Public and Commercial Services Union

The PCS in Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) group is being created following the machinery of government changes in 2007 which led to the new department from the relevant areas of the DfES.

During this transitional phase, staff continue to be represented by the DfES (now DCSF/DIUS) group for personal representation, and a new departmental trade union side has been set up with senior representatives to take forward negotiations on your behalf with management.

The first and most important element of the Group is you, the member.

Without membership involvement and activity PCS is not able to function effectively as a union. First and foremost, member representation takes place at branch level. A branch may be a particular building or several all containing members of DCSF, and will be involved in advice and personal representation, meetings with members and distribution of union materials.

Details of the current DCSF Branches and key representatives can be found here.

Group executive committee

Covering all of the branches there is a group executive committee (GEC). This is made up of representatives elected by all the group membership to take forward issues common to all the branches which have been passed by the annual group conference, such as pay and conditions, accommodation issues and taking forward areas of concern such as excessive workloads, work/life balance and health and well-being.

The GEC also appoints a departmental trade union side from branch and group levels. They take responsibility for consultation and negotiation where management are introducing or changing anything which has a direct or indirect impact on members.

As a result of the re-organisation of the groups, the annual conferences have been postponed.

This is to allow a new constitution to be drawn up, and a conference will be called later in the year to allow branches to vote on this. Motions passed at branch annual general meetings will still be taken forward, and a special GEC meeting with representatives from all branches will be called shortly.

Elections to the GEC will take place when the new group is properly constituted. Until then, work will be taken forward by the former DfES GEC.

Further information about the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills  in PCS Group will be available on this website as further progress is made in setting up the necessary structures.

Branches will carry on as normal

The group and branches will continue to function as normal in the meantime and updates on current issues such as pay negotiations, changes to the FJPA system and the new Sheffield site will be available on this website as well as through normal Branch distribution methods.

PCS priorities are ultimately its members’ priorities. This is reflected in the way that PCS is growing in membership union, and this growth increases our influence with employers.

If you want to see improvements to your pay and do not want to be disciplined unfairly, or if you want to work in healthy conditions without being continually overloaded with work, then joining PCS and playing a role in the union’s work is the way to turn what you want from the Department into a reality.