• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS 2007

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE SECTION

False Allegations against teachers

Conference supports the right of students to be heard and taken seriously when they make allegations against teachers. Conference believes however that after thorough investigation, when allegations subsequently prove unfounded the reaction can be disproportionate and leaves a stain on a teacher’s career. Conference also notes that some students unfortunately do make false allegations against teachers.

Conference further notes that in January 2007 the Government brought in new guidelines (Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education) on the processing of allegations against teachers which were intended to ensure that allegations of abuse are dealt with ‘effectively, fairly and promptly.’

Conference regrets that the guidance also sets out that any allegations relating to the safety and welfare of children and young people should be disclosed during the recruitment process to a prospective employer whatever the outcome of investigations into such allegations.

Conference notes that the government has also promoted recruitment training which suggests interview questions aimed at identifying those who may pose a risk to pupils' welfare.

Conference recognises the damage that is often done to the career and well-being of those who face investigation of an allegation which is found to be false and believes that the effects will be aggravated by the retention and disclosure of records relating to such allegations.

Conference notes that in the current climate, teachers are often warned off any physical contact with students, including, for example, reassuring or comforting a distressed child. Conference believes that there are times when such physical contact is an essential part of a teacher’s role.

Conference reasserts the belief that a person is ‘innocent until proven guilty’. However, Conference is concerned that cases falling under Child Protection are often referred to and placed on a teacher’s Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check by the Police, even when the case has been dismissed, disproved, or dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). In many cases colleagues have been forced to give up teaching because of the way that the police have reported such investigations on CRB forms.

Conference supports the view expressed by the General Secretary that “without the opportunity to ensure that records of malicious false allegations are removed entirely from their records, teachers will be vulnerable to such allegations blighting their careers.”

1 Conference calls on the National Executive to campaign vigorously to protect teachers from having their careers blighted in this way by false allegations by:

1. seeking the introduction of provisions whereby teachers have the right to ensure that false allegations are removed from their personal records;

2. seeking an assurance that where false allegations, or allegations that were unproven or withdrawn, have been made against a teacher these will not appear on the CRB check for that teacher;

3. seeking an assurance that any additional information which does not appear on the CRB check provided by the police, is not sent to the employer without the applicant’s knowledge;

4 seeking an expert assessment of the value of the suggested interview techniques and whether it meets good practice standards for fair and non- discriminatory recruitment practices;

5. updating and re-issuing guidance to members on the investigation process and teachers' rights in relation to these;

6. monitoring the cases of false allegations reported to the Union to assess the level of growth of such cases and the impact of such cases, including any disproportionate impact of particular groups; and

7. working with other relevant organisations to seek to redress the balance in order to provide fair protections for teachers.

Conference also calls on the National Executive to support members who have already had their careers blighted in this way by using the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) procedures to ensure that the police handle personal information properly in the future.

Upper Limit for Temperature in Schools

Conference notes that, while Government and the Union have recognised minimum temperatures below which lessons should not be expected to take place, there is no maximum temperature limit above which classrooms are recognised as unusable.

Conference notes that there is a deplorable lack of effective statutory protection or regulation on maximum temperatures and effective ventilation for school premises, notwithstanding the general provisions set out below.

1. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 says “During working hours, the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings shall be reasonable.” Also that “…all reasonable steps should be taken to achieve a reasonably comfortable temperature….”

2 2. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommend 24°C as a Maximum for comfortable working and anything above 26°C as definitely unacceptable.

3. Nowhere is a reasonable temperature defined, and that schools and local authorities use the lack of legislation to say there is no upper limit – in many cases effectively ignoring their obligation to take all reasonable steps to achieve a comfortable temperature.

Conference believes that this is unacceptable. Very high temperatures have a deleterious effect on the ability of teachers and pupils to concentrate and to work effectively, and can cause physical discomfort and illness. If people get too hot, they risk dizziness, fainting, or even heat cramps. Teachers who report health problems caused by working in excessive temperatures are most likely to be in specific curricular areas such as IT, Technology or Science, for example, due to inadequacies in building design.

Conference resolves that:

(i) teachers should not and cannot be expected to work in any classroom or other internal teaching space where the temperature exceeds 26°C for anything other than very short periods;

(ii) the Union should amend its current advice on high temperatures to: (a) recommend a maximum working temperature of 26°C; (b) include practical advice on measures which can be taken to lower the temperature and make the working environment acceptable during heat waves, including, where appropriate, advice and support for arrangements whereby classrooms and other teaching rooms should be vacated where temperatures exceed 26°C for other than very short periods; and

(iii) the Union should press the Government to draw up new regulations which require schools, subject to a limited transitional period, to ensure that temperatures do not exceed the WHO maximum in classroom and interior learning environments.

Workload

Conference recognises that the legislative changes introduced through the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document have failed to create the “reasonable work- life balance” that teachers are supposedly entitled to expect.

Conference therefore welcomes the steps taken by the Union to establish a new set of guidelines designed to offer real protection to members from excessive workload.

Conference encourages all members to seek the strongest application of these guidelines in their schools and workplaces and, further, to request a ballot for industrial action where the Union’s guidelines are being breached.

3 Conference also recognises, however, that members are more likely to have the confidence to apply our guidelines, and to seek support for action when required, if they consider that they are part of a co-ordinated campaign.

Conference therefore instructs the Executive to:

1) call a meeting of Divisional Secretaries to exchange reports of the strengths and weaknesses of the workload campaign so far and to discuss what further steps can be taken to ensure the Union’s guidelines are applied as widely as possible; 2) organise regional or divisional meetings of school representatives to reinforce the Union’s campaign and to publicise successes that we have achieved; and 3) seek to co-ordinate ballots as widely as possible to unite members across different schools.

Conference recognises that one of the main causes of workload and stress for teachers, and a frequent symptom of a culture of bullying in a school, is the excessive requirement to submit planning for lessons. Conference instructs the Executive to make limits on the submission of planning a major part of the continuing workload campaign, and to support members who wish to refuse to submit short term planning for inspection by headteachers and other managers unless there are exceptional reasons for doing so.

Teacher Mental Health

Conference notes:

1. The accumulated evidence suggesting that the number of teachers suffering from mental illness has increased to the point where 1 in 3 will experience mental health problems at some point in their career.

2. For many the severity of illness will shatter their lives and/or those of their families. It is often the cause of teachers leaving the profession. Most teachers experiencing mental illness find it difficult or impossible to talk about with even the closest of friends or families. As a result the size of the problem has remained partially hidden. Some teachers remain unaware that they are suffering from mental illness.

3. The types and causes of mental illness are complex, but depression and acute anxiety are common amongst teachers. It is a major cause of teacher absence and many teachers are only able to continue working because of long-term medication. Drug addiction, eating disorders and obsessive behaviours are also common. Causes of mental illness are not restricted to work factors, but the much higher, and growing, incidence of mental illness amongst teachers, in comparison with other professions, must point to the impact of work related stress.

4 4. Treatments provided by skilled mental health practitioners, like Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, can help teachers manage and improve their mental health. Other initiatives like training and counselling can also help, but little or nothing has been done to keep work stress within manageable levels for all teachers. Employers regularly fail in their duty of care, aided and abetted by the ill-considered demands of successive Governments.

5. Not enough is known about the scale and causes of mental illness amongst teachers or of the most effective way of improving mental health. However this has now become an issue deserving of much greater priority.

Conference therefore instructs the Executive to:

(i) Establish a working party of both Executive and lay members to investigate and advise on promoting improved teacher mental health. The remit of the working party to be determined by the Executive but should include: a. The collection of evidence and information on the scale, causes and impact of mental illness amongst teachers. b. The power to invite representatives of other organisations to contribute to the working party. (e.g. Teacher Support Network, other teacher organisations, and organisations representing mental health practitioners). c. Providing ongoing reports for the Executive to use in promoting improved mental health amongst teachers. d. The preparation of a memorandum for Annual Conference 2009 with relevant policy recommendations.

(ii) Use the ongoing reports prepared by the Working Party to press Government, local authorities, school governors and other employees to take urgent steps to improve the mental well-being of teachers.

