The Annual Report of the City of Leicester Teachers' Association — 28th February 2001

Index

Secretary's Report

This year has been another excellent one for the NUT in the City of Leicester. We are pleased to have a full complement of officers and were delighted to welcome Ruth Byrne as TBF Secretary and Peter Whalen as Student Organiser. Membership levels are being maintained and we have worked hard to attract new members, especially Newly Qualified Teachers, who have received individual welcoming mailings. Attendance of general meetings has not always been very high, but there have been many well-attended school group meetings, which have shown officers that the NUT is valued by our members. There have been nine committee meetings and nine association meetings, a change from our usual pattern because we changed a committee meeting into a special general meeting because the previous meeting had been inquorate and we needed an additional meeting to propose conference motions. Two of the Committee meetings included a social event at the Lahore Karahi Restaurant. The NQT function was at Café Bruxelles in Nov.

Post-Ofsted

The LEA has been facing the post-Ofsted challenge of turning around a "failing" LEA. The consultants, OPM made suggestions about how to move the LEA forward. This involved creating a Partnership Board to oversee and guide the post-Ofsted action plan and the School Development Support Agency which was to provide "client-side capacity". The NUT was involved in meetings and discussions around these two initiatives and played a part in the Partnership Conference which drew all interested parties together to try and find a way forward. The NUT was very concerned that there might be whole-scale privatisation of the education department and made it clear to the authority that we would strongly resist such a move, but this seems to have been avoided so far.

Estelle Morris was clearly pushing the LEA and the DfEE and changes and initiatives were hurried through, often without adequate consultation, because the threat of total outsourcing, that was constantly held over everyone's heads. A new Director of Education, Steven Andrews was appointed May 2000 providing some stability and leadership. He attended a NUT meeting in June and explained his thoughts about the way forward. The Quality and Development Department was restructured, separating the challenge from the support elements. The NUT supported its NUT members within that department through that difficult time. Fortunately there were no redundancies. There was a later second mini-restructuring that put the two aspects back together again into a Standards and Effectiveness Department.

Once the Partnership Board, working with the Director had set out the strategic way forward, it took more of a back seat. We are beginning to see what functions the SDSA will provide as it is now starting to work on providing a brokering service for schools. Ofsted returned in January 2001 and although the report is not out yet, it appears that enough progress has been made and the way the LEA is progressing is being seen as a good example of a Public/Public Partnership working effectively to effect the changes deemed necessary.

Performance Related Pay/Payment by Results/The Threshold

The government decided that PRP/PbR would be the best way to resolve the growing shortage of teachers. We immediately announced our total opposition to this and put a lot of good information into city schools explaining why. Conference 2000 agreed total opposition and we waited for a strong campaign from Hamilton House. Many of us were bitterly disappointed by what happened then because it seemed to us the all the union was doing was making sure that those people who applied to cross the Threshold and therefore receive PRP were treated fairly. Many people locally felt that strong opposition, uniting teachers opposed to PRP would have stopped the whole thing from getting off the ground. A meeting was held for NUT heads and deputies in order to support them on issues to do with threshold and assimilation onto the new pay scales. Our thanks to Paul Rodbourn from Regional Office for his contribution to that meeting.

Performance Management

Following on from PRP/PbR was Performance Management which provides a way of appraising teachers for PRP. Locally we did a lot of work, supporting schools, endeavouring to ensure that the PM policy adopted in each school was as good and as fair as possible.

Area Representatives

This year we have added a new tier of support for schools with the introduction of Area Reps who have been trained (thanks to Brian Carter, Paul Rodbourn from Regional Office and Peter Flack and Steve Boyce for their contributions to the two training days) to be the first port of call for members in a cluster of schools. The idea was in response to the overwhelming volume of work faced by officers in the local NUT office and we were trying to spread the workload a little. It has worked with varying degrees of success, from 'excellent' to 'sound', but I believe it is worth persevering with as it should provide a more personal service for members and we should have a network of support and liaison ready for times of action.

Cover to Contract Action

Since the autumn term 2000 we have been increasingly concerned about the shortage of teachers. In November the City Primary Heads did a survey and found that there was a potential shortfall of 70 teaching staff, just in primary schools for January 2001. Fortunately most of these vacancies have been filled, but it has meant that many supply teachers have taken contracts and therefore schools are finding it very hard to get supply cover for illness etc. We have also heard of EMAG staff who have had to cover for mainstream vacancies and other creative ways of having a teacher in front of the class. The NUT has raised the issue at every opportunity, wanting to know what steps would be taken by the LEA to ameliorate the situation. This culminated with a local delegation to the Director of Education and senior officers told him that we were going to National Action Committee to ask to be balloted to take industrial action in order to teach in accordance with our conditions of service.

A delegation of local officers went to Hamilton House early in January and we were pleased to be told that we could ballot for action. At the moment the ballot papers are out, the area reps organisation is being used to make personal contact with every school rep to try to ensure that we get a really good turnout and that we can support our members who are working under increasingly difficult conditions.

