This branch notes that University of Birmingham UCU branch delivered a teach-in during industrial  action led by Harjjnder Kaur-Aujla (President)  and Ruth Talbot. (Lead of the Single Parents Rights campaign). They reflected on the work carried out by the network and the need for a single parent’s protected characteristic to be included in the Equality Act. Full report is available here:  https://birminghamucu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/bb999-singleparentdiscriminationfullreport.pdf 

This branch also notes that Gingerbread have since produced a detailed report of the experiences of single parents and their particular struggles especially following the  aftermath of lockdown/ covid. https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Single-Parents-in-2023-Single-Parents-Day-report.pdf 

This branch notes that Unison have embraced the work of the Single Parents Rights and supported a motion in their campaign to support this group. https://www.westcheshireunison.org.uk/campaigns/rights-for-single-parents-motion-to-conference/910 

We do now need the trade union movement to embrace this campaign and apply pressure and adopt a stance and apply pressure  on the government to support single parents through legislative and policy change.  This branch supports the aims of the single parents network to lobby government and demand change to include this protected characteristic. The campaign including template letters to MPs can be found here. https://www.singleparentrights.org 

We support the global rights tracker which aims to track the human rights abuses that single parents are receiving in various countries https://rightstracker.org/country/GBR 

In addition, this branch recognises that the intersectionality factors including race and disability can incur multiple disadvantages for this group and recommend that specialist work should be carried out to support this group through national UCU equality standing committees in due course.

Approved by a branch members’ meeting 10 July 2023; ratified by quorate committee meeting 4 September 2023