(iii) Provide information for members and public information highlighting the issue of mental illness amongst teachers, including advice on strategies to reduce the risks of mental illness.

(iv) Ensure that the Union’s existing policies, including action guidelines, are fully implemented when it is necessary to protect teachers from excessive stress likely to lead to mental illness.

Supply Teachers

Conference recognises the value of qualified supply teachers as an important and essential resource, enabling continuity for children and staff in schools.

Conference recognises that the deterioration in pay and conditions of supply teachers is a threat to all the teaching profession as well as the quality of education in schools.

5 Conference acknowledges that supply teachers are professional and responsible people who are able to teach in a flexible and creative manner, in order to fulfil a number of requirements in a variety of schools, often at short notice.

Conference believes that supply teachers are losing opportunities to work due to the introduction of Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time in September 2005 and the subsequent employment of staff without QTS (e.g., HLTAs) where supply teachers would have otherwise been employed. Although PPA time has existed in secondary schools for many years, standards have not fallen and those without QTS do not teach pupils.

Conference notes that local authorities are relinquishing their supply teacher lists and administration, leaving many supply teachers no choice but to use agencies.

Conference condemns the exploitation by some supply teacher agencies where Teachers’ Pay and Conditions are not adhered to, resulting in the supply teacher being paid less salary and having no pension contributions paid or other entitlements fulfilled. Host agencies also require their own CRB checks to be made, often at the supply teacher’s expense, resulting in supply teachers unnecessarily having to pay for multiple copies of the same certificate.

Conference further condemns the exploitation of supply teachers by some head teachers who make verbal contracts with supply teachers, only to break them at their own discretion and at the ‘last minute’, taking no account of the supply teachers’ rights and concerns.

Conference acknowledges the insecure nature of supply teaching and the non- entitlement to sickness benefit should a supply teacher be unable to work due to illness.

Conference believes that being a supply teacher does not mean that the teacher is not career minded and that the teacher does not deserve respect.

Conference recognises that supply teachers, in general, experience feelings of isolation, resulting in complaints not being made and advice for concerns not sought for fear of appearing to be ‘trouble makers’ and consequently forfeiting opportunities to work.

Conference acknowledges that, although not impossible to do, supply teachers tend not to apply to go beyond the Threshold, due to fears of becoming ‘too expensive’ and, therefore, forfeiting opportunities to work.

Conference acknowledges that supply teachers find it difficult to claim refunds of their GTC fees, often resulting in them paying the full fee themselves, while teachers who are employed by contract in one school have their fees automatically refunded.

Conference calls on the Executive to:

6 1. Endeavour to raise the profile, status and morale of supply teachers within the profession by organising a conference/meeting of supply teachers to involve them in any campaign.

2. Encourage the use of supply teachers on contract to cover PPA time in schools and use our network of head teacher members to ensure that they at least will only employ properly remunerated supply teachers.

3. Review the nature and regulation of agencies and the impact of diminishing local authority supply teacher lists.

4. Encourage NUT School Representatives to welcome new supply teachers into their schools, ensuring that they are treated with respect and dignity whenever they are working in school.

5. Encourage all, but especially NUT headteachers, to use supply teachers without agency intervention.

6. Campaign with action up to and including strike action to ensure that all supply teachers doing comparable work to permanent teachers – albeit on a part time or short term contract basis – have an entitlement to relevant INSET and are paid on a daily rate of 1/195th of the annual salary they would receive if they were on permanent contracts with nationally agreed terms and conditions or better. Similarly, campaign to ensure that casual supply teachers are remunerated at a daily rate of 1/195th of an agreed national rate.

7. Campaign to require agencies to refund the GTC fees of all supply teachers who work in maintained schools.

8. Enter into negotiations nationally with the major agencies with regard to a concrete agreement securing entry into the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

9. Enter into negotiations with regard to a concrete agreement on the payment of the Blue Book rates of pay.

10. Relaunch the campaign that every child be taught by a qualified teacher, supported by a trained and properly remunerated classroom assistant.

Work-life Balance

Conference views with alarm that workforce reforms have resulted in no significant reduction in workload for teachers. With continued changes impacting on teachers and schools, the prognosis for manageable workload for teachers looks bleak.

Conference also notes that the pay and career progression of women with family responsibilities is detrimentally affected by this excessive workload and that public authorities and schools are now required to take positive action (Gender Equality Duty, 2007) to remove barriers to gender equality by providing, for example, flexible working, convenient access to child care facilities and appropriate INSET.

7 With the continuing excessive levels of stress amongst teachers, showing no signs of reduction, it is crucial that urgent action is taken in schools to ensure that all teachers are enabled to have a work-life balance.

Conference therefore considers that the key to resolving this situation lies in schools being committed to developing a purposeful work-life balance policy that takes account of the Gender Equality Duty (2007).

To this end Conference instructs the Executive to:

1. Conduct a survey of current work-life balance in schools;

2. Research and evaluate effective good work-life practice including promotion of the Gender Equality Duty (2007).

3. Bring a report to Conference 2008 which contains: (i) proposals for enabling schools to adopt good practice; (ii) an action strategy, up to and including strike action, to achieve those aims.

CO-ORDINATION AND FINANCE SECTION

Political Fund

Conference notes:

1. Some major education unions, including NATFHE (now in UCU) and NASUWT, have political funds.

2. Other major unions, such as the PCS, are taking steps to establish such a fund.

3. The NASUWT uses a political fund to actively oppose fascist organisations like the BNP and NF, including urging citizens to refuse to vote for these organisations.

4. The political funds of the other education unions are not used to fund political parties.

Conference therefore instructs the Executive to conduct, before Easter 2008, a ballot to establish a Political Fund in accordance with Appendix VI of the Union’s Rules that can provide resources for the Union actively to campaign at elections against political parties and their candidates who promote racist, fascist and similar views. Material accompanying the ballot should call clearly for a “Yes” vote from members.

8 EDUCATION: EARLY YEARS SECTION

Primary Curriculum

Conference welcomes the commissioning of Cambridge University to conduct the first independent enquiry into primary education since the Plowden Report in 1967. Conference believes that such a review is long-overdue and that its findings will have important implications for the future direction of primary education in England.

Conference believes that the current National Curriculum for primary school pupils remains both overcrowded and stratified and that this constrains the ability of teachers to meet the individual needs of children.

Conference is deeply concerned that the Government’s approach to literacy and numeracy has limited the amount of time schools feel able to devote to their own priorities in other areas of the curriculum and has curtailed cross-curricular and curriculum-enrichment activities in many schools.

Conference is particularly concerned about programmes promoted through the Primary National Strategy such as the Intensifying Support Pilot. This highly structured and prescriptive target driven regime focuses on a few very narrow curriculum objectives. It is being imposed on a growing number of schools in very challenging circumstances and often against the professional judgement of teachers. The ‘policing’ of this programme, by some local authorities, has resulted in significant work overload for teachers, deflecting them from more important activities. It is sometimes backed-up by an inappropriate ‘bullying’ management style and can be a cause of significant work-related stress. Evidence shows it can lead to de-motivation amongst pupils who are publicly ‘labelled’ according to whether they reach prescribed targets. There is little evidence to show that the pilot is justified by the educational outcomes.

Conference asserts that the National Curriculum in its present form does not encourage depth or individuality of learning, that it restricts access to new areas of knowledge and that it limits the capacity of teachers to construct imaginatively areas of teaching and learning which cross traditional subject barriers.

Conference is committed to a balanced, broadly based primary curriculum as an entitlement for all children, which provides them with a foundation on which they will continue to build and benefit throughout their adult lives.

Conference notes that the Foundation Stage Profile (FSP) assesses children across the whole Foundation Stage curriculum. It is a "spurious and ultimately inaccurate exercise" (National Assessment Authority) to attempt to equate the FSP scale points to National Curriculum sub levels and to use this data to make predictors for attainment in National Curriculum Key Stage 1 assessments.

Conference reasserts the position set out in “Bringing Down the Barriers”, the Union’s education statement, that the Government should commission an independent review of the primary curriculum. Conference urges the Government to recognise

9 that the Cambridge review provides the basis for the independent review which should be commissioned by the Government.