We have been working closely with the LEA on teacher Recruitment and Retention, giving our ideas on how to approach this national problem. The main thrust of our argument has been that the LEA should set up a pool of teachers and that if the conditions of service of all teachers in the City of Leicester are improved, eg guaranteed non-contact time for all teachers, no classes over 30 etc., than teachers might be attracted to work in Leicester. Basically we are trying to get the LEA to apply the National Contract, that the NUT has been promoting for some years, within Leicester.

Stress & Workload & Bureaucracy

We have received more phone calls about stress over the past year than ever before. We have been trying, through Teachers' Consultative Committee and Education Safety Committee, to work with the LEA to provide a clear policy on dealing with stress. This has been made very difficult and stressful by basically the LEA not being able to get its act together. This has been going on for a long time and we really haven't got very far in spite of the unions pushing and complaining. On a more positive note, officers have been using the excellent Stress Booklet, produced by the NUT to give advice to school groups and individuals. We have carried out Stress Surveys in some schools and drawn these to the attention of management with the very clear expectation that things have to change in order to comply with the employer's duty of care. We welcomed Graham Clayton the NUT Senior Solicitor to a general meeting where stress was the main issue discussed.

Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant

Another name change (from Ethnic Minority and Travellers Achievement Grant to Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant), but the situation remains pretty much the same. Easter 2000 the grant was devolved to schools and we were fearful that schools might take the money and use it however they wanted, possibly without employing the existing staff. We worked with the Personnel Department and insisted that the existing staff had employment rights and could not be cast aside. We pushed very hard for the LEA to set up a buy-back service and this did happen. Fortunately most schools opted to use the buy-back service so there was relatively little change for our members. However, all was not totally positive, because there were schools that refused to buy back all of their existing staff, with Home School Liaison Officers and Bi-Lingual Assistants being most at risk. We encouraged the LEA to set up a "pool" and people who had been displaced went into the pool and are used wherever they might be needed within the buy-back arrangement. The pool will run until August 2001 (unless we can persuade the LEA to continue it.) In addition there were four schools that went alone, ie took the money and used it how they wanted. Most of them just took the existing EMTAG staff onto their normal staffing establishment, but there are staff whose jobs have been restructured, basically downgraded to make them cheaper. These people have some safeguarding of salary but it really is not satisfactory. There were people at risk of redundancy in one or two schools and any reductions were achieved by voluntary means. One must not forget the human consequences of such an upheaval. One can say that nothing much has changed, but for the people living through the uncertainty it has been a nightmare. If the support for children who learn English as an additional language was properly funded, ie not year on year, then there would be some stability for the staff involved and things would be considerably better.

Consultation and Negotiation

The NUT has made valuable contribution to the consultation and negotiation processes within the LEA. We are strongly represented on all Working Parties, Health and Safety Committee etc. and try to consult our members either through meetings, the City Teacher (newsletter,) or correspondence to schools in order to ensure that we are representing their views. The two major policies that have come out of Personnel Working Party are the Management of Sickness Absence and Capability. Neither of these policies were accepted by the teaching unions in the end but a lot of work went into getting them as good as we could possibly make them. Excellent advice has gone into schools from the LEA regarding the use of Temporary Contracts and we are hoping that they will not be so misused in the future. The NUT writes to heads every time there is an advertisement for a temporary contract, reminding them of the proper use and asking them to explain why temporary contracts have been advertised. We receive answers from approximately half the schools and the reasons are mostly sound.

Amalgamation of Infant & Junior Schools

The amalgamation of Caldecote Infant and Junior Schools is taking place. The new primary school will open September 2001. It is a very sensitive and worrying time for members at both schools and union support is being given to them. It is unlikely that there will be compulsory redundancies. The question of amalgamation has been raised at Uplands Infant and Junior Schools. The staff of both schools are totally opposed to amalgamation and support and advice is being given to members. There are other possible amalgamations in the pipeline but nothing definite yet.

Leicestershire Arts

The Arts Service is a joint service between City and Leicestershire. A major change in the pay and conditions of service has been proposed, apparently in order to have greater "flexibility". This will considerably worsen the conditions of service for people working in this service and could set a worrying precedent for central services. The unions are opposing vigorously any change but we fear it may well be forced through.

Education Committee

Following the reorganisation of local government into a cabinet structure Education Committee has now become Scrutiny Committee with a scrutinising rather than decision-making role. The existing teacher representatives on committee have been carried over onto Scrutiny Committee.

Education Action Zone

Liaison between the unions and the EAZ has improved this year and we now have regular consultative meetings that fit into the Teachers' Consultative Committee pattern. We have discussed many aspects of the zone and continued to ensure that our members are not put under any additional pressure. At the moment there is an election for teacher representatives on the Forum, we are hopeful that the NUT will secure the majority of the four places. We have also requested (again) that there is a representative of the teacher unions on the Forum and that will be decided by the Forum in March.

Miscellaneous

As this report is turning into a book, I will briefly run through some of the other things that have been going on as far as the NUT is concerned.

