Notes for Meeting: February 28th 2002

Previous Meeting (January 24th 2002)

Apologies already recorded: For EC / Both: Graham White (parents' evening).For Council: .

Part 1: Information, Reports and Matters Arising

Section A: National with National Executive Report: GLENYS SHEPHERD

1. Executive News 86 and Executive News 87,
2. NUT News 2: Time for a New Contract
3. London Allowance: Special News and background. Letter for GS.
4. NUT News 3/02 No Solution"
5. NUT News 4: The Sham! Re. Post-threshold pay.
6. NUT News 5/02 Fee Fiasco and circular to schools re. GTC and the Fee for part-timers/supply.
7. Survey of Members in selected (incl. Suffolk) areas about teaching assistants.
8. LP Briefing on Green Paper: 14-19 Education: Extending Opportunities, Raising Standards. Also published on website. Contact with Cllr Ray Nowak on same.

   ---

   And items of correspondence from HQ

9. re. 198-01: Respect is not enough. Details and application sent to Derek Merrill.
10. 02-014-CCU - EDUCATION BILL: Lobbying.
11. 02-015-O&A - ARRANGEMENTS FOR ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2002. Priority voting; Amendment Forms; e-mail confirmation form.
12. 02-016-E&EO - THE NATIONAL KEY STAGE 3 STRATEGY - 2002-2003
13. 02-017-E&EO - CHANGES TO THE SEN TRIBUNAL : JANUARY 2002
14. 02-018-E&EO - NUT REPRESENTATION ON THE AQA SUBJECT ADVISORY COMMITTEES
15. 02-019-E&EO - BLACK TEACHERS' CONFERENCE 2002. Fri 17- Sun 20 May: Poster and application form.
16. 02-20-E&EO - LAPTOPS FOR TEACHERS
17. 02-021-H&S - NUT HEALTH AND SAFETY ADVISERS' BULLETIN NO. 63
18. 02-022-H&S - HEALTH AND SAFETY ON EDUCATIONAL VISITS
19. 02-023-E&EO - ETHNIC MINORITY ACHIEVEMENT GRANT - NUT SURVEY
20. 02-024-O&A - ANNUAL CONFERENCE EASTER 2002 PAYMENT OF TRAVEL EXPENSES. HQ rate for Secretaries is £66.00 per day x 5=£330.
21. 02-025-E&EO - MANAGING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: A MODEL POLICY FOR CENTRALLY EMPLOYED TEACHERS AND OTHER TEACHERS COVERED BY PART III OF THE EDUCATION(SCHOOL TEACHER APPRAISAL(ENGLAND)) REGULATIONS.
22. 02-026-L&PS - ALLEGATIONS AGAINST TEACHERS OF ABUSE

    The updated guidelines have been agreed between the six teacher organisations and the national employers' organisation and have now been endorsed by the Department of health, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Directors of Social Services. The national employers will shortly be publishing the guidelines to LEAs. The guidelines bring together and revise the two earlier documents that related to allegations against teachers and against headteachers. A number of changes have been incorporated in the updated guidelines.

    · They incorporate clarification of the respective roles of the designated teacher, nominated governor and designated LEA lead officer (section 2). · The guidelines make reference to the problems which may be caused by media attention (paragraph 3.4)

    · There is clarification of the steps to be taken during an urgent initial assessment of an allegation. The earlier guidance stated that an immediate referral in accordance with local child protection procedures would be necessary where it appeared that a child or children are at risk of significant harm. The guidance now also provides for an immediate referral when a child makes an allegation that is considered to be a potential criminal act (section 7). /Cont'd… Circular No. 02/026/L&PS 2. 11 February 2002

    · The guidelines clarify that immediate referral will not be necessary where the allegation relates to the use of reasonable force to restrain a pupil. As long as the allegation is not one of assault beyond the use of reasonable force, the guidelines provide that it will be appropriate for the head teacher or the nominated governor and LEA lead officer to deal with the matter at school level (paragraph 7.3).

    · The guidelines state that staff should not automatically be suspended when an allegation is made. Suspension will properly occur when the allegations would warrant dismissal for gross misconduct if proven, or where there is evidence of risk to a child or risk that the investigation will be impeded if the individual is not suspended (section 14).