Conference believes that the excessively prescriptive nature of the Numeracy and, in particular, the Literacy curriculum imposed by central Government is primarily a means for delivering national SATs targets. The fact that Literacy and Numeracy lessons often account for as much as 60 per cent of curriculum time is the main factor in denying children a broad, balanced and stimulating curriculum.

Conference therefore instructs the Executive to:

1. urge the Government to recognise the authority of the Cambridge review of primary education;

2. contribute fully to the Cambridge review and encourage members to participate directly;

3. initiate research into the effects of the current curriculum arrangements on the foundation subjects;

4. continue to emphasise that professional judgement on the application of the literacy and mathematics frameworks remains with schools and to continue to provide support and advice to members, focusing on workload;

5. promote cross-curricular teaching and the need to embed literacy and numeracy skills within a broad and balanced curriculum and not as separate and de-contextualised subjects;

6. continue to campaign, and work with other organisations, to abolish SATs and league tables in England;

7. provide advice, support and, if necessary, approval for industrial action to protect teachers who are forced to implement non-statutory strategies against their professional judgement;

8. provide advice to members who feel that the prescriptive nature of the curriculum may not be appropriate; and

9. provide advice to members about the inappropriateness of setting KS1 targets from FSP data through Union publications including, The Teacher, Headway and Soulbury Digest.

Early Years

Conference is increasingly concerned about staffing ratios in the Early Years. Conference notes the Union's long-standing policy on class size:

1. In maintained nurseries, one teacher and one nursery officer to every 20 children.

10

2. In Reception classes, a limit of 27 children to one teacher.

Conference notes that:

(i) The introduction of Government limits of 30 for Reception classes some years ago has undermined the NUT limit of 27, as schools have gradually employed extra, either qualified or unqualified, support staff in these larger classes.

(ii) Many younger children, who might formerly have stayed in a nursery until they were almost five, are now being admitted to reception classes early, and there are many variations in admission. Some schools and local authorities admit children at the beginning of the academic year when they will become five years’ old. Having a majority of four year olds in a reception class has resource and staffing implications.

(iii) Although Foundation Stage and Reception classes have come together officially as a distinct phase of education within the Early Years Foundation Stage with the same Government Curriculum Guidance covering both, they may not be subject to the same DfES staffing ratio requirements.

(iv) Children’s Centres’ staffing ratios do not require the employment of qualified teachers. Those holding Early Years Professional (EYP) status or a “relevant” level 6 qualification are deemed to be equivalent to qualified teachers for the purposes of staffing ratios.

Conference, therefore, believes that the Union should adopt a common class size policy that applies to both Nursery and Reception. We believe, that in classes where there are four year olds, there should be a limit of one teacher and one qualified nursery nurse to 20 children, whether this is in nursery or reception.

Conference instructs the Executive to campaign for a common Foundation Stage class size policy by: a) Requesting associations and divisions to put this policy on their agenda, and asking for feed back information. b) Consulting with Early Years teachers and specialist organisations on the staffing ratios needed in early years provision. c) Drawing up a well-researched policy document on a common class size policy for Foundation Stage and presenting proposals to Conference 2008. d) Providing full advice and support for members working in provision which contravenes Union policy on staffing ratios.

11 Early Years Education

Conference reasserts its belief that qualified Early Years teachers are essential to the provision of high quality Early Years education and that they create the best possible conditions for children’s learning and for their personal and social development. Conference believes that Early Years education is vital to embedding equality of access to high quality education for all children.

Conference welcomes the campaign materials which have been produced by the Union to support divisions, associations and individual members in campaigning against the closure and replacement of nursery schools, with Children’s Centres. Conference believes that maintained nursery schools represent an invaluable resource as centres of expertise in Early Years education and should be central to the Government’s Early Years strategy.

Conference believes that the introduction of Early Years Professional Status (EYP) by the Government could lead to an erosion of high quality educational provision in the Early Years. Conference does not believe that EYP Status will have parity with Qualified Teacher Status, as the Government and the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) claim.

Conference condemns any attempt to substitute qualified Early Years teachers with EYPs or to equate EYPs with qualified teachers for the purposes of staffing ratios.

Conference is deeply concerned about the Government’s target of educational provision being led by an EYP in all Children’s Centres by 2010. Conference asserts that this will lead to the wholesale removal of qualified teachers from Early Years education and the exploitation of staff not qualified as teachers. Both are unacceptable. Conference is concerned about CWDC and DfES statements that pay and conditions for EYPs will be an issue for individual employers.

Conference rejects the use of the EYP as a cheaper substitute for qualified teachers in Children’s Centres and within Early Years education as a whole.

Conference welcomes the Union’s developing links with Unison on Early Years policy work and instructs the Executive to explore ways of securing a joint NUT/Unison position on the role of qualified teachers, Early Years professionals and support staff within Early Years settings.

Conference instructs the Executive to:

1. mainstream early years issues by ensuring that the Union produces materials, including NUT News and articles within “The Teacher”, informing all teachers about the threat to early years education;

2. campaign nationally for and work with divisions to secure the maintenance and, wherever possible, an increase in the number of qualified teachers in Children’s Centres;

12 3. produce materials which inform all members about the dangers to the employment, status and conditions of qualified teachers in the Early Years which will be a direct result of the introduction of the EYP;

4. ensure that Early Years teachers whose status, pay and conditions of service are threatened by the introduction of the EYP and Children’s Centres receive full support from the Union; and

5. seek to establish with Unison an Early Years forum whose purpose would be to resolve any difficulties within the Early Years sector, building on the success of both unions’ links with unions internationally, particularly with Lararforbundet and Kommunal in Sweden.

EDUCATION: GENERAL SECTION

Lesson Observations and Teacher Monitoring

Conference notes the dramatic increase in teacher monitoring and lesson observations in schools around the country. Sometimes they are under the guise of "Quality Assurance" or "Performance Management" but increasingly they are under the guise of simply "raising standards". Some head teachers are doing this with the encouragement of their local authority in order to avoid "going into a category" whether through low results, poor Contextual Value Added (CVA), "coasting", etc. In this case there are few schools in the country that will escape excessive monitoring. This increases stress and workload for already hard-pressed classroom teachers.

Lesson observations can be a useful tool to help teachers in their professional development. However they can be used simply as a managerial tool to intimidate and harass teachers.

Conference welcomes the development by the Union of a model protocol for schools and guidance for members on lesson observation, which focuses on the manageability of and workload issues arising from schools’ monitoring procedures.

There is no automatic causal link, as some would have us believe, between lesson observations and providing support for members unless they are carried out with stringent limits and protocols.

The Union must ensure that all lesson observations:

1. have a rationale linked to the school policy and are agreed with the individual teacher; 2. are negotiated with a teacher beforehand and mutually agreed in terms of timing, focus and format; 3. always have written or verbal feedback expressed in ways that will help the teacher; and 4. follow the Union’s advice set out in “A Classroom Observation Protocol: Guidelines for NUT School Representatives”.

13 Conference believes however that the current guidance on classroom observation should be seen as a starting point. Conference disputes that statutory observation leads to an improvement in teaching.

Conference therefore calls on the Executive to initiate a campaign to reduce observation requirements to a maximum of two (as agreed at Conference 2006) then to one only.

Where there is a breach of this protocol the full force of the Union, up to and including strike action, should be put in place to defend members against any harassment.

Conference further notes that this increase in teacher monitoring and lesson observations is closely linked to the introduction of the Ofsted Self Evaluation Form (SEF).

Conference is concerned that whilst the successive Conferences have passed motions unanimously on campaigning against Ofsted little has been done to make this effective.

Conference therefore instructs the Executive as a matter of urgency to:

1. Implement an effective opposition to Ofsted and the current Self Evaluation system with a high profile in The Teacher and notice board displays.

2. Gather the views of practising teachers about Ofsted and use these findings to consider further action particularly when it breaches the workload guidelines.

