FDA reps in Dstl awarded the Group Impact Award 2025

Katherine Hutchinson speaks to the winners of the Group Impact Award 2025: FDA reps Gareth Conway, Karen Craddock, Matt Gibb and Simon Botting at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).

The winner of the 2025 Group Impact Award was the FDA reps and activists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), for building a hugely influential and rapidly growing membership from a very low base, providing strong leadership and supporting members through difficult times.

Dstl, an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence (MOD), looks to maximise the strategic advantages technology offers UK defence and security. It has its own terms and conditions, HR policies and pay negotiations.

The FDA hasn’t traditionally had a strong presence in Dstl, but this changed rapidly from 2022 when lead rep Dr Gareth Conway became active within the union. During this period he led negotiations resulting in a three-year pay offer worth 13%.

In 2024, supported by FDA staff, Gareth recruited new reps Karen Craddock, Matt Gibb, and Simon Botting. With an established team they were able to deliver far more, including supporting members in both simple and complex personal cases.

Dstl has also been going through a period of ambitious organisational redesign, which the team recognised could cause significant and widespread distress for staff. For non-members, the goal was to increase their understanding of what trade unions do, how they can help staff through consultations such as what was planned, and promote the FDA’s unique offer. The team achieved this by holding regular full-day stalls in prominent locations. 

For existing FDA members, the team’s aim was to maximise support through the difficult times. This included setting up regular digital and in-person communications with members, such as hosting fortnightly Q&A sessions, offering one-to-one support, advising and challenging management as needed, and setting up ‘listening’ campaigns to gather members’ views.

The efforts of the team have generated many successes. They have dramatically grown membership in a very short period of time – by 350% in less than a year. They continue to have success when representing members in the organisational re-design, and they are consulted on a range of topics by the employer.

Reflecting on the team’s recognition from the union, Gibb said:

“I think the four of us here at Dstl work really well together as team. We’ve worked really hard over the past year to build our membership, improve our offering, negotiate with Dstl management, and most importantly of all to support our members. Receiving the award was a real surprise and I’m grateful that our hard work has been recognised.”