23. 02-027-M&C - RECRUITMENT INTO THE NUT OF OVERSEAS TRAINED TEACHERS
24. NUT TRAVEL CLUB LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE FOR MEMBERS The original NUT travel club website was launched last year. Now, we have made access for your members even easier. They can either access it via the NUT site or directly at www.nut-travel.co.uk and members will no longer find it necessary to register in order to enter the new site.
25. From CASE: Parents and Schools No 118: Bill puts little faith in local knowledge.
26. Received from Stefan Cholewka (Berlin) information about the International Conference Against Privatisation, Deregulation and For Labour Rights for All to be held in Berlin. On 20 February 2002 an International Conference in Defence of Women's Rights will bring together trade unionists from more than 70 countries to organise an international campaign in defence of women's rights, and more specifically in defence of ILO Convention 103 on maternity rights. The author proposes the following model letter to send to Suffolk MPs:

    Sir A new employment bill containing provisions regarding maternity rights is being discussed in Parliament. Instead of providing for the entitlement of all working women to maternity rights, this employment bill uses a split definition which defines someone as an employee but not a worker, thus excluding casual workers, agency workers, home workers and contract workers from maternity right and benefits. About 2.5 million workers who fall below the lower earnings limit are affected. Due to growing flexibility of the labour market, these workers represent the fastest growing category in the workforce. We think that the basic objective of an Employment Bill should be to provide that :
    	- ALL working women shall be entitled to protection;
    	- ALL pregnant women who are absent from work shall be entitled to receive cash and medical benefits ALL working women shall be entitled to full and healthy maintenance ;
    	- ALL pregnant women shall be protected against dismissal ;
    	- ALL women shall be entitled to fully-paid maternity leave.
    All these basic rights would be provided if the Employment Bill complied with ILO Convention 103 on maternity rights adopted in 1952 and ratified since then by a great number of countries. This is why, we, the undersigned, urge you not to adopt this Bill as it is and to take all necessary measures aiming to include ILO 103 provisions in British employment law.

    ---

    Section B: Regional. Hilary Bucky reporting.
27. Reminder that nominations are required for SERTUC and Foundation Stage Working Party.
28. Regional Casework Training: Cost to Division is £170.00 for our two trainees.
29. Electoral Material for our Executive area received from Chris Grant.
30. Motion received from OXFAM via ERC:

    This Division: · deplores the appalling situation that today 125 million children worldwide do not receive a basic education, · recognises that the targets for basic education for all, already postponed from the year 2000 to 2015, are on course to fail, as acknowledged by the G8 leaders at the Genoa Summit in July 2001, · recalls that in 2000, representatives of 180 of the world's governments met in Dakar, Senegal and affirmed that "no country seriously committed to education for all will be thwarted in their achievement of this goal by lack of resources", · deplores that no serious effort has been made to make this money available, and that children are still prevented from going to school because of the charges their parents would have to pay, · welcomes Chancellor Gordon Brown's recent call for increased aid to tackle global poverty and the leadership given by the Government, · notes however, that a specific commitment from the UK to increase aid for education is still needed to help fund the global commitment to provide free education for all, and get school charges abolished, · welcomes the NUT's continuing membership of the Global Campaign for Education, an alliance of development NGOs and teachers' unions operating in 180 countries worldwide, and close work with Oxfam as a fellow member of the GCE, · commits to support the campaign in the following ways, by: o Distributing current Oxfam and Global Campaign for Education action cards, o Writing joint letters with Oxfam to editors of regional newspapers, o Conducting joint interviews with Oxfam for radio and media coverage, o Raising the issue with politicians - those connected to the union and the government, o Highlighting the issues and calls for action to members through internal communications, o Raising the issue within the TUC and at branch level, o Raising the profile of the Global Campaign for Education within the wider trade union movement and through international connections.

    ---

    Section C: Division / County: Division Secretary, Martin Goold, to report, including items from the preceding Executive Committee meeting.
31. Winter Briefing 2002sent to Association Secretaries 13/2/2 for distribution to schools and members. Published on internet.
32. Secretary has published an internet version of the Burgundy Book Index and the sections on Sick Pay and Maternity Regulations for reference.
33. Unattached Staff: An e-mail from AA indicates that the LEA will amend the performance management policy for unattached staff to reduce classroom observation to the 60 minutes per year, as requested by the NUT. It remains to be seen what the actual wording says in the policy document.
34. Local Negotiations: There has been no progress and no meetings. At JNC, LEA said that they would tackle the outstanding issue at a meeting arranged with all the TOs on March 6th. A letter pf 31 January set out some preliminary dates and they chose the latest possible date for the meeting. AA also promised an agenda. It has not arrived as yet. Topics must include:

    Arrangements for Advisory Headteacher pay and condtions w.e.f. 1/9/00	Dealing with anomalies and non-standard advisory teacher contracts
    Arrears of Advisory Teacher pay to 1/9/00	Conditions of service for Advisory Teachers
    Performance Management for unattached staff	Claim for SEN point for all PRU teachers
    Cover Flexibilties: finalise local LEA guidelines	Policy on ex gratia payments - update and publication
    Improvements to the Harassment Procedure	Up-dates of Capability, Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures

35. EBD Provision: Secretary is in correspondence with Frances James re. the £600,000+ grants for school-centre EBD Units since May 2000. We are asking how it has been, or is being spent. Comparing official LEA papers with actual situation on the ground is worrying. Secretary cannot fint any places actually set up or extra teachers employed. More research to be undertaken and individual schools are being approached.

