Executive NEUs January 2022

The first part of this report relates to the minutes from the three Strategy Committees which the three Executive members from Wales attend prior to the full Executive meeting. Mairead Chairs the Member Defence Committee, Liz McLean attends the Union Strength Committee and Hannah O’Neill attends the Bargaining and Negotiation Committee.

The final part of the report summarizes the statement by the Joint General secretaries to the Executive and the minutes of the full Executive meeting.

Union Strength Strategy Committee: Attended by LM

Chaired by Dawn Taylor

Apologies -none

Matters arising from the minutes:

• Full report on survey -paper delayed
• MH- staffing restructure so won’t be attending all meetings
• Best practice when organising – AK speaking to meeting at 9.20

Membership Report (Sian Bassett)

• Density of membership rather than counting heads
• Joining activity not as high as last year and leavers higher
• Issue around ULRs- very few across the country (155) so there will be a specific focus and training linked to the role, lots of H &S reps in comparison
• Getting to NQTs – needs to be looked at, maybe need to focus on this issue at DSB and have a coordinated approach across office staff, exec, and secs.
• Key strategic indicators- what has happened to COVID interim reps? Some have converted to either school or H& S reps – 477, of those contacted under half are continuing in the role.
• Discussion around good practice- reps and officers shadowing when new to role and conference delegations being opened to as many delegates as possible.

Organising (Alex Kenny)

• How Tower Hamlets organised in Jan 2020 to build to beat the strike threshold
• Several years of conscious work to ensure reps at the heart of the union
• All work done by reps- key that reps are given the confidence to do casework at school level
• Motion to AGM- review of branch with reps at heart, survey of reps to be repeated every few years, challenging response, turnover of reps, away day for committee to draft survey and development plan
• AGM- Produce data- where members are, where reps are, what percentage of members have no reps.
• Newsletter- weekly ebulletin and regular newsletter to members including success stories
• Assistant Secs – contact specific reps and build links with them, HR policies shared and discussed at meetings, cluster reps into working groups- e.g. Early Years, Primary, Secondary, ALN
• Reps to do casework in schools wherever possible- walk through procedures before if necessary and Secretaries only getting involved when necessary.
• Reps replace themselves.
• Strike ballot of 1200 members – beat the thresholds for strike ballot and the reps did all the work in schools.

Pay Campaign

• Strategy paper being developed to look at survey and learn lessons.
• Develop a plan for where we go after the survey- work with officers to move forward.
• Lack of engagement form some District/ Branch Secretaries which will then negatively impact on reps and members participation.
• Disgruntled support staff- need a unified union response.

Regional Levies:

• Yorkshire / Humberside – motion brought to change Standing Orders to Constitution – need to come back to this item for further discussion.
• All levies democratic and accountable therefore agreed.

Channel Islands

• Survey previously considered and agreed for it to go ahead

NEU Strategy Committee: Bargaining and Negotiation, attended by HO

Pay Campaign:

Discussion focused on the progress report of stage 2 of the campaign and agreeing recommendations with Executive members supporting branches and school-based rep.

• Arranging reps’ briefings and support them organising workplace meetings.
• Support the organisation of non rep schools
• Analyse turnout data to target support where survey response is low.
• Executive to consider a report on survey outcomes to consider proceeding to stage 3 of the campaign, looking at medium and long term VEVE orientation.

Wales

• Wales pay campaign and changes to the school term time survey to be sent out on Thursday 27^th January.
• Executive members have arranged and delivered two briefings to district and branch secretaries, highlighting the pay campaign and the consultation to the changes to term times.
• A Wales based PowerPoint to be shared to all secretaries and reps in engaging members in preparation to the survey being sent out.

STRB and the Wales IWRPB

• The committee discussed and considered the NEU written evidence to the STRB on teacher pay in England in light of cost of living, performance related pay, recruitment, and retention, TLRs, wider workload and wellbeing
•  8% increase in pay this academic year and the following across all pay scales.

Wales

• The committee also recommended that the pay submission for Wales IWRPB also claim for an 8% increase across all pay scales this and next academic year.

FE Strategy

The Committee DISCUSSED a strategy paper on opportunities to build NEU influence in the General FE sector by working with existing reps to build bargaining capacity and college recognition, seeking reps wherever we have members and undertaking workplace member surveys to identify their issues of concern, most especially to address the disparity between pay in FE and pay in other education settings.

Sixth Form Colleges

The Committee NOTED that the Joint Statement on Academisation previously agreed by NUT, ATL and Unison with the SFCA employer body which sets out joint expectations on maintenance or existing arrangements on pay, conditions, trade union recognition and associated matters in the event of a sixth form college taking on academy status. The Committee was assured that the NEU would be seeking more explicit wording which makes clear that the unions remain opposed in principle to academization and may oppose individual proposals to move to academy status may be opposed even if guarantees are offered on the matters covered in the joint statement.

Member defence committee – chaired by vice chair Dominic Coughlin

1. The Committee welcomed the Report Supply Teachers and the Agency Workers Regulations MD6a 20/1/22. The Committee supports the strategy sets out in the Report and as set out in 2021 Reports to the Bargaining and Negotiations Committee. Strategies include: a review of the present guidance; the development of a further toolkit, the development of an “AWR Assessor tool” or “calculator” of entitlements and proceeding to pilot projects in selected regions with participating local activists using the AWR Assessor tool and updated material and precedent letters to identify and support supply members in their claims for their entitlements. Such projects will inform how the Union supports its supply members. Members of the Committee are asked to go out to their local officers including supply member officers to encourage the work on this strategy. Staff are encouraged to continue co-operation with the Supply OF on this strategy. The Supply OF is requested to provide Member Defence with appropriate feedback on its work to aid the work of Member Defence going forward.