3. Promote alternative ways for school inspections and evaluation.

4. Ensure that members are given confidence to rigorously implement and take action on the workload guidelines.

Building Schools for the Future

Conference welcomes extra funding for school building and refurbishment, but it is deeply concerned that the Building Schools for the Future programme is a Trojan horse for two key elements of Labour’s education agenda – privatisation and vocationalism, which are contrary to the longstanding policies of the NUT.

Conference reaffirms its absolute opposition to the Government’s Academies programme for these reasons:

* Academies are not accountable to local democracy. * They undermine the local authority’s ability to operate a fair school admissions policy. * They operate at the expense of neighbouring schools. * They are a form of privatisation of schooling.

14 * They threaten the rights of school workers and the abilities of their trades unions to protect them.

Conference condemns the fact that local authorities are told publicly that they need to have considered an academy, and are allegedly told privately that they must put forward an academy, in order to secure BSF funding.

Conference welcomes Composite 10 passed at TUC congress on the ‘Education and Inspections Bill and Marketisation of Education’.

Conference deplores the pressure on local authorities to include Academies within their proposals for Building Schools for the Future funding. Despite denials by the Government that authorities have only to consider and evaluate the Academy option, Conference regrets the fact that many authorities have been pressured to include Academies to ensure approval of their BSF proposals and to obtain much needed capital funding for these schools and others in the authority.

Conference congratulates local authorities, which have resisted that pressure, and divisions which have campaigned against Academies as an unwelcome aspect of the Government’s privatisation agenda, which also includes the sponsorship of Trust Schools.

Conference reaffirms its opposition to the Private Finance Initiative, of which BSF is a key component, because it does not provide value for money which in consequence simply increases the cost of public sector education provision to the benefit of private sector companies. Conference also condemns the rigid and inflexible nature of many PFI contracts which deny head teachers and schools the requisite professional discretion and freedom to manage their schools in the interests of pupils and the wider school community.

Conference is also extremely concerned about the serious problems involved in managing the BSF programme and the resultant delays.

Conference notes that the Government’s preferred delivery vehicle for BSF in each local authority (LA) is a Local Education Partnership (LEP), a long-term partnership between the LA and the private contractor, 80 per cent controlled by the private company with the LA having 10 per cent representation. In the context of Government policy that LAs should commission services from external providers, not provide them themselves, the private sector sees the LEP as a launch-pad from which it can take over other profitable LA services. These could include facilities management, extended school provision, community use, and provision under the Children Act and Every Child Matters, and applied to all the LA’s schools, not just those in the BSF programme.

Conference further notes that LAs have a choice as to the extent to which they restrict the LEP to building new and improving existing secondary schools or make it a vehicle for widespread privatisation of services. It calls on local authorities to:

1. Restrict the scope of the LEP to rebuilding and refurbishing schools.

15 2. Give a commitment not to outsource any further local authority services under BSF.

3. Establish a full, democratic and transparent consultation process with all stakeholders, including teachers and all other affected staff and their unions, parents and local community representatives.

4. Refuse to give in to financial blackmail, and not to put forward proposals for Academies.

Without prejudice to its opposition to PFI, Conference calls upon the Government and local authorities to: a) use the opportunity afforded by the BSF programme to remove asbestos from all schools due to be refurbished under the programme; b) ensure that all new and refurbished schools are fitted with sprinklers to mitigate the effects on schools of fires, which result in around 2,000 schools being damaged every year by fire; and c) ensure that all BSF schools are constructed according to best practice in accessible and inclusive design which meet the needs of all pupils, including disabled pupils and pupils with SEN and EBD.

Conference calls on the Executive to give full support to all local campaigns in support of the above aims including campaigns against Academies.

Conference notes that BSF money is tied to the ‘transformation’ of local secondary education systems, for which LAs have to submit a ‘vision and strategy’ for Government approval. The Government aims to use BSF as a key vehicle for the implementation of its 2005, 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper, which aims to increase substantially the number of students on vocational and work based pathways geared to perceived employer ‘needs’, while leaving the academic pathway largely untouched.

Conference rejects these arguments, for three reasons:

(i) The reality of the labour market is that low-qualification, low-skill, low-pay jobs mainly in the service sector, such as retail and care, await many students on the vocational and work based pathway, and they will mainly be from working class and low-income backgrounds, further widening social class segregation in the school system.

(ii) The 14-19 White Paper proposals for improving both the content and the delivery of new vocational qualifications are deeply flawed and there is little evidence that they will either improve the employment prospects of young people or resolve the ‘problems’ of the economy.

(iii) The segregation of students at age 14 into ‘academic’ and vocational pathways and ‘work based’ pathways represents the final destruction of

16 comprehensive education. A 14-plus subsistence diet of work-based learning together with ‘functional’ English and maths and a hotch-potch of ‘citizenship’, religion and sex education denies young people access to the world of culture and knowledge and the ability to understand the social world, question it, and act in it.

Conference affirms its commitment to the comprehensive ideal of a common, broad and critical, core curriculum for all till 16, for full participation in a democratic society, integrating both theory and practice, with a common work-related dimension for all which is in a critical not a training perspective, not tied to a limited occupational sector, and under the control of teachers not employers.

Conference instructs the Executive to continue discussions with the University and College Union in order to seek a common position on the 14-19 curriculum and current 14-19 qualification arrangements.

Conference resolves to campaign vigorously for this conception of education, and against local authorities’ BSF-driven vocational agendas, within schools, the trade union and labour movement and the community.

Conference applauds the work of the Anti-Academies Alliance and calls on the Executive to increase and radicalise the Union’s campaign in line with the previous Conference decisions. Conference agrees to affiliate to the Anti-Academies Alliance.

At its Conferences in 2005 and 2006 the Union adopted strong campaigning policies against the establishment of Academies. The revision of the Government’s target upwards from 200 to 400 Academy schools underlines the urgent need for the most effective possible public campaign. The four hundred Academies proposed by the Prime Minister, at an average cost of £35 million each, will transfer more than £14 billion worth of resources and assets into the hands of private sponsors.

Conference further notes that despite these enormous financial investments, the existing Academies have not made significant improvements in education standards as measured by Key Stage and GCSE results. Their development is an experiment with no control group. Conference therefore challenges the Government to invest in existing schools at the same level, to provide such a control group.

Conference welcomes the Union’s participation in the Compass meetings in Parliament and the regions, the organisation of the March 25th conference last year and March 24th this year, the publication of “Bringing Down The Barriers” and "Which Way Forward" and the participation in the Public Services Not Private Profit rally and lobby of Parliament and the TUC Speak Up for Public Services lobby of parliament.

Conference believes that the Union has tapped in to the disquiet about the Government policy felt by governors and parents and other concerned people and organisations and now needs to act to bring these groups together in a vibrant campaigning organisation.

Conference further notes that the Union has managed to initiate and support such campaigns in the past, notably in the fight for comprehensive education.

17 Conference considers that this campaigning should go beyond simply commenting on the policies of Government, to actively opposing them, through meetings, demonstrations, mass leafleting etc.

As part of such a strategy Conference instructs the Executive to:

1. organise a campaigning conference involving anti-academy campaigns, other unions, organisations campaigning for comprehensive education, the participants in the March 25th conference, and seeking further supporters amongst MPs, etc.;

2. encourage the formation of similar local campaign groups; and

3. examine how the Union can contribute to the development of the broadest possible organisation campaigning for genuine comprehensive education delivered through local authorities; and whether this can be part of the development of a similar organisation campaigning for the protection and development of public sector provision of public services.

Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Conference believes that as educators and trade unionists we have a vested interest in the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants.

Conference believes that global warming and the over-exploitation of the planet’s natural resources present a very serious challenge requiring urgent and significant action.

Conference believes that governments across the world have shown little real concern to achieve a reduction in global warming or switch to modes of sustainable development.

Conference believes that global justice cannot be achieved without sustainable development in the poorest and most vulnerable regions of the world – but supports the demand that those peoples should be able to develop energy sources in pursuit of mass electrification. It is incumbent on the advanced industrial nations to make available the technology and resources to allow this to happen sustainably.

Conference believes that the measures adopted to lower carbon emissions must not damage the possibilities for development in the poorest regions – and therefore we reject plans for carbon trading.

