It represented public sector workers in local government, the Health Service, universities, and water authorities.

[1] NUPE grew rapidly during the post=-Second World War expansion of the public sector, and especially during the 1960s and early 1970s.

[2] It was particularly successful in recruiting amongst sections of the workforce previously seen as a lower priority by rival trade unions (primarily the TGWU and the GMWU), such as part-time women workers, and it was these members who made NUPE the largest manual workers' union in local government by the 1970s.

NUPE had regional and area offices across the whole of Britain and was active in the mobilisation of employees in those parts of the public sector where it had substantial membership (local government, the NHS, the universities, and the publicly owned water authorities) against the attacks on trade union organisation and workers' rights by the Thatcher government from 1979.

In 1993, NUPE merged with NALGO (the National and Local Government Officers Association) and COHSE (the Confederation of Health Service Employees) to form UNISON.