last. Government publish the missing BAME report which includes recommendations.

Anti - Racism, Austerity, COVID 19, Health and Safety, Local, News, UNISON Campaign

The following extracts including the Recommendations are from the Executive Summary of “Beyond the data: Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on BAME groups.”(Source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/892376/COVID_stakeholder_engagement_synthesis_beyond_the_data.pdf )

“Stakeholders expressed deep dismay, anger, loss and fear in their communities about the emerging data and realities of BAME groups being harder hit by the COVID-19 Beyond the Data: Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on BAME Communities pandemic than others, exacerbating existing inequalities. Many had lost colleagues or family members to the disease, and nearly all are experiencing the impact of the disease on their communities with the significant social, physical and mental health impacts and complications.”

“Stakeholders pointed to racism and discrimination experienced by communities and more specifically by BAME key workers as a root cause affecting health, and exposure risk and disease progression risk.”

“Strategies to create healthy and supportive workplaces (within and outside the health service) that have zero tolerance for discrimination and empower BAME staff to raise concerns about occupational risk and safety are essential.”

“The unequal impact of COVID-19 on BAME communities may be explained by a number of factors ranging from social and economic inequalities, racism, discrimination and stigma, occupational risk, inequalities in the prevalence of conditions that increase the severity of disease including obesity, diabetes, CVD and asthma.”

“The engagement sessions highlighted the BAME groups deep concern and anxiety that if lessons are not learnt from this initial phase of the epidemic, future waves of the disease could again have severe and disproportionate impacts. All were united in the commitment that urgent, collaborative and decisive action is required to avoid a repeat of this in the future.”

“Recommendations

1. Mandate comprehensive and quality ethnicity data collection and recording as part of routine NHS and social care data collection systems, including the mandatory collection of ethnicity data at death certification, and ensure that data are readily available to local health and care partners to inform actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on BAME communities.

2.Support community participatory research, in which researchers and community stakeholders engage as equal partners in all steps of the research process, to understand the social, cultural, structural, economic, religious, and commercial determinants of COVID-19 in BAME communities, and to develop readily implementable and scalable programmes to reduce risk and improve health outcomes.

3. Improve access, experiences and outcomes of NHS, local government and integrated care systems commissioned services by BAME communities including: regular equity audits; use of health impact assessments; integration of equality into quality systems; good representation of black and minority ethnic communities among staff at all levels; sustained workforce development and employment practices; trust-building dialogue with service users.

4. Accelerate the development of culturally competent occupational risk assessment tools that can be employed in a variety of occupational settings and used to reduce the risk of employee’s exposure to and acquisition of COVID-19, especially for key workers working with a large cross section of the general public or in contact with those infected with COVID-19.

5. Fund, develop and implement culturally competent COVID-19 education and prevention campaigns, working in partnership with local BAME and faith communities to reinforce individual and household risk reduction strategies; rebuild trust with and uptake of routine clinical services; reinforce messages on early identification, testing and diagnosis; and prepare communities to take full advantage of interventions including contact tracing, antibody testing and ultimately vaccine availability.

6. Accelerate efforts to target culturally competent health promotion and disease prevention programmes for non-communicable diseases promoting healthy weight, physical activity, smoking cessation, mental wellbeing and effective management of chronic conditions including diabetes, hypertension and asthma.

7. Ensure that COVID-19 recovery strategies actively reduce inequalities caused by the wider determinants of health to create long term sustainable change. Fully funded, sustained and meaningful approaches to tackling ethnic inequalities must be prioritised.”

To view the full report click on the link below.

Beyond the data: Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on BAME groups.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/892376/COVID_stakeholder_engagement_synthesis_beyond_the_data.pdf

 

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