Executive Committee (17:30 - 18:45)
and DIVISION COUNCIL MEETING (18:45 - 21:00)
Notes for: July 12th 2001
|
Suffolk Division
NUT Executive Committee (17:30 - 18:45) and DIVISION COUNCIL MEETING (18:45 - 21:00) |
| July 12th 2001 Leiston Middle School | |
Registration: Please sign the attendance register and record any apologies for absence. The meeting will be begin at 19:00, giving a period of reading and informal discussion. Motions arising from anything on this agenda should be sent to the Secretary to arrive before the Executive Committee meeting.
Apologies already recorded: For EC / Both: . Regional Office, Penny Cook (parents' evening) , Andrew Guite, Jackie Marks. Graham White may have to be late. For Council: Sharon Cozens, Christine Lloyd.
Section A:
National Reports and Correspondence: Glenys Shepherd to report.
| Treasurer's report: treasurer noted the intention to look into the Sustentation Fund and Campaign budget. The cost of Campaigns against Government initiatives and arising from Conference decisions has meant that campaigning has gone beyond planned budgets. |
| General Secretary's Report: The extension of
specialist schools and the extending role of the private sector in education
are issues in impending legislation. The NUT will pursue the Conference
Motions, which have wider aims than the TUC as a whole where the main emphasis
is on protecting workers on transfer into the private sector. The GTC must be challenged, as the balance of representation does not give teachers a majority. In the next election of Chair of the GTC the NUT will support the standing of a teacher for election against David Putnam. The latest forms are abusing the data protection act, because if teachers whose details have not changed do not return the forms, as advised by the GTC, they will not have the opportunity to decline to receive DFES propaganda. NLTT may have to challenge the Government in court unless the proposed links between performance management and pay are dropped. Information will be sent to members as required by Conference. |
| DFES have accepted that hourly paid teachers have been discriminated against in being denied access to the pension scheme. |
| The Executive agreed to joint guidance with the employers (NEOST) on short-term measures where schools have vacancies. The NUT will provide its own commentary. The guidelines allow for changes in the school timetable if necessary. Action will be reinstated if necessary. I voted to support the joint guidance and against an amendment against their adoption. |
| A general motion to review the AS level exam system and oppose further training for teachers outside school hours was accepted unanimously. |
| Response to Division Secretary's memo 8/6/1: - I note the concerns about the Conference Democracy Working Party. There are other views within the region. For example Norfolk Associations sent in resolutions after conference asking for the setting up of such a Working Party. - Please see my report above regarding Performance Management Information. - I note the concern over the GTC fee, which I share. The NUT representation has been successful in reducing the proposed fee. NIJT members are advised not to complete direct debit forms. |
| DFES: CHANGE OF NAME FOR DFEE | ASBESTOS REGULATIONS DELAYED | ||
| ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL ASBESTOS REGISTER | EUROPEAN WEEK OF HEALTH AND SAFETY 2001 | ||
| DFES OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH GUIDANCE: | NUT CIRCULAR PRIVATE FINANCE INITIATIVE/PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS : NUT GUIDANCE | ||
| "RISKS": TUC ELECTRONIC SAFETY REPS' NEWSLETTER | DFES PUBLICATION: INCLUSIVE SCHOOL DESIGN | ||
| HSE STATISTICS FOR ASSAULTS ON TEACHERS Recently published HSE statistics have disclosed a significant increase in the number of reported injuries to teachers which are due to assaults. The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 require that all incidents resulting in major injuries to employees or employee absences of more than 3 days must be reported to the HSE. Reported incidents due to assaults or violence for recent years are as follows: | 1999/2000: | 297 incidents | |
| 1998/1999: | 236 incidents | ||
| 1997/1998: | 233 incidents | ||
| The number of incidents due to assaults or violence reported in 1999/2000 therefore increased by 26% from the previous year, whereas the overall number of incidents reported actually fell by 5%. Incidents due to assaults or violence made up 7.7% of all reported incidents in 1999/2000. The incidents due to assault/injury were broken down as follows: | 1999/2000: | 262 "over 3 day" injuries 35 major injuries |
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| 1998/1999: | 201 "over 3 day" injuries, 35 major injuries | ||
| HSC CONSULTATION ON DUTY TO INVESTIGATE WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS | RIDDOR CALL CENTRE AND ONLINE REPORTING SYSTEM | ||
| DFES SCHOOL SECURITY PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE ONLINE The following DfES publications are now available online | School Security Dealing with Troublemakers www.dfes.gov.uk/schoolsecurity/dwthome.shtml | ||
