A day in the life of a UNISON rep

Vonda Murray is a project manager in our guideline updates team. She’s also an active member of UNISON, sitting on our branch committee as health and safety representative. We spend a day with Vonda to find out how she juggles these two important roles.

Vonda Murray, project manager and UNISON rep.

6:30am

My alarm goes off and it’s time to get up. My early morning routine revolves around my children: I’ve got 2 boys aged 10 and 14. My main task is to make sure my eldest son goes out the door on time and doesn’t miss his bus!

7:50am

I leave the house, which is in Newton Heath, East Manchester. I drop my youngest son at primary school before catching the bus. I use the bus journey to organise a few things for my Scout group. I’m a Cub leader. We’re teaching the Cubs about different European countries. One of my Scouting colleagues is from Portugal. So, she’s preparing some activities around that. Because I’m originally from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, I’m covering Ireland. We have a quick chat about our plans over WhatsApp.

Vonda Murray, project manager and UNISON rep.

9am

I arrive at our Manchester office, log on and check my emails. I’m currently managing 3 guideline updates:

So, as well as my own work email account, I need to check the shared inboxes for each of these topics.

I’ve received an email from a midwife on our neonatal infection guideline. She’s sending her apologies for next week’s guideline committee meeting. I email our technical analyst to see if this will cause any major issues or if the meeting can go ahead as planned.

10:30am

Once I’ve gone through the emails associated with my project manager role, I move on to my UNISON messages. One is from our branch executive committee asking me to vote on a training application. UNISON wants to help members realise their potential and offers financial support for educational and learning opportunities. Courses don’t have to relate to your work role. In fact, this particular request is for a DIY course. The member wants to develop their skills in this area so they can carry out improvement work at home. It’s a strong application and I vote in favour.

11am

Back to my day job! I slot my UNISON work between my guidelines work. Being able to switch between the 2 roles is key.

One of our committee members has contacted me about her dietary requirements. She’s Jewish and follows a strict Kosher diet. I thought Kosher only related to the food you eat but, in speaking with the committee member, I learn that it applies to utensils and kitchen equipment too. Our regular caterers aren’t able to meet her needs, but I manage to find a supplier who can. I email our administrator with the details. I ask her to pop to Deansgate on committee day to collect the Kosher meal.

12:30pm

Time for lunch! UNISON is keen to promote the importance of taking a lunch break. It’s one of our healthy working pledges that we encourage all staff to stick to. Today, I head out to The Works in Manchester Arndale and buy some craft materials for my Scout group. We’re making European themed bookmarks. I grab a sandwich on my way back to the office.

1:30pm

Last week, I attended a mental health and wellbeing conference run by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. UNISON funded my place. I draft a short presentation outlining key learning from the event. I’ll be delivering this at our:

guideline updates team meeting
UNISON branch executive meeting
UNISON members' meeting.

My role as UNISON health and safety rep covers all the things you would typically think of when considering safety at work: fire regulations and office environment, for example. But we are lucky here at NICE. We’ve got lovely offices and our facilities team does a great job. These types of issue are rarely a concern. But mental health in the workplace is an area where UNISON can really add value. I’m passionate about it!

2:30pm

I finalise details of a submission I’m sending to our commissioning team. The team commissions all guidelines and updates from internal development teams and external development centres. They also manage the quality assurance and guideline development processes. I report to them on the progress of our work. In a couple of weeks, we’re getting together for a progress meeting on our neonatal guideline. There are key documents, such as our work plan, I need to submit in advance. I make sure everything is in the folder and send a reminder to my team to check all the documents are correct and up to date.

Vonda arranges a UNISON funded session for this year's Healthy Work Week. The session is designed to promote positive mental health.

Domestic kitchen filled with tools and DIY equipment.

UNISON offers its members financial support for educational and learning opportunities. Courses don't have to relate to your work role. Vonda approves a training request for a DIY course.

4pm

I chair the guideline committee pre-meet for our shared decision making guideline. About a week before our committee meets, we hold a pre-meeting. Our technical team attends, along with the committee chair who joins us by teleconference. We make sure the chair understands where our technical team are up to and discuss anything the chair should be mindful of when facilitating the meeting.

4:30pm

Time to put my UNISON hat on again! HR has allocated us a slot for Healthy Work Week. UNISON has tasked me with arranging it. I’m keen for our session to promote positive mental health so I’ve arranged a guest speaker on this topic, which UNISON is funding. Rachel Kelly is a best-selling author, public speaker and mental health campaigner. I’m really pleased she’s agreed to come along. I contact her to go over final details.

Vonda arranges a UNISON funded session for this year's Healthy Work Week. The session is designed to promote positive mental health.

5pm

I receive an email from UNISON’s branch committee. It tells me that the DIY training request, which I voted in favour of this morning, has now been approved. Payment needs authorising and as I’m a signatory for UNISON’s bank account, I log into our online branch account and approve the funds.

UNISON offers its members financial support for educational and learning opportunities. Courses don't have to relate to your work role. Vonda approves a training request for a DIY course.

5:30pm

By law, NICE is required to publish data on the time our trade union representatives spend on their UNISON work. You’ll find the report on the corporate publications section of our website. To ensure accurate reporting, I log all my UNISON activities. I allocate each task a category: health and wellbeing or branch executive meeting work, for example. Today, I’ve spent 2.5 hours on UNISON work. This is quite a lot. Some days, I might only spend 20 minutes or so. On other days, I could spend several hours. It really varies.

6pm

I leave work and catch the bus home. Once there, I check the boys’ homework before reading my youngest son a story and putting him to bed.

9:30pm

My husband leaves the house at this time as he works night shifts. After kissing him goodbye, I head to my craft room. I’m making a dolls’ house. It’s a big project and one I’ve been working on for over a year. At the moment, I’m making the curtains and adding wiring for the lights!

The outside of Vonda's dolls' house. At the moment, she's making the curtains and adding wiring for the lights.