Conference believes that measures that can and should be adopted to reduce carbon emissions include:

1. Increasing subsidies for public transport.

2. A massive programme of house insulation.

18 3. Construction of combined heat and power plants to reduce the inefficiencies involved in power generation.

4. The introduction of strict standards of insulation and energy efficiency in all new buildings.

In addition the Government should massively increase funds for research and development in alternative power generation methods and of carbon sequestration technologies.

Conference accepts that much is already happening in our schools and local authorities to address these issues, but that such initiatives need to be fully-funded, gain greater importance in the curriculum and extend to the Union’s own practices.

Conference therefore instructs the Executive to:

(i) Work and lobby actively within the TUC, particularly via its Sustainable Development Advisory Committee, to ensure that a vigorous campaign to raise awareness of the threat of climate change and to promote sustainable development is carried out.

(ii) Lobby MPs and the Government to commit them to taking urgent and significant action in order to meet the necessary emissions reduction targets by means other than carbon trading.

(iii) Audit all the Union’s current practices and procurement procedures, such as the use of plastic bags and recyclable paper, to ensure that the principles of sustainability are embedded into our core values and activities – and to give a detailed report to Conference 2008 on progress made.

(iv) Develop, in partnership with all similarly-minded organisations, curricula, resources and teaching methods that enable learners to develop the values, skills and knowledge to live and work sustainably. The Union should take a lead by publishing its own materials.

(v) Work with schools, local authorities and Government to ensure that sustainable practices are embedded into all aspects of school life such as transport, building, energy use, food, recyclable resources and global justice, with particular reference to projects under the Building Schools for The Future programme.

(vi) Seek to develop a network of Sustainable Development Reps along the same lines as Health and Safety reps.

Finally, Conference believes that action on these issues requires nothing that is not already scientifically known and viable, but will require a new level of global co- operation and political commitment to overcome the anarchy of existing world trade principles based on the doctrines of neo-liberalism.

19 Pupil Behaviour

Conference notes that the problem of unacceptable pupil behaviour has many causes. These causes include social and economic deprivation in society and the relentless pressures of testing and league tables.

Accordingly, Conference instructs the Executive to: i. undertake and publish research, before Annual Conference 2008, into the impact of social class and social deprivation on pupil achievement, motivation and behaviour; ii. co-operate with other unions and the TUC on developing policy to combat social class disadvantage.

However, the Union is committed to protecting our members from physical and verbal abuse or mental stress caused by the minority of very disruptive pupils. It is therefore crucial that where unacceptable pupil behaviour is likely to lead to industrial action that the necessary procedures take place as quickly as possible.

Conference instructs the Executive to ensure that division secretaries are appropriately advised to enable them to conduct the indicative ballot.

Conference welcomes the publication of the Union’s guidance on pupil behaviour and instructs the Executive to publish further advice following the publication of any new DfES guidance on pupil behaviour.

Conference welcomes the adoption by the Government of the principles set out in the Union’s Behaviour Charter.

Conference further instructs the Executive to:

1. Mount a campaign to encourage members to seek the help of the Union for supportive action (up to and including industrial action) in schools where unacceptable pupil behaviour is not properly tackled.

2. Survey members regularly to ascertain the level of unacceptable behaviour to inform the campaign and measure its success.

3. Give the highest priority to publicising and distributing the Union’s guidance on pupil behaviour to members, school representatives and regional and Wales offices to underpin the campaign and to raise teachers’ awareness of their rights.

20 EDUCATION: SECONDARY SECTION

14-19 Education

Conference believes that if post-14 education is to meet the needs of all students it must not contain barriers to students’ learning. Conference reasserts, therefore, its opposition to the continuation of both covert and overt forms of selection and to the expansion in the number of schools which determine their own admission arrangements.

Conference reasserts its belief that all young people should have access to a genuine entitlement to a balanced and broadly based curriculum from age 14, and that specialisation should not preclude key areas of learning.

Conference welcomes the Government’s review of modern foreign languages (MFL) but believes that it is not sufficient in scope to tackle the decline in numbers of students taking MFL. Conference believes that the study of another world language should be integral to a curriculum of the 21st century.

Conference is extremely concerned that the new specialist diplomas due to be piloted from 2008 continue to exhibit the weaknesses of existing vocational qualifications identified by the Union. Conference is also concerned that the diplomas will not increase the employment opportunities for young people but will create further divisions between learners, reminiscent of the 1944 Education Act.

Conference regrets that teachers have not been sufficiently involved in discussion about diploma content and schools not sufficiently prepared for changes that are being promoted by government as some of the most significant in secondary education.

Conference is deeply concerned that the expertise of teachers and lecturers has not been harnessed sufficiently in developing the content of the new specialised diplomas. Conference is concerned also about the Government’s failure to prepare schools for the introduction of specialised diplomas.

Conference believes that the Government has failed to prevent schools facing an initiative overload in 2008. Conference believes that the introduction of specialist diplomas, new GCSE specifications, the new Key Stage 3 curriculum, new functional skills requirement and the extended project pilot could represent an overwhelming burden for schools.

Conference notes the Government’s plans to keep young people in education or work-based training until they are 18 by 2013. Conference recognises the importance of providing young people aged 16-18 with appropriate high quality and well resourced education in a school or college setting. Conference is concerned that unless the work-based training is sufficiently well resourced with proper financial rewards based on the European Decency Threshold level as well as recognised training standards, young people will be exploited by businesses and used as even cheaper labour.

21 Conference calls on the Government to ensure that schools are provided with sufficient professional development and the additional resources necessary to develop partnerships with other schools, colleges and employers.

Accordingly Conference instructs the Executive to:

1. Prepare a strategy which will protect members from any excessive burdens arising from the introduction of the 14-19 reforms in 2008.

2. Prepare advice for divisions which will enable the Union at local level to press local authorities to take a strategic role in the development of 14-19 provision.

3. Seek a joint position with all partners in the education sector to prevent the impact of the 2008 reforms undermining education and creating excessive workload for teachers and support staff.

4. Develop, publish and campaign for a coherent alternative curriculum for 14-19 year olds which responds to but is also critical of the consequences of globalisation. Such a curriculum should include a variety of learning experiences for all young people.

5. Campaign for a halt to the implementation of the specialist diplomas and for an independent review of vocational education in which education trade unions, researchers, employer representatives, youth organisations and others, can participate.

6. Work with other unions, such as the University and College Union, and bodies campaigning for 14-19 reform to secure a joint position around the Union statement.

7. Seek the broadest possible consensus with all teacher and governor organisations and the TUC and employers on any new qualifications such as specialised diplomas.

8. Work with other unions to put pressure on the Government, the CBI and others to ensure that compulsory work-based training is properly funded and accredited and that trainees receive proper financial rewards on the European Decency Threshold level.

22 EDUCATION: SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS SECTION

SEN Provision

Conference welcomes the Inquiry held by the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee into special educational needs.

Conference believes that the conclusions and recommendations contained in the report of the Inquiry describe accurately the pressures under which head teachers and classroom teachers carry out their professional duties.

Conference notes that the Education and Skills Committee report, and the Government’s response to it, were greatly influenced by the research study commissioned by the Union from the University of Cambridge, ‘The Costs of Inclusion’.

Conference recognises the hard work of teachers to ensure that every child with special educational needs has the chance to fulfil his or her potential, as witnessed in The Costs of Inclusion.

Conference believes that many of the positive commitments given by the Government in response to the Education and Skills Committee report are a direct result of evidence and recommendations submitted by the Union and supported by The Costs of Inclusion.

Conference welcomes the announcements made by the Government in response to these reports including announcements that:

1. all special educational needs co-ordinators should be qualified teachers and should be members of the senior leadership team;

2. new guidance will be issued to provide information for schools on meeting the needs of pupils with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties (BESD); and

3. the DfES will encourage local authorities to develop a flexible range of local provision to meet children’s needs, including specially resourced provision in or attached to mainstream schools and special schools.

Conference welcomes the Government’s intention to issue new guidelines on the organisation of provision for children with special educational needs emphasising the importance of ensuring that appropriate alternative provision is in place before school closures take place.

