Christina McAnea

Christina McAnea is UNISON’s National Secretary for Health. UNISON is the major public service union in the UK with over 1.3 million members and is the largest health union with 450,000 healthcare members employed in the NHS, and by private contractors, the community/voluntary sector and general practitioners

As Head of Health for UNISON she co-chairs the national NHS Social Partnership Forum and chairs the trade union side of the NHS Staff Council and Executive. The NHS staff council negotiates and implements the Agenda for Change Agreement which covers over one million staff in the NHS. She is currently a member of the government’s Expert Advisory Group on the NHS Constitution.

Christina has worked for the trade union movement for over 25 years and has had a long involvement in workforce issues and national negotiations particularly in education, local government, the police sector and with national private and voluntary sector employers. She was a member of the National Children’s Workforce Expert panel and has sat on various government advisory groups and working parties dealing with both professional and workforce issues.

As a trade union negotiator she has experience of a wide range of equalities issues including equal pay and discrimination in the workplace. Previous experience includes being on the boards of Lifelong Learning UK and the Higher Education Equality Challenge Unit, a Director of the Local Government Information Unit, CACHE and the Maternity Alliance and a member of the Commission for Black Staff in Further Education.