| Improving School Security (Managing School Facilities Guide 4) www.dfes.gov.uk/schlbldgs/pubamsfg.shtml | |||
| RECENT NUT HEALTH AND SAFETY CIRCULARS: The following NUT health and safety circulars have been issued since January 2001 | 59/01 - NUT Health and Safety Advisers' Bulletin No. 60 | ||
| 69/01 - School Security - Recent Developments | |||
| 76/01 - Mobile Telephone Masts ("Base Stations") | |||
| 96/01 - Teacher Stress: NUT Guidance on Stress Audits and Risk Assessments | |||
| Mrs Agnes Bishop | Braintree & Dist , Mid Essex |
| Jo Roberts | Cambridge & District, Huntingdon & North Cambridgeshire |
| Ray Russell | West Norfolk/Downham & Dist , Breckland & South Norfolk, Broadland, Norfolk West |
| Graham White | Sudbury & District |
| - The Solicitors Practice Rules 1988 have been repealed and replaced by the Solicitors Practice Rules 1990 which expressly permit an employed solicitor to act for a fellow employee |
| - A County Solicitor is specifically enabled to act for another public body to which the employer is empowered to provide legal services |
| - Any rule which did prohibit an LEA solicitor from providing legal advice to an employee could be waived by application to the Council of the Law Society |
| - Section 547 of the Education Act 1996 makes it an offence for a person to cause a nuisance or disturbance on school premises and specifically enables an LEA to bring proceedings against such a troublemaker; |
| - Section 6 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 does permit an "individual on behalf of the local authority" to bring a private prosecution where a teacher is assaulted in the course of his work by a parent; |
| - Section 222 of the Local Government Act 1972 provides for the LEA to prosecute where it is considered "expedient for the protection of interest on inhabitants of their area". |
| General agreement with the principle of making finance available to meet individual needs rather than as block grants, etc. |
| Concern that the introduction is being rushed and that consultation with TOs was very late, after decisions made |
| Concern over workload, especially in schools where, for social reasons, there might be a larger proportion of pupils with SEN. |
| Extra workload caused by need to justify claims through a 25% check by moderation |
| Proposal that LEA should provide for staff to be taken off timetable in order to complete the assessments |
| Concern that the total expenditure is fixed and will be divided by the total number of "audit points" at the end of the audit. This may, or may not, reflect actual costs. A true audit model would attach costings to each "diagnosis". |
| Concern at the load on SENCOs charged with cascade training |
| No funding for training at school level, including teaching assistants. |
| Concern that the years to be audited (3,5,7,9) are all transfer years: staff will not know the pupils well. Teachers of yrs 2,4,6,8 should have been involved this term and provided helpful transfer data. |
| Concern that the data (P standards) are new for some and different from SATs, etc. A second set of figures to learn/use. Better to use national standards. |
| Concern that EBD is not considered a special need (there is no weighting for EBD) |
| Proposals for early years not clear: early intervention should mean early priorities. |
| Fears for the future of ASCs where the Governing Body decides to remove them: the LEA could lose a county resource. Powerless to stop. |
| Medical Special Needsshould have greater weighting (higher staffing levels) |
| Some virements of money to meet SEN are predicated on savings from the Advisory / Psychological service. |
| Proposal to delay implementation or run a dual system (eg. finance as before while assessment takes place over a longer period). |
| Stress Management: 78 schools want to join the counselling service of which 36 will try the full wellbeing project. Small response but viable. |
| Restraint: LEA now admits that it will not be issuing further guidance: will rely on DfEE circular. |
| Inspection of LEA: TO's will be interviewed on 17th September. |
| Learning Support Units have already been set up at Sudbury, Westbourne, Leiston MS, Bungay HS. These 4 accounted for all of the £320,000 which had to be spent by April 2001. New units for next year: Holywells, Denes/Ben Britten (both with revenue support) and Mildenhall, Leiston HS, Gt Cornard US and Chantry (capital costs only). Secretary expressed surprise that Kirkley pyramid has not apparently bid. |
| Exit monitoring: the LEA has undertaken a small pilot survey in S Area targeting those believed to be leaving the profession. Questionnaire asking for reasons. JNC received copies of a Hertfordshire questionnaire. LEA interested in pursuing the idea. |
| Ethnic Monitoring: LEA has accepted the principle (at last!) but concerned at how to implement in the LMS context. |
| Teacher Representation: There will be no TR on the Executive. There will be 2 TRs on the Theme Panel and 2 for Scrutiny. However, TR can decide which of them is required, depending on the agenda items. |