Conference believes that inclusion should not rely on individual schools struggling to meet children’s needs but can only work in a culture of collaboration in which there is a sharing of resource and expertise.

23 Conference deplores the proposals promoted by the Education and Inspections Act, which will deliver greater autonomy for individual schools, greater diversity among schools, and a weaker role for local authorities.

Conference notes that The Costs of Inclusion has shown that this fragmentation of communities of schools undermines provision for children and young people with special educational needs.

Conference believes that it is essential that schools are able to work together to ensure that the whole system meets the needs of all children.

Conference further deplores the dire funding situation of our National Health Services which is leading to unacceptable cuts in local NHS services, including those that will adversely affect children with special educational needs and disability, such as cuts to the school nursing services, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and mental health services.

Conference notes, and welcomes, that the General Secretary has offered the full support of the Union to the NHS Together Campaign, believing that Union members have a direct interest in its success. Conference wishes to underline the fact that members working with children with special educational needs and disabilities will be directly affected by NHS cuts in the workplace. It is unacceptable that teachers are being expected to take on the role of nurse and therapist; this clearly has implications professionally but also with regards to the safety of both teachers and children.

Conference reasserts the right of every child and young person with special needs to be taught by a suitably trained qualified teacher. Conference instructs the Executive therefore to campaign against inadequate provision and funding for pupils with special educational needs which is pressurising schools to substitute classroom assistants and learning support assistants for qualified teachers instead of establishing effective teams of teachers and support staff.

Conference instructs the Executive to campaign for an independent review of Government policy to address the constraints and anomalies which impede effective practice in meeting the needs of pupils with SEN. This review should include:

(i) a re-appraisal of curriculum and assessment for pupils with SEN;

(ii) consideration of the impact of market driven policies of competition and independence on the children and young people who have special educational needs;

(iii) an examination of existing Government policies for schools to ensure that they are coherent and mutually reinforcing;

(iv) an examination of the sufficiency of funding for special educational needs;

(v) an examination of how local authorities can secure a wide range of provision to meet a wide range of special educational needs; and

24 (vi) an audit and examination of the extent to which children with special educational needs and disability rely on health service support at school and the likely consequences of cuts to these services.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES SECTION

Racism

Conference notes that 2007 marks the bicentenary of the Act of Parliament in 1807 that heralded the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Conference believes that the Union should take the opportunity of the 200th anniversary to raise awareness of both historical and contemporary forms of slavery. Conference believes that the Union should use the occasion of the bicentenary to take its anti-discrimination work forward.

Conference notes with concern the continuing and increasing hostility in the media and from some politicians, to migrants, including asylum seekers and workers from Eastern Europe, and congratulates the General Secretary of the TUC, for his principled stand on this issue. In particular Conference notes that:

1. most workers from Eastern Europe and elsewhere working in this country are young, single individuals who, far from putting a strain on public services, frequently contribute to their continuing effectiveness;

2. exploitation, the undercutting of workers’ wages and unemployment are not caused by Eastern Europeans, but by the inadequacies of labour market regulation and by employers who continue to employ labour at below legal rates;

3. where British workers have stood together with workers from overseas they have achieved success in defending all workers’ pay and conditions: for example, baggage handlers at Luton airport who refused to accept a two tier wage system.

Conference further notes the impact of the continuing crisis and war in the Middle East and elsewhere has led to numbers of asylum seekers seeking refuge in this country, some of whom have been subject to racial abuse and attack. Such attacks have frequently been associated with far right parties such as the BNP, who have sought to capitalise upon people’s fears and anxieties, and who have at times sought to organise in schools. Conference therefore congratulates the Executive for its continued support for Unite Against Fascism, and for its support for activities organised by Love Music Hate Racism.

Further, Conference notes the crisis over the war in Iraq and elsewhere has been accompanied by a massive rise in Islamophobia, and Muslims in this country and abroad have been scapegoated by politicians and the media. This has been reflected in the level of racist incidents and has led to widespread anger among Muslims, including school students and their parents.

25 Conference notes that the DfES’ publication of its curriculum review ‘Diversity and Citizenship’ in January 2007 was intended to address this community fear. Whilst we welcome many of its findings and recommendations, especially on the question of inadequate teacher education, we are disappointed that the major trade unions and anti-racist organisations were not consulted during its development, that insufficient attention is paid to questions of class, and that the specific strategy of anti-racist education is ridiculed. Conference considers that multiculturalism has been successful as part of the fight against racism. This contrasts with the media statements by the Conservative Party, and by the Education Secretary of State at the time of its publication, that schools should be responsible for fostering “Britishness”, which is very hypocritical given that: a. It has been his government’s policies on war and privatisation that have done most to undermine community cohesion in Britain. b. The new Education and Inspections Act removes history as a foundation subject at KS4.

Conference notes the continuing efforts of the British National Party (BNP) and other racist organisations to gain influence within our schools, and congratulates those members who have campaigned against the presence of BNP teachers and governors within their schools.

Conference remains concerned about continued discrimination against minority ethnic workers both in schools and in the wider labour movement, in terms of training, pay progression and promotion. We reiterate our views that schools must observe their legal duty to devise and enact Race Equality policies, and that much monitoring of the progress of minority ethnic workers remains to be done by the Union and the TUC.

Conference notes the continued educational underachievement of black and ethnic minority students, and congratulates the initiators of the 'Tell It Like It Is' campaign, which has sought to raise this crucial issue and to demand a change. Conference notes that there have been 'Tell It Like It Is' meetings throughout the country, which have brought together parents and teachers, and have encouraged the development of effective strategies for combating this inequality.

Conference welcomes the organisation of a series of roundtables by the national union on promoting the achievement of black Caribbean boys. Conference welcomes, in particular, the inclusion of black boys in the discussions at the roundtables and the development of a Charter to promote their achievement.

Conference welcomes all children, whether asylum seekers or the children of migrant workers, into our schools, and instructs the Executive to campaign for increased funding to meet their needs. Such funding needs to be sustained and strategically directed, not short-term or delegated to individual school budgets.

Conference instructs the Executive to:

26 (i) initiate activities to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Act heralding the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade; (ii) promote widely the Charter on Promoting the Achievement of Black Caribbean boys; (iii) continue its efforts to recruit overseas teachers into the Union and support them in gaining QTS; (iv) actively campaign against the employment of members of racist and fascist organisations in our schools, as incompatible with a multicultural society; (v) continue to actively support Unite Against Fascism, and Love Music Hate Racism, and to publicise their activities among Union members; (vi) publicise the 'Tell It Like It Is' campaign and its activities among members, and encourage them to get involved through organising meetings and activities in their own schools and associations; (vii) explore and publicise ways in which to support teachers, children and their families who may be threatened by racist or Islamophobic behaviour and attitudes; (viii) launch a campaign to protect the employment of qualified teachers funded through EMAG; (ix) encourage all divisions to approach local authorities to insist that they produce plans for the education of children identified under EMAG as needing extra support beyond March 2008; (x) establish a working group to formulate funding proposals on meeting the needs of under-achieving pupils; and (xi) affiliate to Unite Against Fascism.

INTERNATIONAL SECTION

War

Conference reaffirms its support for Union policies in respect of Iraq and Palestine, and its commitment to continue to campaign for peace and justice in the Middle East.

Conference reaffirms its opposition to the occupation of Iraq, and notes that the continued presence of foreign troops, rather than bringing peace and democracy, has led to escalating violence and further suffering by the Iraqi people, as well as to the deaths of increasing numbers of soldiers.

Conference therefore calls for an end to the occupation and for the withdrawal of British troops

Conference endorses the view expressed by TUC Congress 2006 that ‘those who, in the name of resistance to occupation, target civilian populations, whether in or outside of Iraq, commit criminal acts that do no service to the cause of peace’.

Conference endorses the action taken by the Executive to work in solidarity with Iraqi and Iraqi Kurdish teacher trade unionists. Conference recognises that support for Iraqi teacher trade unionists from the Union will assist in ensuring respect for trade union rights, human rights and democracy.