• The Committee welcomed the Report Long Covid-Supporting Members MD7 20/01/22. The Committee supports the proposed strategy including splitting guidance into aspects of supporting individual long covid casework and collectivizing long covid work; updating to Adviceline, Branch and Districts information on the range of issues and questions they are likely to be asked and the appropriate responses; and the use of a questionnaire for members to aid the receipt of relevant information from members. Also supported are office aims to promote a Long Covid Protocol in England similar to the Protocol now agreed by the Welsh Government. Specific case issues raised by the Committee will be passed on to relevant staff.

• The Committee welcomed the Report on the Black Educators Resolution and Equality Casework Project MD8a20/01/22 which updated the Committee on work on implementation of the Annual Conference Black Educators Resolution.
• The Committee welcomed the Report on the Maternity Rights Resolution MD8b 20/1/22 which updated the Committee on work on implementation of the Maternity Rights Resolution.

JGS Report

Covid

• Whilst situation differs from January 2021, schools and colleges face the challenge of disruption because of high levels of staff and pupil absence
• Members concerned about SATs, GCSEs, and A levels (for a cohort that has never faced a public exam), with little confidence in the exam boards/Ofqual/Government; exacerbated by the change in grade boundaries
• DfE survey of school leaders highlighted their two top issues for long term recovery were exams/accountability (first for secondary/second for primary) and the physical/mental effect on pupils and staff (inverse)

Pay Survey and working towards a national ballot

• Good discussions at SC:US and SC:BN; very positive reports of pay briefings; clear correlation between engagement with members and higher survey turnout
• Survey a key organising opportunity – using pioneering tech to capture real time data and direct respondents to Facebook messaging; 500 members pledging social sharing and/or volunteering as reps.
• Preliminary paper on working towards a national ballot; analysis of comparable disputes across the movement and key factors in engaging and persuading members that a ballot would be successful; further discussion to be held at Strategy Committees and Executive on 5 March.

Union relations

• Fortnightly meetings with Patrick Roach and Jill Peckham of NASUWT; two intra-union staff working parties established on pay and workload
• NASUWT stance on STRB changing – this pay round being last chance to demonstrate their independence from Government; also moving towards our opposition to the threshold as an obstacle to pay progression and supported our call for delay of OFSTED inspections.
• Agreement to produce joint pay checklists and model policies – powerful coverage across schools and MATs
• Planning a joint letter to the Times (as a paper of record) with ASCL, NAHT and NASUWT calling for significant pay rise for the profession to address the recruitment and retention crisis
• The Joint Union Statement to the STRB will include the NASUWT for the first time (with the usual separate union statements)
• Contemplating joint research project with NASUWT to land in September as first of two-year staged pay increase takes effect

VE:VE

• Early ideas to address workload issues; call for all employers to agree annual working hours/work life balance policy; backed by indicative ballot; focus on those employers who refuse to adopt the policy; if demands not met – move to formal ballots where thresholds met.

GDST ballot to protect TPS

• National in scale – 23 schools – with wide implications for defending TPS across the sector
• Overwhelming support at indicative ballot stage (93% turnout and yes vote); obviously more challenges for postal, statutory ballot closes 26 January.
• Both JGSs have held zoom calls with members and reps (before Christmas and last week)

Equalities data – staff

• Positive trends with staff gender pay gap reducing from 16% to 8.4% over the year; staff race pay gap reducing from 6.6% to 3.75%
• Extensive action plans in place; mentoring programmes; rolling out training for managers on sex discrimination and updated Dignity at Work policy; casework monitored for equality characteristics

The Executive agreed to hold a Special Executive on 10 February from 4.30pm to 6pm to discuss the Pay Survey results.  It was agreed to plan for an in-person meeting of the Executive on 5 March.

The Executive agreed the following urgent recommendations from the Strategy Committees:

• Noted the draft final accounts and delegated the National Treasurer and Chair of GPC to sign off the final version for submission of the AR21 by the end of the month
• Revised Local Expense Regulations
• Districts identified as having significant travel costs – Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, and Northern Ireland – to have the opportunity, after Annual Conference, to claim additional funding to a maximum of £250 for each delegate attending Conference
• Funding decisions: £1,000 donation to the Hillsborough Law Campaign; £5,000 to the Nina Franklin Fund; £3,000 for subscription and donation to Hazards magazine/campaign; £5,000 to PSC AGM.
• Motions to the TUC Black Workers’ Conference on disadvantage and discrimination facing face Black children in education and the TUC LGBT+ Workers Conference calling for a TUC Alliance for Trans and Non-Binary Rights; Nicky Downes and Sarah Carter elected as Executive delegates to TUC DWC
• Professors Wyse & Bradbury be commissioned to co-chair a Commission on Primary Assessment
• Endorsed the framework for the written evidence to the STRB on teacher pay in England – 8% increase across all pay scales this year – and next pay submission to the Wales PRB should also include the claim for 8% increase across all pay scales this year and next.
• FE Strategy paper – to build bargaining capacity and recognition in colleges
• Sixth Form Colleges – seeking revisions to the Joint Statement on Academisation previously agreed by NUT, ATL and Unison with the SFCA employer body making clear that the unions remain opposed in principle to academization
• A survey of Channel Island members about reallocating their local districts from the Southwest to Southeast NEU region
• Supply Teachers strategy
• Support plan for members with long covid
• Update on implementation of the 2021 Black Educators and the Maternity Rights resolutions
• Elections: Emma Parker elected as SEND OF chair; Simon Clarkson to Independent NC; Allison Barnes to Post-16 NC; Charles Thomas to Retired Members OF and Shirley Perry to International Committee.
• Helen Reeder (D11) was welcomed to her first Executive.