Stay in Local Government – No Free Schools or Gove style Academies

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Conference
2011 Local Government Service Group Conference
Date
24 February 2011
Decision
Carried

Conference is totally against the continuous proposals from the ConDems to make it easier to create Free schools or to have Local Authority schools become Academies and give away more and more community and tax payers assets. The Michael Gove version of so called outstanding status schools being able to become Academies is yet another ideological attack on Local Government providing local authority controlled schools for all local children.

Local children, local communities and our school support staff members who work in these schools are all being detrimentally affected by schools who are now being run by any number of profit making organisations with questionable academic success and the eight potential Free schools being actively promoted by the ConDems are already making noises about which pupils will be admitted. Social engineering and educational apartheid here we come.

Conference is against groups of unqualified parents wishing to take over a local school and have control over our members working lives.

Every time a school is allowed to become a Free school or Academy, the future of local children and our members working lives continues to move forward in less favourable terms. We know that the most vulnerable communities will suffer each time a local school becomes an academy and the more able pupils will leave community schools and become students in the Free schools, thus creating the potential third class level of educational provision.

Conference believes that the even more questionable Gove ‘Free schools’ and Academy mark 3 is going to ensure that only those parents with access to money and resources will be able to cream the most competent teaching and support staff and ensure that children and families from the most disadvantaged communities will suffer.

The division between those with wealth and those without in our communities will only increase and the vulnerable and disadvantaged will become less and less able to ensure their children get places in good performing schools as they will all have been given away by the ConDem Government & the LEA’s.

Conference notes that stewards in local government schools will be unable to cope with the increase in grievances and our members will have to cope with the inevitable rise in illegal exclusions.

Conference calls upon the Service Group Executive to:

1)Create resources that will sustain our campaigning strategy locally, regionally and when required nationally with all relevant Local Government unions against all proposals for taking more schools out of local government control;

2)Work with all the other Local Government Sector Unions nationally, regionally and locally, together with the relevant TUC campaigns to fight any changes to schools and campaign to keep all schools under Local Government control;

3)Continue to work with all relevant national negotiating bodies for all schools based support staff to campaign against more erosion of their contracts and working conditions in these Free Schools and Gove Academies;

4)Campaign with all other schools support staff unions to protect right of schools support staff to remain in Local Government Pension scheme before during and after any TUPE transfer agreement.