27 Conference further condemns the:

1. continuing war in Afghanistan;

2. bombing of Lebanon by Israel in the summer of 2006, which led to massive casualties among the civilian population, as well as destroying much of the infrastructure built up since the end of the civil war;

3. acts of terrorism against civilian populations whether committed by individuals, groups or states;

4. continuing attacks on the Gaza strip, including the use of sonic booms, and the continuing and undemocratic harassment of Hamas MPs and representatives, despite that party’s overwhelming mandate, following the most recent elections in Palestine;

5. decision by the European Commission and the British Government to withhold aid to Palestine, following the outcome of those elections – a decision which has led to deprivation among the Palestinian people, especially children, who have lost out on education, health and their very childhood, and whose teachers have remained unpaid; and

6. continuing attack on civil liberties in this country, such as the continuation of detention without trial and the threats to limit trial by jury.

Conference supports the efforts of the Union, the TUC and Education International to release aid from established donor countries including the UK and the European Union. Conference recognises that this action resulted in £3 million of funds being released by the UK Government. Consistent with TUC policy adopted at Congress 2006 Conference calls upon the Executive to do all it can to put pressure on the Israeli Government to restore revenues collected by them to their rightful owners the Palestinian Authority (PA) in line with the commitment given to the TUC by the Foreign Secretary.

Conference supports the active stance taken by the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT) who were on strike for a number of months in the Government schools in the West Bank in protest at the failure to pay teachers following the refusal of the donor countries to provide aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Conference further notes the Government appears intent on ‘updating’ Britain’s nuclear arsenal by replacing Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system. Such a replacement programme for these weapons of mass destruction represents a dangerous increase in nuclear armaments, and will cost billions of pounds that would be better spent on education, health and improving pensions for all citizens.

Conference recognises the work undertaken by the Union in highlighting the terrible effects that landmines have upon civilian populations, especially children and young people. Conference notes that cluster bombs are having a similar horrific impact and recalls the deaths and disabilities caused to children following the war in the Lebanon

28 in the summer of 2006. Conference, therefore, supports efforts being made to restrict and eventually ban the use of cluster bombs.

Conference therefore calls upon the Government not to replace Trident, and expresses its support for the campaign to stop Trident.

Conference congratulates the Executive for its support for demonstrations and activities organised by the Stop the War Coalition and by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and recognises that it is time for the Union to follow the example of all leading trade unions in this country, as well as the logic of our own Conference decisions, and to affiliate to these organisations.

Conference supports the Executive decision to affiliate to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) following the call by TUC Congress to encourage all affiliates to affiliate to the PSC. Conference also recognises that the Stop the War Coalition can now unite people and organisations, from different backgrounds and political outlooks and with different motivations, in a common struggle for peace and justice. Conference therefore agrees to affiliate to the Stop the War Coalition in order to promote the Union’s policies supporting peace and human rights.

Conference notes the importance of efforts being taken to establish a unity government in Palestine to speak for all its people and to work for peace and justice for the peoples in the region.

Conference further instructs the Executive to:

(i) Continue to put pressure on the British Government to call for Israel to implement UN resolutions and international law, and to withdraw from the occupied territories.

(ii) Work with the TUC to call on the British Government to maintain all funding to the Palestinian Authority and to call for the restoration of all European Union and other aid to Palestine.

(iii) Continue, in line with TUC policy, to make every effort to promote dialogue between Palestinian and Israeli trade unionists, and to build direct links with Palestinian trade unions. In line with Union policies continue to work with the General Union of Palestinian Teachers and the Israel Teachers’ Union.

(iv) Publicise and encourage twinning and other educational exchanges between schools in England and Wales and schools in Palestine, such as the visit by teachers and students from Abu Dis to Camden schools

(v) Encourage schools and teachers to raise issues of war and international justice with students, so as to encourage debate and increased knowledge among school students, and to publicise relevant materials to support teachers in raising these issues.

(vi) Issue a statement to members, government, media, other unions and the General Council of the TUC that this Union is absolutely opposed to military

29 action or intervention (secret or otherwise) against Iran. Furthermore, should such military action be taken or openly threatened, Conference instructs the Executive to call on the General Council of the TUC to organise a day of action on a working day as soon as possible, which shall include a National Demonstration and further action should such military action continue in order to compel those responsible to cease their acts of war.

MEMBERSHIP AND COMMUNICATIONS SECTION

Professional Unity

Conference believes that our struggle to defend teachers’ pay and conditions and to prevent the privatisation and fragmentation of children’s education would be strengthened if teachers belonged to a single democratic and campaigning trade union.

Unfortunately, the ‘social partnership’ approach adopted by the leaders of other teacher unions has undermined this struggle. Conference opposes ‘professional unity’ on this basis. However, the Union should take every opportunity to forge ‘unity in action’ with members of other unions by encouraging teachers to jointly take collective action to defend their terms and conditions.

Conference wholeheartedly salutes teachers in schools, such as those at Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School in St. Helens, where members of the Union and the NASUWT took joint action over TLRs.

Conference wholeheartedly welcomes the creation of the University and College Union (UCU) from the amalgamation of the AUT and NATFHE, and wishes them all the best for the future.

Conference believes that there are many lessons to be learned from the successful merging of education unions and calls on the Executive to: a) Organise a one day conference/seminar on professional unity, inviting UCU to provide a key note speaker and other teacher unions to participate; the focus of the conference should be to draw up a programme around which teachers of all unions can take joint collective action. The discussion should include speakers on the platform who can give examples of successful joint action, such as St. Helens NUT and St. Helens NASUWT. b) Commission research, in liaison with UCU, into how this merger was achieved and the benefits that such a merger of teacher unions could bring about for members and the views of the members of teacher trade unions on these issues. c) Make representations to the other TUC teacher unions and UCU with a view to establishing a forum for discussions and consultations under the auspices of the TUC regarding moving towards greater professional unity.

30 Young Teachers and Pay

Conference congratulates the Executive on the success of the first Young Teachers’ Conference, which took place at Stoke Rochford Hall in July and the Young Teachers’ Advisory Committee which has become part of the Union's structures.

Conference welcomes the link between the NUS and TUC which is intended to unionise students who are working their way through college, as well as the work of the TUC Young Members’ Forum to promote the study of trade unionism in secondary schools.

Conference recognises that young teachers still face many problems within the workforce generally:

1. Tertiary top-up fees are causing increased debt for teachers – especially given that many teachers study for longer than four years.

2. There is a lack of affordable housing for new teachers and key workers.

3. Recent surveys of new teachers in London have found that most are paying up to 50 per cent of their wages in rent.

4. Welcome packages to teaching only offer benefits to a limited number of teachers entering the profession. Teachers who have decided to train for three or four years to enter the profession currently receive no financial assistance.

5. As a result of the new pension deals, new teachers will now have to work until they are 65 before they can retire on a full pension.

Conference instructs the Executive to: i. Carry out a nationwide member survey of young teachers to secure data to assist the Union’s claim for improved salaries competitive with other graduate professions, including data on their housing costs and post-graduation debts. ii. Campaign alongside other unions for affordable housing. This should investigate the creation of affordable housing schemes for key workers across the country that are available equally for all teachers and not linked to any performance or responsibilities. iii. Continue to campaign for competitive salaries for all newly qualified teachers which would progressively eliminate the need for selective recruitment incentives. iv. Consider free membership for the first year or reduced membership rates for the first five years given debts that NQTs are saddled with.

31 ORGANISATION AND ADMINISTRATION SECTION

Support for Local Officers and Representatives

Conference notes its resolution of 2003 on Support to Local Officers and Representatives, and the Working Party set up by the Executive in 2004 with the remit of making recommendations on the following issues:

1. how support for local officers in their roles of negotiating, casework, recruitment and membership retention, training and campaigning can be improved;

2. how the provision of information and training to school representatives could be improved;

3. how the development of networks of health and safety representatives and advisers can be supported;

4. how information technology, including the web, can be used to improve the accessibility of information for negotiating, casework, recruitment and membership retention, training and campaigning;

5. how information on local developments which are of national significance are identified and reported to the Executive;

6. what the implications would be at Head Office and Regional/Wales Offices of securing these improvements; and

7. how minimum acceptable levels of facilities time can be achieved.