| SCC Portfolios: There is a lack of clarity as to how Education matters will be handled by the County Council. It is likely that officers will have to liaise with both Bryony Rudkin and Ray Nowak, perhaps together, on items requiring member decision. |
| Chris Mole | Labour | External Relations |
| Jane Hore | Lab | Budget |
| Peter Monk | Lib Dem | Public Protection |
| Bryony Rudkin | Lab | Children & Young People |
| Robin Sargent | Lab | Adult Care & Health |
| Kathy Pollard | Lib Dem | Access, Community Involvement, Consultation |
| Ray Nowak | Lab | Finance, Physical & Human Resources |
| David Thomas | Lab | Economic & Social Regeneration |
| Joan Girling | Lab | Sustainable Environment, planning & transportation |
| Minutes | Executive Committee 8 May |
| E01/66 | Suffolk Admissions Forum |
| E1/67 | Policy for the Education of Children and Young People in the Care of Suffolk County Council |
| E1/69 | Best value review of the Schools' Library Service |
| E01/74 | Delivering Local Government on-line: Implementing Electronic Government |
| Agenda | Executive Committee 10th July 2001 |
| Minutes | Executive Committee 28th June 2001 |
| Agenda | Learning for Life Theme Panel 17 July 2001 |
| Minutes | Learning for Life Theme Panel 26th April 2001 |
| L01/19 | Suffolk's Education Development Plan |
| L01/20 | Performance Indicators for the Statutory Assessment of Special Educational Needs |
| L01/21 | Transforming Youth Work |
| L01/22 | Strategy for working with parents and carers |
| L01/23 | Working with schools of concern |
| L01/24 | Programme of work for L for L Theme Panel. |
| L01/18 | Draft cultural strategy |
Part 2: Decision Making
A) Arising from National Matters
| ' This meeting rejects the Agreement on Cover as notified to members in NUT News 18. We believe that it will lead to a deterioration in conditions of service, particularly in those schools where members are already providing cover beyond that defined in the Pay and Conditions Order. There is no guarantee that the 'banking over' of any additional cover by members will be acted on within the defined period. Neither is there any evidence to support the contention that local education authorities will have to provide new Supply Teacher pools. We, therefore, urge the National Executive to insist on negotiations with the employers, which guarantee that no teacher will have to cover beyond the third day of any absence. In the failure of such negotiations, the 'Cover to Contract' action should be reinstated forthwith.' |
| 1) The Division should continue to pay
honoraria 2) The Division should seek to pay income tax at source (i.e. to deduct tax from honoraria payable and forward the tax to the Inland Revenue), subject to further advice from Headquarters 3) Headquarters’ help should be enlisted re. the mechanisms involved and for advice on claiming tax refunds for use of home as office, etc. 4) The level of honoraria should not be raised to compensate for the deductions (as they should have been declared anyway) 5) Other methods of compensating those who do work for the Union to deal with incidental expenses should be kept under consideration. 6) The Division should pay an honorarium (from AGM 2002) to the Equal Opportunities Officer, the Student Recruitment Officer and the Health & Safety Adviser for their services to the Division. 7) The posts in (6) should in future be elected at the AGM (with the Executive Committee empowered to make appointments to any vacancy). 8) The amount of the honorarium for these officers should initially be set at the same as for teacher representatives (currently £79.50) 9) For all those in receipt of an honorarium, the precise amount for any one year shall be agreed at each AGM as before. 10) The Presidential allowance shall cease to be considered an honorarium and become an item of expenses for entertainment of Suffolk delegates at annual conference, up to £25 and covered by receipts (to start at Conference 2002) 11) Travel Expenses: the mileage allowance for all travel should be raised to 31.6p per mile (the teachers’ rate payable by the LEA) from 01/01/02 12) Subsistence Allowance: the Division should pay the normal Union rate (currently £3.50) for subsistence for those away from home / base for more than 5 hours on Division business, w.e.f. 01/01/02. 13) For 2002, the Division Subscription should rise from £3.00 to £4.10 per full member (£2.05 for part-time members, etc.). 14) The Membership Meeting does not recommend an increase in common local association fee for 2002 (i.e. the association fee should remain at £11.00 per full member, £5.50 for all others. 15) The Rules of the Division will be updated. The Secretary will prepare draft changes for the September Division Council Meeting. |
Expenditure on affiliations, financial support,
etc. Accumulative Summary for information only.:
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Date of next meeting: September 20th, Bury St Edmunds (King Edward VI Upper School).
Bonnes vacances!