Features
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| David Miliband |
UNISON has been at the forefront of developing the Schools Remodelling Agreement, introducing a new training and development strategy for school support staff. In a frank interview, Schools Minister David Miliband MP explains how the partnership approach with unions has been successful - and where there is still room for improvement. Clare Bayley reports
Equality in the classroom
“The Schools Remodelling Agreement is historic because for the
first time it treats support staff as first class members of the school
team – no longer are there two classes in the classroom,”
says David Miliband, Minister for School Standards.
Working in partnership with UNISON and other support staff unions, as
well as teacher and head teacher unions and local authority employers,
Miliband has been responsible for pushing through the agreement, which
introduces a new training and development strategy for the whole school
team.
“I know that the best opportunities for kids, especially for the
kids from tough areas, is that they get the benefit of a skilled teacher
with the time to focus on teaching, but also the pastoral, administrative
and classroom support from high quality support staff,” he says.
The Labour manifesto for 2001, which Miliband wrote, had a commitment
to 10,000 more teachers and 25,000 more support staff. Already there are
240,000 more support staff than there were seven years ago, with another
105,000 by the end of this parliament (as well as 28,000 more teachers).
The Department for Education and Skills, in conjunction with the Learning
and Skills Council, is creating a range of new training places for school
support staff.
But how does Miliband respond to concerns of UNISON members that already
low-paid support staff will miss out if individual schools and local authorities
spend extra money on recruiting new teachers rather than properly grading
and rewarding existing support staff?
“I have to say I agree,” replies Miliband stoutly. “And
that so do the head teacher unions, and the local authority representatives,
and the teacher unions. The 11 signatories to the agreement of January
2003 haven’t just signed the agreement and walked away. This is
the benefit of social partnership. They meet monthly, they issue guidance
notes jointly and they’re writing national policy in a really collegiate
way”.
Miliband is enthusiastic about UNISON’s role in the drawing up and
implementation of the agreement. “UNISON has risen the to challenge
in a fantastic way. UNISON members have a voice at the table because their
leadership have been brave enough and far-sighted enough, and I think
common sensical enough, to realise that there’s no prizes for standing
on the outside.
"There’s only benefit from sitting on the inside with a government
that wants to do the right thing and with other teacher and head teacher
and local authority representatives who want to work through practical
problems in a grown-up way.”
The partnership approach has clearly been a success in this instance.
Miliband readily admits that he has gained from working closely with UNISON
representatives. “I think that from talking to UNISON, and to school
support staff around the country, I’ve learned about the diversity
of support staff roles, the complexity of some of those roles and the
potential of some of the people who are doing those roles. Just as kids
have huge potential to fulfil, so school support staff have untold potential,”
he explains.
The political will to make sure the agreement is properly implemented
is evidently there. But is will enough to make it happen? “It’s
my job to get as much money into the education system as possible, and
to get it down to school level, so it’s spent on people on the front
line,” states Miliband. “It’s my job to give maximum
flexibility on that spend, and then hold the schools accountable on the
quality of the results. The government has made major commitments to school
funding. Overall the trend is very clearly towards much higher investment.
"My job is to say don’t always spend new money in the way that
you spent old money. I think there is evidence that people are spending
the money in different proportions. There are twice as many teachers as
support staff, but there have been four times as many extra support staff
as teachers in the last seven years”.
While the wheels of government normally turn slowly, the pace of change
in this area has been fast. But Miliband is sensitive to the reality of
the situation on the ground. “This is a journey with quite a few
stages, and we’ve taken the first step,” he says. “I
know it hasn’t all been sorted out, but the routemap is clear. UNISON
members should know that the government is committed to go all the way
on the journey, so that we have an integrated school team in which there
is real recognition of all the respective roles of all the players in
that team.
“I’m focussing at the moment on making sure we’ve got
the career structure clear, and the training clear. We’re looking
at three types of classroom assistant –the administrative, the pastoral
and the teaching side. And I think it’s very significant that on
the teaching side we’re creating 21,000 new training places for
Higher Level Teaching Assistants next year, and 7,000 this year. That’s
all about saying we want to invest in you,” he says.
The 36 year-old minister seems genuinely passionate about education. The
son of teachers himself, and educated at a state primary school in Leeds
followed by a London comprehensive, he is committed to achieving excellence
within what he describes as “the buzz of diversity”.
Highly regarded within government circles, and with the energy and drive
to justify his reputation, he is clearly an important friend for UNISON.
“I’ve always thought that progressive, serious trade unionism
has got a big contribution to make to the future of public services,”
he says. “I think that UNISON, with the T&G and GMB, have blazed
a trail.”
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