Teaching Assistants

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Conference
2013 National Disabled Members' Conference
Date
5 July 2013
Decision
Carried as Amended

Unison has a commitment to the country’s young people.

By returning to feudal values and removing the support from the weakest in our society this government has persistently manipulated the oppression of working people and their families into controlled and isolated social groups.

These groups are now being used by Tories to propagandise and enhance their beliefs [similar to Germany in the 1930s] to achieve their aims and to give wealth and supremacy to their followers

This constant ideological removal of access to benefits , access to housing , access to the law, access to a health service and access to employment has now reached the teaching of our children who have the right to access a quality education free at point of use , but paid for by all our contributions through taxes to the state education system .

This Conference deplores the proposed removal across the country of the support for children who have a learning disability, and children who have a physical disability in schools across the country.

The Government’s intention to make redundancies across the schools that provide large numbers of Teaching Assistants (T As) will inhibit the education of children with disabilities and supportive learning needs for decades to come.

Also the cost of putting so many T As on the dole will cause social and financial devastation across this United Kingdom, leaving countless schools unable to offer children support for their special needs.

Conference therefore instructs the National Disabled Members Committee to

1)Organise a campaign to retain support for the most vulnerable children in our schools who require 1/1 support from the Teaching Assistants.

2)Lobby the Government to abandon this policy, which is contrary to the spirit of equality legislation.