    Proposed EBD Units

    KS2 and 3	Kingsfield (Stowmarket)	Jan 2002 (outreach)
    	East Ipswich	2002-2003
    	Lowestoft	2002-2003
    	Sudbury and Haverhill (Based at Hampden House Hostel)	2002-2003
    First Base	Ipswich (Based at Belstead Special School)	Sept 2002
    	Western Area	Unknown
    EBD Residential	Kingfield (Headteachers' house)	"on-going discussions"

36. Advisory Teachers were shocked to see a letter from the LEA to schools encouraging schools to employ Advanced Skills Teachers on these pay ranges which would pay ASTs in Secondary schools much more than Advisory Teachers:

    Primary: AST scale points 6-10	Secondary: AST scale points 13-17
    Middle: AST scale points: 8-12	Advisory Teachers: AST points 8-12

37. Figures on teacher vacancies in Suffolk, as supplied to JNC in Feburary

    	High	Middle	Primary	Special	Total
    Unfilled Vacancies	19.5	8.0	14.1	2.0	43.6
    (last term's figures)	(8.5)	(4.5)	(6.75)	(1.0)	(20.75)
    Temporary Vacancies	59	23.6	38.5	7.4	128.5
    (last term's figures)	(56.8)	(18.5)	(18.2)	(3.0)	(96.5)

38. Time off for Union Duties 2001/2: By 22nd February, we had used 170 days.
39. Forward Planning: Local NUT Reps' courses. Policy and implementation.
40. Facility Time: Membership statistics 2001. The Secretary has declared the following in-service total membership figures as of 31/12/01, for facility time purposes:

    Bury St Edmunds	721	SE Suffolk	394
    Ipswich	668	Sudbury	243
    Lowestoft	223	Waveney & Yoxford	345

41. The Division has received its Nominet certificate for the website registered name, renewed up to 12 Sep 2003. Certificate to be held by the Treasurer.
42. Active casework files: Brooklands, CMS, East Bergholt HS, Gt Finborough, Grove, Halesworth MS, Kesgrave, Leiston HS, St Benets, Snape, Sprites, Stratford St Mary, Thurston CC, Westbourne, Worlingham P and MS.
43. REPORT FROM THE PRIMARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL REPRESENTATIVES: received from Andrew Guite:

    Learning for Life Theme Panel, Tuesday 5th February 2002

    L02/1 Ofsted Inspection of the County Council: David Peachey introduced this. An action plan has to be drawn up (details at the 20th March meeting) and sent to the DfES in April. We have an adviser there who operates like a link adviser, to challenge and support! There were several points made about the major weakness identified by the report, the delays surrounding the Appeals on Admissions. The authority was pleased that it was not the policy that was being criticised, and it felt confident that with new staff appointed and revised procedures in place, that it will be able to promise that people who apply on time will have their appeal heard before the end of the Summer term.

    Rachel Black said that the Inspection process had been useful, and they had learnt a lot and looked carefully at all the report, not just the seven main recommendations. A member asked about the provision for gifted and talented pupils. Things are beginning to get off the ground in this respect and there is more to come!

    As well as congratulations to the officers and ourselves (OFSTED…the percentage of schools judged to be good or very good by OSTED inspections indicates that primary schools are well above the national average), I sought to highlight how councillors had fully passported the SSA, the lack of out of County placements, the delay in producing statements, limitations in provision for pupils with emotional and behavioural disorders, the pressure for places at PRUs and the role of outreach by PRUs. We all have much to be proud of but there are deficiencies that need to be looked at as soon as possible. I hope these will be addressed in the forthcoming Action Plan.

    L02/2 School Governor Recruitment and Retention: An update was given on the progress made by Mr.Scherb. There is still a shortfall, and comments were made about the workload and paperwork. It was reported that the staff vacancies were occurring in small schools, that the roadshows had not been very effective and that individual schools inviting people in and being proactive had been much more successful. A councillor said it should be remembered that four and a half thousand governors were achieving a high standard and the chairman reminded members about the guidance to help in recruiting LEA governors.