Conference recognises the valuable work undertaken by the Working Party, and the steps taken to implement some of the recommendations.

Conference recalls that at last year’s Conference the Union agreed that bullying is best challenged by a collective and organised response. This is particularly relevant to our local officers and representatives because:  There are schools and services where our officers and representatives come under pressure from their management because of their union activities.  In certain cases, this pressure is tantamount to bullying, intimidation and harassment and has led to some of our representatives resigning as representatives or resigning their posts in their school or service.  Members will have no confidence in the Union’s ability to protect them from bullying, excessive workload etc. if they see that we cannot even protect our own officers and representatives.

However, Conference also recognises that the Executive and the staff of the Union have to deal with many competing pressures, and there is consequently a danger that the work done by the Working Party may begin to seem a one-off exercise whose time for implementation has passed. Given the vital role of the Union’s lay

32 structure in representing and supporting members and in the campaigning work of the Union, and given the increasing pressures on that structure, Conference instructs the Executive:

(i) To re-establish a Working Party with representatives from each region, to meet regularly to give advice to the Executive on how support can best be given to local officers and representatives. This must include an urgent review of staffing levels in the Regional and Wales Offices to ensure that sufficient resources are available to meet the needs of increased membership and the rise in the volume and complexity of casework;

(ii) To examine the Executive Committee structure to make sure that there is the opportunity for regular and coherent consideration of the issues facing local associations and divisions of the Union.

(iii) To support requests from school groups for a ballot for sustained industrial action in order to protect a school representative or local officer whom they consider has been victimised.

SALARIES AND SUPERANNUATION SECTION

Executive Priority Resolution - Public Sector Pay

Conference rejects any suggestions, from whatever source, that high quality public services can be assisted or improved on the basis of discriminatory, unfair and demotivating public sector pay policies, which reduce the real or relative levels of pay of the staff concerned.

Conference therefore reaffirms its fundamental belief that a high quality public sector education service requires levels of salary for teachers and other staff that are competitive with other comparable employment in private and public sectors, and provides matching opportunities for salary and career progression.

Conference is alarmed by the recent announcement of the introduction of regional pay for some areas of the civil service, and reaffirms its opposition to regional pay, which has the central purpose of reducing salaries in Wales and in most of the English regions.

Accordingly, Conference rejects the Government’s two per cent pay target for teachers and other public sector workers when inflation is currently running at 4.6 per cent. It instructs the Executive to seek through the TUC, clear and united opposition to such discriminatory and ill-formed policy.

Conference congratulates the TUC, the Executive and other public sector unions on the success of the recent joint campaign to protect public sector pensions. It believes that campaign should serve as the model for a new campaign to protect pay in the public sector.

33 Conference therefore instructs the Executive to take all possible steps including through the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Public Sector Liaison Group to build a joint campaign of opposition at national and local levels to the Government’s unfair public sector pay limit supported, if necessary, by joint industrial action.

In accordance with these objectives Conference instructs the Executive to take urgent steps to:

(i) alert members through all appropriate channels of communication to the threats to their pay and standards of living; (ii) seek at national and local levels, to actively involve and engage members in vigorous and effective campaigning making this a major Union campaign in the Summer term and beyond; (iii) assist divisions and local associations in arranging briefing meetings and joint campaigns with other teachers’ organisations and public sector unions including by building joint meetings against the pay freeze in all possible localities and by making public sector pay the focus of May day meetings; (iv) prepare to ballot members for a national one day strike in co-operation with the largest possible coalition of other teachers’ organisations and public sector unions as the first stage of any industrial action which is required to protect the pay of teachers and of other public sector workers; and (v) send solidarity greetings to and encourage members to actively show their support for Public Services and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members taking strike action against privatisation, job losses and the pay freeze on the first of May and to UNISON health members shortly to be balloted for action against the pay freeze.

Salary Policy

Conference deplores the continuing strategy of the Government of seeking to agree proposals for teachers’ pay through the Rewards and Incentives Group (RIG). It instructs the Executive to continue to take all possible steps to ensure that the Union is consulted and involved in all discussions with the DfES on no less favourable a basis than any other teachers’ organisation.

Conference affirms that the right to collective bargaining over pay is a fundamental one. It is a disgrace that a Labour Government should not only continue to refuse this right, but should cynically undermine even the remaining vestiges of national consultation.

Conference believes that the imposition of a multi-year salary rise that fails to meet the increase in the cost of living, the failure to fully fund progression up the Upper Pay Spine, and the deliberate withholding of funds to try to force schools to award fewer TLRs than Management Allowances, were intended to hold basic pay below inflation and make career progression more difficult. It believes that it is time for other unions who have been a party to these proposals to join the Union in a trade union approach to the protection of teachers’ pay.

34 Conference welcomes the Executive’s initiative in demanding that the STRB and Government reopen the issue of teachers’ pay in accordance with the “trigger mechanism” recommended by the STRB and accepted by Government in 2006. Conference deplores the failure of the STRB to respond positively and promptly to the Union’s request despite the clear evidence that the increase in inflation over the twelve months April 2006 to March 2007 will exceed the 3.25 per cent trigger. Conference cannot accept that teachers’ pay should be held below the rate of inflation and the consequent cuts in the real pay of teachers. Conference also declares its opposition to any proposals for a further long term pay imposition for teachers which, it believes, will lead to a further worsening of teachers’ real and relative pay. It instructs the Executive to continue to oppose any such proposals and to press for a one year settlement in order to properly protect the pay and living standards of all teachers.

Conference therefore instructs the Executive to seek the support of the other teacher unions in campaigning for the reopening of the issue of teachers’ pay and for claims for significant increases in teachers’ pay, including from September 2006, in accordance with the Union’s policy objectives on pay.

Conference congratulates all those members who took strike action in support of colleagues who were threatened with loss of pay as a result of the TLR system introduced with the support of members of the RIG group. It instructs the Executive to continue to support and encourage such action. It recognises, however, that the protection of all teachers depends on a national campaign to improve the position in all schools.

Conference instructs the Executive to continue to oppose the continuing efforts of the STRB to remove or water down provisions in the STPCD that provide protection for teachers, and instructs the Executive to take all possible steps to up to and including strike action to retain and improve statutory rights for teachers in relation to pay and conditions.

Conference reaffirms its nine-point salary structure policy, which commits the Union to opposing any form of individual or performance-related pay, and any moves towards regional or local pay.

Conference instructs the Executive to seek:

1. an increase of £3,000 or 10% (whichever is the greater) on all salary scales;

2. an increase of 10% in the value of all allowances;

3. the merging of the main and upper pay scales into a single scale with annual progression up it; and

4. the abolition of the separate Inner and Outer London and Fringe Area pay scales, improved London and Fringe Allowance payments which recognise the continued need for such payments, but do not prejudice the overriding policy objective of securing competitive national levels of salary for all teachers, and

35 increased Inner and Outer London and Fringe Allowances of £7,000.00, £5,000.00 and £2,000.00 respectively.

Conference agrees that this claim and structure should form the basis of submissions to other negotiating fora e.g. for Sixth Form Colleges.

Conference rejects the Government’s intention of imposing pay settlements across the public sector below the rate of inflation. Conference rejects the notion that, while the economy continues to grow, a 2% target should be set for public sector pay for 2007, denying workers in public services a share in this prosperity. It recognises that the 2.5% pay rise imposed on teachers for September 2007 has already been reduced in value to 2.1% by the rise in pension contributions. It instructs the Executive to meet this challenge by approaching all teaching and other public sector unions for a joint campaign of publicity and action to prevent the imposition of this target, and to reopen the issue of pay rises for those workers who have imposed multi-year settlements.

Conference instructs the Executive to prepare a campaign of publicity and action in support of the claim itself and the opening of negotiations on it. Such a campaign must involve the widest consultation with and participation of members, and include a meeting of division secretaries and Executive members in the Summer Term, and the calling of a Special Conference at an appropriate point if this can help to develop the campaign. The campaign must also include specific strategies for preventing the extension of performance related pay through the use of performance management, and resisting the imposition of further multi-year imposed pay settlements.

36

Load more

  36

Copy Link