- Conference
- 2015 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2015
- Decision
- Carried
Conference we acknowledge the importance that school based staff have within the membership of our local government branches. We also recognise the need to ensure that we continue to recruit and organise our members and potential members in schools.
Conference notes that the schools landscape has continued to change, as more and more schools move away from Local Authority control. According to the Department for Education (DfE), there are currently 3,125 academies and 252 free schools in the UK, and increasing numbers of Academies, Foundation Trusts and Free Schools have further reduced the number of democratically accountable, council-run schools across the country.
In January 2015, the House of Commons Education Committee released a report which stated that there is no proof that academies raised standards, and called on the DfE to be ‘less defensive and more open about its implementation of the academies programme.’ The Conservative’s Free School program also appears to be struggling and a number have been forced to close due to Ofsted ruling them inadequate. This is hardly surprising when around one third have employed unqualified teachers.
Schools are undergoing budget cuts as well as changes in statutory regulations, such as the Disqualification by Association regulations brought in earlier this year, and members face an uncertain future together with increasing workloads.
With so many members in schools no longer being employed by their local authority, it is important to ensure that UNISON’s visibility is strong. One way of achieving this is for Branches to have a dedicated schools officer or organiser, concentrating on recruitment and retention and visiting staff to discuss issues and pass on information. In Branches where this has been trialled membership has increased and the number of Shop Stewards in schools has also increased. This clearly demonstrates the importance of having dedicated organising capacity in schools.
Conference notes that it is vital members in schools are retained and new members are recruited. Despite government pledges that schools will be protected from cuts, some school support staff are facing redundancy or downgrading of their posts as head teachers struggle to balance their books. These cuts are hitting a wide range of staff, from school crossing patrols through to teaching assistants.
These cuts not only affect our members, the cuts hit the quality of education and put vulnerable children at risk. The role that education plays in economic, political and social success should be acknowledged and the requisite funding provided. We therefore need to ensure we continue to campaign for increased school funding, and the need to campaign to keep those Local Education Authorities (LEA) and community schools under local control, to stop further erosion and fragmentation of education.
The composition of the education workforce contributes significantly to the national incidence of job segregation and low pay. The majority of these workers are women who suffer low pay, a lack of career opportunities and institutional discrimination that belittles their role. Whilst we have a government that continues to undermine the value of roles such as teaching assistants, by suggesting that they can be replaced by volunteers, the true worth of these employees will never be realised. This is compounded by the prevalence of part-time, casual, fixed term, term time and temporary working. Conference we need to support and organise in schools.
Conference we call on the Service Group Executive (SGE) to:-
1) Encourage and support branches to consider having a dedicated Schools Officer / Organiser;
2) Continue to produce targeted materials for schools recruitment
3) Provide support and resources to regions and branches to support our members working in schools;
4) Mount a campaign to ensure school support staff are efficiently supported by branches;
5) Encourage branches to increase the number of members we recruit in schools and also increase the number of stewards, when drawing up any branch recruitment plans;
6) Encourage regions to support branches in trying to increase the number of UNISON steward and workplace contacts;
7) Campaign to ensure that adequate funding is given to schools;
8) Provide specific training materials/resources to branches for issues affecting school based staff, to equip branch representatives to be able to effectively represent school based members.
9) Continue UNISON’s opposition to Academisation and the creation of Free Schools, and publicise where local campaigns have been successful.