“We’ve decided we are doing a week, highlighting the hidden heroes of Sunderland Council. The people who look after the public without them realising it,” Diane explains.
“When we do pay negotiations we often highlight the frontline staff, the social workers, refuse workers – people like that. But Local Service Champions Day is going to be all about the hidden heroes.
“I’ve got the council’s chief exec on board. He’s getting his directors to nominate team’s that do work that is crucial but hidden from the public. He’s said he wants this to be a priority.
“I got him on board with the campaign, because his ‘Vision 2030’ is all about challenging the perception that council workers are lazy. He wants to get the public on side. And that’s what the local champions campaign is all about.
“We’re getting free advertising space in 15 bus stops throughout the city and they’ve given us a reduced rate on a massive digital board as you drive into Sunderland.
“We’ve got some fantastic photographs of people and we came up with straplines to explain what they do. For example, for our environmental health worker it will say:
The environmental health team are not always seen as glamorous – often only known as rat-catchers – but they are driven by a desire to protect residents and provide a vibrant, healthy city to be proud of.
Sunderland council’s environmental health team – improving the city’s conditions. Because just good enough will never be good enough for our residents.
“The idea is that people standing at the bus stops can read that and think ‘oh, they don’t just catch rats!‘”
“We’ve also hired an ad van to go around the city for three days, particularly where these people work.
“The leader and chief exec have also given the go-ahead to host an event to announce winners of what we’re calling our ‘hidden heroes’ award. We just want to make an absolute fuss of them.
“There has been such a positive reaction to the campaign because I think it’s time for local government workers to shine. It really annoys us that local government workers have been absolutely squeezed with budgets. They’re just at the bottom.
“But we’ve gone round and got people involved. We’ve got lots of young, fresh faced people who are so enthusiastic.
“It was so lovely last week because you could see the smiles on everyone’s faces. They could see they were being appreciated. They’re totally on board.”
Find out more about Local Service Champions Day
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The article Are you local champs ready? first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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