    L02/3 The Educational Bill 2001 and School Governance: This paper described the main provisions of the Bill and gave examples of how the provisions might change. There was some discussion over the changes proposed for deciding the quorum from 66% to 33%. It was felt it may well end up as 50%!

    L02/4 The Pattern of the School Year: proposed changes (2): Mr. Peachey told us about a regional meeting were they had decided to recommend following the proposals recommended by the independent Commission on the Organisation of the School Year. The first stage 2003-04, in a three-year transition to a six-term pattern, was virtually the same as it would have been. This will leave time for extensive consultation, "much wider than in the past," including school governors, heads, Teacher Associations, focus groups of parents, a random group of teachers and a scientific survey of opinions. These will be outlined in more detail at the next meeting. Amongst the points to bear in mind, Alan talked about whole weeks being better than split weeks (the impact of more bank holidays occurring in term time), the allocation and disaggregation of PD Days, and the need to consult with all school staff.

    L02/5 Development of County Speech and Language Therapy Project: A member pointed out that the shortage of therapists had not been commented on. It was explained that each time there was a full complement of staff, circumstances conspired to make a shortfall, but the outstanding post for the County had filled. Excluding Waveney there are over two thousand children being looked at. There are a few children who will be receiving individual tuition, but there is an emphasis on involving the class/subject teacher. There is a pilot going on in four pyramids (Bungay, Felixstowe, Stowmarket, Sudbury and Great Cornard). I commented on the fact that in theory it sounded fine, but finding five minutes every day for one child in your class of 32 increases workload and pressure and the reality is not so easy to deliver properly, as a teacher in my school has found. We will hear more about the pilot soon.

    Pupil Attainment 2001 Comparison of Key Outcomes: Roger Loose presented this. It included comparisons with our statistical neighbours, the national picture and comparisons between boys and girls. KS2 strengths included a 3% improvement in girls and boys writing at Level 4+ and Direct Literacy Support Schools improving by nearly 5% in writing at Level 4+. Despite having the best NFER scores, Maths SATs scores declined slightly on last year, especially in middle schools. The biggest problem remains the poor performance of boys in writing, both at KS2 and KS3. The good news at KS3 was the 7% improvement in science Level 5+ and Level 6+. The excellent news was the continuing high and rising attainment of 5+A*-C grades compared with England and similar LEAs. The average point scores and A*-G grades are better than similar LEAs and shows that nearly all pupils are benefiting. Keep up the good work everyone!

    Contact Andrew Guite 01473 623790 or Alan Draper 01502 565986

44. SCC Papers received

    	Minutes of LfL Theme Panel, 6/12/1and of EC, 17/1/2; 21/2/2
    L02/1	Ofsted Inpsection of the County Council
    L02/2	School Governor Recruitment and Retention
    L02/3	The Education Bill 2001 and School Governors
    L02/4	Pattern of the School Year: Proposed Changes (2)
    L02/5	Report on the development of County Speech and Language Therapy Project
    L02/6	LfL items considered by other bodies
    E2/15	Proposed Suffolk Youth Justice Plan 2004-5
    E02/23	The Expansion of Early Education

    ---

    Section D: Other reports
45. Courses and Conferences: Penny Cook to report on Privatisation Briefing (circulated with agenda).
46. Student Recruitment
47. Health & Safety: John Osborne attended the Advisers' Course at SRH. Education H&S Reps met with DJET on 21st Feb 10.30 (Report available ). County Safety Committee on 27th Feb.

    ---

    Section E: Local Associations
48. Vice-President for 2002-2003, to be nominated by Sudbury Association.

49. BSE: 6/3 K Ed VI Conf Ctre	Ipswich 14/3 Lions Head, Ipswich	Lowestoft 20/3 NSPDC 16:30
    SE Suffolk 7/3 Mrs Simpson's Tearooms	Sudbury 12/3 Quay Theatre	W&Yoxford 19/3 Harlston Swan

Part 2: Decision Making

Agenda Item 4: Confirmation / Amendment of EC recommendations from EC meeting: including:

• Action on Motion re. OXFAM
• Action on Letter to MPs.
• Nominations for conferences, etc.
• Expenditure.

Agenda item 5: Action arising from National Matters

Agenda item 6. Action arising from Regional and Local Matters

a) Plan of work 2002-2003 Update and report on availability of premises.

b) Six-Term Year Proposals (initial details circulated to members and posted on website)

Any other business from Part 1.

Note for information: Expenditure on affiliations, financial support, etc. Accumulative Summary for information only

Date of next meeting: AGM March 21st Fludyers Hotel, Undercliff Rd, FELIXSTOWE

INDEX / SEARCH

HOMEPAGE