And finally... I would like to give my personal thanks and thanks on behalf of every member in the city to all the hard work that the officers have done over this year. Where would we be without our meetings being minuted? What would we read if we didn't have our fabulous City Teacher to read? How could we manage without our Treasurer? But also there's all the work behind the scenes, that nobody really knows about, where NUT views and policies are raised subtly shaping the LEA, or colleagues beavering away at school level on issues we will probably never hear about. I must also thank our wonderful Regional Office who are always there to back up local officers, talk us through difficult casework, keep us on the straight and narrow, and generally provide us with a superb service. Let's look forward to action to keep our existing conditions of service, let's improve them to try in order to stem the flow of great teachers from our profession.

Jane Rolfe

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Assistant Secretary's Report

Another busy year. As assistant secretary much of my work has related either to supporting union campaigns, preparing responses to Local and National policy documents and reviews and liasing with other unions via TCC.

In terms of campaigns, there have been three of major significance: Workload, Pupil Behaviour and Cover. Guidance on each has been provided to schools and this has been updated as new national advice was issued. All three campaigns are increasingly effective and are contributing to safeguarding the health, safety and wellbeing of members. In particular, our recent initiative on teacher shortages and cover, which we took to London first as a ten page submission and then personally as a delegation of officers has transformed NUT policy nationally on cover. As part of these campaigns I have made 31 visits to schools to address union groups, taken up linked casework in 9 and carried out stress audits in 3. I have also been engaged in other casework with members in 17 schools.

In terms of educational issues, the year began with the resolving of the EMAG reorganisation. We were delighted that we were able to defend member's jobs, maintain the idea of a central service and also protect ethnic minority employment in the service. This remains an ongoing issue.

In the summer term there were 3 substantial reviews to be dealt with.

These were followed in the autumn term by the Youth and Community Review (now called Lifelong Learning), the SEN Finance Review, the Revised Draft SEN Code of Practice and latterly various funding documents relating to the budget.

In the case of Lifelong Learning, having made a detailed submission at the end of the summer which presaged the LEA move to adopt a development group model of provision and organisation, we were subsequently excluded from all further consultation on the technical grounds that members employed in the service are on FE contracts.

Our submission on the Code of Practice broadly mirrored that of NASEN although our focus was very much on practical rather than theoretical issues. In particular we were concerned at the idea of SENCO's in non-school settings such as play groups and child minding locations. We also raised the continuing failure to understand the problems of SENCO'' in Primary Schools.

On SEN Finance we were able to negotiate our way through the masses of paper and secure a final proposal that was both realistic and just. Regrettably, the LEA bowed to pressure from secondary headteachers and effectively waived their duty, in the interest of equity, to transfer resources to Primary.

Both of these important issues, along with the Student Support Reorganisation, demonstrate the continuing need for a NUT SEN Section. I would hope, given that we face significant additional moves on inclusion, the role of EPS, Behaviour Support etc over the next year that we can get this going.

Throughout the past year I have continued to represent the union as Secretary of TCC. I believe that this has enabled us as a union to speak with the maximum authority and with the widest possible professional support. The ability to avoid situations where the LEA can play off one union against the other has, I am sure, contributed to our overall effectiveness.

Finally, can I thank Jane, Sally, Nic and the other officers and members who have advised on and contributed to our responses to the various issues mentioned above. It is vital to have a breadth of view and these colleagues have provided that.

Peter Flack

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Report on the NUT's Equal Opportunities Conference — 22 Nov 2000, attended by Norman Machin

Due to the British Rail situation, I arrived at the conference at 11.30 p.m. Fifty per cent of delegates failed to arrive at all.

Tony Brockman (President),Judy Moorehead (Equal Opportunities Officer) and Richard gave lively, sympathetic presentations from both a Union and personal stance.

In the afternoon I attended a workshop on Individual Education Plans, how to write to the new format and also the implications for the development of a new initiative, Looked After Children Records.

The new format was seen as an improvement by the practitioners, as the one sheet, within three reviews cuts down on paper-work.

It also makes it easier to see progression. However, children who cause major concern will need more than three reviews. It was recommended schools devise their own small steps I.E.P. which should be teacher friendly and workable. This idea was received quite well.

Moving on to Looked After Children Records. It is a legal requirement that these should be completed within 28 days of a child entering the care system. What implications does this have with regards to staff holidays?

The record should be written with the child's full agreement and understanding. The nominated person writing the record should also be mentor to the child. Obviously this is a serious extra work-load for Sencos or who ever is delegated to fulfil the task .

Despite a slow journey and I long day, I found this conference of great use.

A full report is available if you wish to borrow it from the Union Office.

For further information I add notes on immediate steps in Target Implementation, Time-tabling Suggestions, Communication Suggestions and the old and the new pro formas.

Norman Machin

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Membership Secretary's Report

Hamilton House's records show a little above 1500 members in the association, staying fairly steady on last years. My records show about 1700 as I am slower to delete lapsed members.

81% of student teachers in Leicester have joined the NUT this year. 56% (49 out of 88) of newly qualified members in Leicester have joined the NUT so far this year as well as 37 other members.

Many thanks to Jane again for organising the newly qualified function and to all school representatives who have responded to my mailings.

Ian Leaver (Membership Secretary)

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