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Jim Fitzpatrick Address to TUC UMF Fringe Meeting 13 September 2006

Jim Fitzpatrick MP,  Former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Employment Relations and Postal Services, Minister for London
TUC Conference, Brighton,  13 September 2006

As you know, the aim of the UMF is to support the key role that modern, efficient unions can play in the workplaces of today and tomorrow. Modern workplaces are a vital part of our economy. Unions are making a significant contribution to greater productivity, more effective workplace practices and a highly trained and motivated workforce. They have an important part to play in constructive employment relations and the economy as a whole.

But we also recognise that unions have often struggled to keep pace with the rapid technological and social change we are facing. They sometimes need assistance in restructuring and modernising services to their members and their potential members to ensure they become more responsive, more flexible and more diverse organisations.

This is why we set up the Union Modernisation Fund. We want to help unions to adapt to the challenges of today’s economy and continue to meet the needs of their members by helping them to keep pace with the changes that have taken place in workplaces in the last decade.

Round One

As you know, Round One of the UMF was launched in July 2005. To remind you, the priority themes were identified as:

• improving the understanding of modern business practices by full time officers and lay representatives, to better enable unions to work constructively with employers as partners to improve business performance. Projects were particularly welcomed that focused on their new role in the implementation of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations;
• improving two-way communication between unions and their members, leading to a potential for greater participation of members in the union;
• improving the ability of unions to respond to the increasing diversity of the labour market, and to supply services geared to the needs of a diverse membership;
• applying modern management methods to the running of unions as efficient, outward-looking and flexible organisations;
• assessing the challenges and opportunities of union restructuring and mergers; and
• developing the professional competence of union officers.

This was a broad list.

These themes provided unions with considerable scope to come up with creative and innovative projects. The response from unions to the first call for bids was enthusiastic - 49 applications were received from a broad range of unions and union federations. The applications were of a high quality and covered a comprehensive range of topics. We were very pleased.

Encouragingly, they were received from a broad spread of unions - in terms of size, industrial sector and membership composition. Around a third of all eligible unions in the UK applied. This included nearly three quarters of larger unions (those with more than 100, 000 members).

The application stage closed in October 2005. Applications were assessed by the UMF Supervisory Board, under Sir Bill’s able chairmanship, against a range of criteria:

• their transformational potential. The UMF’s primary aim is to encourage unions to embrace innovation and tackle the difficult strategic challenges they face. This means demonstrating that projects can deliver significant change;
• the extent to which other unions can learn from the projects. The UMF alone is modest in size and cannot by itself fully modernize trade unions. Effective dissemination and the ‘demonstration effect’ is vital if the UMF is to act as a catalyst and provide lessons for the wider union movement;
• their additionality. That is, the extent to which projects go beyond normal day-to-day activities and could not have been funded from existing union resources;
• their sustainability. The extent to which outcomes would become embedded over the longer term once projects themselves had finished;
• project design. That is, a clear rationale, realistic objectives and clear outcomes;
• the robustness of governance and project management arrangements. Whether they would deliver the promised outcomes and offer good value for taxpayers.

In March 2006, following recommendations by the Supervisory Board, my predecessor (Gerry Sutcliffe) announced that 32 applications were successful. These included projects relating to improving two-way communications, diversity (looking at how unions can assist disadvantaged workers, gender equality and vulnerable workers) and the application of modern management methods and business practices. These were the projects that offered the most innovative and forward-thinking plans aimed at ensuring that trade unions remain relevant to their seven million members.

In total, approximately £3 million was awarded under Round One.

I commend those projects that were successful under Round One – including the TGWU and NUT, who will be talking about their projects later. Most projects are now underway, indeed many are now well-advanced and beginning to show some positive results. I look forward to watching progress over the months to come and hearing about your success stories. These projects should and must offer valuable insights to other unions who can learn from your efforts. We will work with individual projects and the TUC to organize events and publicity and ensure the key lessons are widely disseminated and help spread the benefits across the union movement.

First Stage Evaluation

As many of you will know, we have been working with Leeds Business School who are the independent evaluators for the UMF. The first stage of their work was designed to assess the effectiveness of the Fund’s operation in Round One, in order to inform policy decisions about the approach of any future rounds. The second stage aims to evaluate the longer term impact of financial assistance provided to trade unions in relation to both the specified objectives of individual supported projects and the overall objectives of the Fund.

I am pleased to say the first stage report has just been published. Copies are available today and it is available on the DTI website. I encourage you to read it. The report finds that a good number of high quality applications were supported and that the application and assessment process was efficient, robust and transparent. This is an encouraging early report and demonstrates the potential impact of the UMF. But as with most things in life, you only get out what you put in. To derive the maximum possible benefit, it is up to the Round One winners to deliver on their projects.

Round Two

This takes me to the position on the next round of UMF. We are currently finalising plans for the round and expect to open bids from November.
Equality reps will be included in the priority themes following the Women and Work Commission’s recommendation.

As with Round One, we will work with TUC to support applicants to ensure you get the best out of the Fund.

In the meantime, you may want to start thinking about potential projects which take forward your modernisation agenda.

Conclusion

This Government fully recognises that unions have an important role to play in the workplace. We need to ensure that unions remain strong and dynamic. And continue to play an important part in the economy. Each one of you has an important role to play in making sure that this happens.

Round 1 went well. I am confident that R2 will go equally well. I look forward to seeing a range of quality bids.