So proud to be marching at Pride in London with a wonderful group of FDA members

Well done to our FDA union Comms team, for being commended in Trades Union Congress union Comms awards for best media story - where we utilised our member survey results to get their views presented to the Deputy PM live on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg show.

Loved being back delivering a session on managing difficult conversations at #WiL23 for FDA union and as ever great contributions in the q&a’s from women civil servants!

Complaining about the growth of the civil service from its lowest level in 2016 to 2023 shows no consideration for the actual effects of EU referendum and the covid pandemic and the vast array of Government priorities. CS once again being attacked for doing their jobs.

FDA Vice President Leila Kelly opens Women into Leadership - our joint event with Dods Events Diversity & Inclusion - in Manchester today. To find out more, including upcoming events near you or online, visit womenintoleadership.co.uk #WiL23

Great to take part in Civil Service World and DodsTraining event on building a resilient civil service. There are a number of factors impacting on resilience, highest turnover in a decade, a broken pay system, work load and intensity. We exchanged our ideas and have solutions for the CS

Nothing screams confidence in its own legal position more for Govt than having to declare in advance that it will ignore court rulings & specifically instruct civil servants to ignore their professional obligations to ‘comply with the law and uphold the administration of justice’

Such a pleasure to have the opportunity to chair the online #unlockingthescs today. We have started our day off with an inspiring recording of Tamara Finklestein. ‘Even when you make it to the executive management board you still have development needs’ very wise words

#EMiL is off to a great start being chaired by Pru Orridge - she has started us off with her own journey into the CS and included her proud involvement and opportunities ⁦FDA union⁩ has given her along that journey

Fantastic to be a part of the Global Government Forum webinar on how to eliminate the gender pay gap - at the current rate of decrease it will take til 2044 to eliminate it - we can and must do better than that

Yet again, the Government is attacking the equality, diversity and inclusion spend in the Civil Service - a convenient punch-bag for when it wants to demonstrate that it’s taking a tough stance, when in reality these changes could actually lead to damage inews.co.uk/news/common-se…

Disappointingly, there hasn’t been further work done on third party reporting. E.g. allowing trade unions to initiate complaints where there are multiple complaints about one individual but those directly affected may be reluctant to complain but are willing to act as a witness.

Response from the FDA Union… Assistant General Sec. Lucille Thirlby:   “Nobody joins the civil service in order to ‘impose their own political ideology’.. when the country is facing challenges, should the colour of a civil servant’s lanyard really be a ministerial priority?”

While FDA General Secretary Dave Penman tells me “You have to wonder why Esther McVey feels so threatened by a rainbow lanyard that it deserves so much of her time, when public services are on their knees and government departments are cutting back services” Dave Penman

So glad to see that common sense has taken hold!

⁦Women into Leadership⁩ is about to start here in Edinburgh with a line of excellent speakers ⁦FDA union⁩ ⁦Fiona Eadie⁩

⁦Fiona Eadie⁩ opening up the event explaining the development and growth of ⁦⁦⁦Women into Leadership⁩ over 15 years and the focus of ⁦FDA union⁩ on career development and learning for our members

Great to be a guest ⁦AHCPS⁩ annual conference and hearing their GS Ciaran Rohan highlight the common threads across both our unions; membership growth, commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and the challenge of ensuring good engagement by employers with the union

It’s extraordinary that there are people out there who STILL think working from home means you aren’t working FDA union

Great to meet up with CPSA( Civil Service Pensioners Alliance) and talk about working together on common areas and promoting the value of public sector pensions