City Of Leicester Teachers' Association, 24th March 2010

Guest Speaker: John Illingworth, 'Bullying and Stress'

Intro

The cost of stress to the British economy is more than 10% GNP which is around £40bn. Teacher absence is not all accurately reported but a major cause is stress which affects physical as well as mental health -Teachers' TV recently made a programme showing the link between stress and blood pressure. Stress is the number one cause of why so many teachers leave the profession causing a total of £1½billion to have been spent over the last two years in training replacement new teachers: the Government do not want to look at retention. John Illingworth's 'Crazy about Work' investigation took place in 2007 – Barnsley carried out similar research two years later which showed little change but bullying in the workplace is growing.

Reign of Terror

John Illingworth has just finished his latest research 'Reign of Terror'. He sent an email to every Division Secretary in England and Wales 3 weeks ago and so far more than one third have responded. 'Inappropriate management' has gone up 93%. 'Hot spot schools' have large amounts of casework due to inappropriate management. Findings are inconclusive as to whether there are more problems in primary schools but the relationship between the head and teachers are more central in primary schools. In Ofsted 'unsatisfactory' category schools inappropriate management is also high.

There exists an increase in desire to 'get' those over 50/55. LAs are ineffective in dealing with bullying in schools and tend to support heads. HR is a buy back service so the LA has a vested interest in keeping in with heads, although LAs are recognising the huge amount of pressure heads are under and how this impacts on heads' behaviour.

New heads

The National College does not address the duty of care, it only has a voluntary H&S module. The biggest cause of absence, stress, is not addressed by heads and governors. Stress Risk Assessment is a requirement but is not always carried out.

False Allegations

Only a small number of people are affected but such allegations are a major problem for the teacher concerned and need to be dealt with. Successful litigation has happened when management have been informed and management have done nothing about it. Miriam Murch, from Bradford Association, has produced an excellent leaflet on bullying. Blatant bullying is easier to recognise but much bullying is more subtle, that which places unreasonable demands on teachers which they don't even recognise as unreasonable. The system of 'pairs' is more debilitating than getting one to one feedback when critical comments are made. One Nottingham NQT has had two observations per week.

Government

We can't look at Ofsted and the NCSL in isolation: the Government is the major cause. LMS from 1988 has given powers to heads which previously would have been mitigated by the LA. 'Radiators' vs 'drains' theory is part of Government's scheme of things. Vernon Coaker has said that 'bullying of staff is totally unacceptable' but nothing is being done to control the 'reign of terror' on the part of an increasing number of heads.

The DCSF Leaflet on Mental Health advocates lifestyle as a way to manage stress but this won't simply solve the problem. Teaching is the most stressful occupation in the UK – suicide levels are 40% higher than for the rest of the population. Stress costs Leicester LA £1.4mn and this is just reported stress, which is a severe underestimate. Doing away with the staff room is a growing trend as there is less chance for discussion. This is coupled with an increasing number of emails – technology reducing humanity. Systemic bullying is endemic and the worst kind of private sector management, whereas in the past the system was benign, albeit individual bullies existed.

Questions/issues raised:

Increasingly casework is bullying.

The Stress Management course at Stoke Rochford was again raised , where the NCSL terminology of 'Radiators/drains and fountains' was used in an NUT course implying that the union is complicit in what is happening.

Is there research to show the link between privately recruited (e.g. 'Navigate') heads and stress?

The TUC has published research on employees who work 'free hours' - teachers come top – when you add on the 'free hours' teachers don't start getting paid till April.

Absence monitoring –not looking at causes.

Bullying – denying and deflection.

If the NUT can't protect members this will impact on NUT recruitment – still 95% of teachers are in a trade union which is the highest incidence of membership.