UNISON’s Local Service Champions Campaign celebrates and defends local government workers for the everyday heroes they are.
Over the past twelve years, local government has been an easy target for cuts and we need our members, their friends, colleagues and neighbours to help us defend it. People working in local services go beyond the call of duty to keep the country going, yet their efforts have often been overlooked. This isn’t right – UNISON aims to raise the profile of these unsung heroes and everything that they do.
On Wednesday 18 October, our Champions Day returns, a day designed to raise the profile of local government workers and highlight how much we appreciate them and the work they do. All year, local authority staff play their part in holding our communities together, supporting us through every stage of our lives – this is the perfect opportunity to recognise and celebrate their contributions.
How to get involved
Refuse workers, environmental health inspectors, youth workers, library workers, care assistants and many more who deliver vital local services, all deserve to know just how much their work is appreciated.
Download this certificate which you can present to the members in your branch.
Champions Day 2023 certificate
Read our branch guide to find out more ways to make Champions day work in your branch:
There are a range of resources available via our resource library and online shop to help you celebrate.
Here are some other ideas about how to get involved – but you may well have your own:
- Hold a breakfast, coffee morning, lunch or afternoon tea for staff.
- Collect customers/colleagues comments about staff and include them in a thank you card, or in a ‘word cloud’ certificate.
- Write to your local newspaper to let them know you’re celebrating local government staff in your area.
- Profile the work of a couple of your Local champions so that the public find out about the important work that they do.
- Encourage the chief executive/heads of department to spend part of the day shadowing their staff to help them appreciate the work they do.
- Ask for the winner to be profiled in a staff newsletter/email and for an award to be given.
- Invite your MP and local councillor to your special event so they can see how important local government staff are.
- Share your own photos and videos of the champions where you work on social media, telling everyone all about the amazing work they do.
- Use your Twitter and Facebook accounts to promote the day.
Other ways to get involved
There are lots of other ways you can support Champions Day, even if you can’t take part:
Follow us on social media for the latest updates and to spread the word – just remember to use the hashtag #ChampionsDay
Get your colleagues involved – if your colleagues aren’t members of UNISON already, encourage them to join! They can join online and it only takes five minutes: