Supporting Supply Teachers

Circular No.: 12-027/EC&R Date: 2 February 2012 To: Secretaries of Divisions and Local Associations - FOR INFORMATION	NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS HEADQUARTERS Hamilton House Mabledon Place London WC1H 9BD Telephone 020 7388 6191 Fax 020 7387 8458 www.teachers.org.uk General Secretary Christine Blower Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney

Dear Colleague

SUPPLY TEACHERS

Following the passing of a resolution on supply teachers at Annual Conference 2011, a number of documents aimed at supporting supply teacher members have been published.

Supporting Supply Teachers, available on Hearth and teachers.org at: http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/14723, sets out the steps the Union is taking to support supply teacher members and also the measures supply teachers can take to help protect their own position.

The Agency Workers Regulations - NUT Guidance for Members who are Head Teachers, available on Hearth and teachers.org at: http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/14761, examines the implications for head teachers who may be engaging supply teachers through agencies.

The Agency Worker Regulations – NUT Guidance for Supply Teacher Members, available on Hearth and teachers.org at: http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/14764, provides a summary of the regulations and includes practical advice for NUT members who use agencies for supply work.

Please alert supply teacher members in your area to the availability of these documents.

Yours sincerely

CHRISTINE BLOWER KEVIN COURTNEY

General Secretary Deputy General Secretary

AMANDA BROWN

Assistant Secretary

Employment Conditions and Rights

JT

Miscarriage Association – Could you help?

Miscarriage Association: “Can you help us help others?”

Iain Solanki-Willats (01924 360769 or iain@miscarriageassociation.org.uk)

The Miscarriage Association is asking local people who have lost a baby in pregnancy to help others experiencing pregnancy loss.

The volunteer roles are part of the national charity’s project that aims to work with key healthcare professionals and local volunteers to develop on-going support for people affected by miscarriage.

Suffolk is one of three new project sites in the M.A.’s Supporting local care project. The project, now working across five sites in England, is being funded by the Department of Health.

Building on what is already a model of good practice, the project will work with the Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, the West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust and GP surgeries/ community partners in the area currently covered by Suffolk PCT.

Iain Solanki-Willats, Development Worker at the M.A., said, “If you’ve been affected by miscarriage, we’d welcome your help to make sure that other people who miscarry get the support, information and care that they need.”

“We also need people to help us develop local awareness of our services and raise funds for local support.”

The project offers local people flexible opportunities to get involved. For each of the three volunteer roles (Local support volunteer, Awareness volunteer and Fundraising volunteer), volunteers can tailor the role to fit around other commitments.

Iain added, “Local volunteers will play an important role in helping us to develop a local branch.”

“At its core would be telephone support and approaches to GP surgeries to set up signposting to our new local services and M.A. services.”

At least 15% - or as many as 20-25% - of all pregnancies result in miscarriage. Most miscarriages happen in the first 12 weeks, though some women miscarry much later.

Ruth Bender Atik, the M.A.’s National Director, explained, “Every miscarriage is different and there is no right way to feel about it. Our volunteers can help people find the support that is right for them.”

To find out more about the volunteering roles or the project in general, please contact Iain Solanki-Willats on 01924 360769 or iain@miscarriageassociation.org.uk.

If you have been affected by miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or molar pregnancy, the M.A. can offer support, help and information (helpline: 01924 200799; email: info@miscarriageassociation.org.uk).

NUT Executive Meeting Recommendations for ongoing pensions campaign

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY WHAT WAS AGREED TODAY - Call if you want further explanation as to what might seem to some of you over-cautious - but I am happy to support as broadly the correct approach in the light of the information from members and from other unions - hopefully preparing the way for further action in March

Martin Powell-Davis 

Exectutive Member for Inner London

http://electmartin1.blogspot.com/2012/01/pensions-camapign-update-report-from.html

The NUT Executive met again on January 26 and agreed the following recommendations for the ongoing pensions campaign:

1. Christine Blower and Kevin Courtney will continue to work to convene the joint meeting of unions that have not signed up to heads of agreement.
We are not alone! Far from it. Christine and Kevin gave an encouraging report from a meeting convened by the NUT that had brought together a sizeable number of different union leaders to discuss a joint campaign.
The meeting shows that, after the setback of some other unions signing the totally inadequate ‘Heads of Agreement’ deal, a significant group of unions is still standing firm. Unions will meet again next week to look at joint plans in more detail.

2. Christine and Kevin will press the case at the meeting with the other unions for a joint further day of action in March, before the contributions increase, as part of an on-going campaign involving further action, and other activities.
Motions from schools and Associations, including many from London, had been sent in to the Union in support of further action - action that must be taken if we are going to persuade this Government to back-off from making teachers work to 68 and pay 50% more in pensions contributions. The Executive agrees - but, while understanding the urgency in providing a clear plan of action - also recognises that we have to try and reach agreement with other unions before any firm date is ‘named’ as the next suggested strike day.
March 1 had been proposed by the UCU, but I understand that other unions felt that a slightly later date was needed. The NUT will be firmly calling on unions to agree on a definite strike day in March - but not as a one-off action. We also want to discuss the further joint action that will need to follow.

3. A special National Executive will be called for February 9th to consider the results of that joint union meeting.
The Executive will be recalled to make sure that there is no unnecessary delay in preparing for further action.
Hopefully, the joint discussions will have arrived at firm conclusions to put to other Union Executives,as well as ours, so we can follow a common strategy.

4. Any outcome from Feb 9th Executive to go forward with action should be accompanied by home mailings, emails, reps news etc. arguing the case for the action including materials relating to the Government/Ofsted assault on teachers since January and the attacks in the Autumn statement.
Some members have already indicated their support for further action but we want to make sure that every NUT member understands why we cannot accept the ‘Heads of Agreement’ and why we need their support for the proposed plan of action
If we retreat on pensions, then we will give the Government confidence to press ahead with all their other attacks - a continued pay freeze, endless observations, longer hours … plus the threat of fast-track sackings if they decide you don’t meet their imposed standards.
It won’t just be ‘pay more, retire older and get less’, it will be ‘pay more and get a LOT less’, when teachers are forced by the stress and relentless pressure to retire long before they reach their full pensions age.
Alongside the campaign against ‘pensions robbery’, Executive members also discussed how best to fight Gove’s ‘bullies charter’ and its threat to unfairly force teachers through accelerated capability procedures. We hope we can get unions to agree an alternative policy that we can then propose to Local Authorities and Governors - backed up with action if necessary.

5. All affected members will be consulted on and urged to support any proposed action, once it is clear which other unions intend to be involved.
The Executive knows that many of the most active union members understand the issues, know what’s at stake, and are ready for further strike action. However, particularly now some unions have stepped back from the struggle, at least for now, the Executive believes we need to make absolutely sure that the next NUT action has widespread backing across the whole Union. That’s why we agreed to carry out some kind of consultative survey of members to indicate their endorsement of the union’s proposed action.
The exact details of the survey were left for further discussion, but it certainly doesn’t need to be another full ballot sent to home addresses. Our legal ballot for discontinuous action remains in force. This would be solely an internal Union survey to gauge - and to build - support for our plan of strike action.
As I said when I spoke in the debate, of course this kind of survey is not without risk. However, proceeding without this consultation presents an even greater risk - that we might not have correctly prepared the support for action across the whole Union.
So everyone who supports action - from the Executive right down to members in schools - would need to use this survey to get the message out to their colleagues, to union meetings, and to neighbouring schools, that we all need to continue, and extend, the fight to stop this pensions robbery.

6. The Divisional Secretaries meeting on Feb 2nd will be consulted as to readiness for action and encouraged to continue building the campaign, including through school meetings, street stalls and lobbies of MPs. A draft plan of action will be devised for consultation with the meeting. This would include one day of national action in March and a plan of what a possible strategy of further action could look like.
NUT Local Division Secretaries - who are the key officers and local organisers in the union - are being called together for a special meeting next week.
They can then have their say about what our campaign strategy and timetable should be, what the mood for action is in their area, and discuss how we go out to build action. If you have an opinion, make sure to tell your NUT Secretary before they come to next week’s meeting!

7. The union seeks to make common publicity with other teacher unions in particular around age of retirement and increased contributions and by placing a petition on the Government web-site.
As well as using the key weapon of strike action, we need to get our message out to the public about the damage these proposals will cause to both teachers and education - and right across our public services.
Some unions are keen on using a petition as a way to gather publicity - and we are obviously happy to do so.

8. The NUT will press the case for TUC support for action by unions that have not ‘signed up’ at the Public Sector Liaison Group on Feb 6th – and keep working to get other unions back to the campaign.
UNISON, GMB and ATL may have signed-up for now - but we hope our campaign - and the real facts about the ‘Agreement’ - will persuade their members to call for their unions to rejoin the fight for a better deal.
At a recent regional TUC meeting, UNISON officials said they would still be giving support to unions like the NUT who were continuing with action. We are calling for that to be the clear official position of the national TUC.

Resolution passed at Ipswich NUT meeting 24th January

This meeting congratulates the NUT Executive, and all members, on the pensions campaign so far, especially for the role the NUT played building the united strikes on June 30^th and November 30^th last year. We further endorse the union leadership on their rejection government’s latest proposals – which still amount to teachers having to “pay more, work longer and get less”.

We endorse the attempts the Union has made to secure the widest possible agreement with other unions, and teaching unions in particular, in rejecting the government’s proposals and continuing to fight to defend pensions. We further endorse plans to open a national ballot on action over workload and other key issues, including performance management.

We support the aim of talking to other unions with a view to securing the widest possible agreement on calling further national strike action as soon as possible to defend our pensions. We believe the Union should be ready to call such strike action alongside other unions willing to do so. We believe that there is a real urgency in taking such action – as the government’s proposals currently mean teachers will face a pay cut in April, when the first wave of increased pensions contributions is due to be imposed.

We, therefore call on the National Executive to:

i)        name a day for a national strike at its meeting on 25^th January, and that such action should preferably be before half-term and no later than the end of February;

ii)      draw up plans for an escalating programme of action to achieve our pensions objectives, beginning with a further one day strike in March.

NUT Legal Plus

NUT Legal Plus

For all work related matters the Union provides a high quality, award winning legal support service for members.

We have joined together with Thompsons Solicitors, the UK’s most experienced personal injury and trade union law firm to cover legal matters outside the work environment including personal injury, will writing and conveyancing.

Members and family member cases are funded by a conditional fee agreement which means that the injured person doesn’t have to pay anything.

Unlike many solicitors, Thompsons is expert at dealing with complex personal injury claims. And, because Thompsons refuses as a point of principle to work for insurance companies, it is never compromised into settling a claim for less than the full value.

Legal Plus also offers low cost wills to members and a fixed price conveyancing service. Wills cost £35.25 for a sole will and £52.88 for a joint will.

To find out more contact Legal Plus on 0800 1696660 or click through to the Thompsons website www.thompsons.law.co.uk.

Ipswich NUT Association Meeting Tuesday 24th January 7.00pm Brewery Tap, Ipswich.

Agenda

1. Apologies
2. Minutes of previous meeting
3. Pensions Campaign feedback from Association Schools
4. Performance Management changes/ Workload,
5. Prioritisation of Conference Motions.
6. geographical make- up of the Association,
7. AOB

Performance Management Press Release

EMBARGOED FOR 00:01

13 January 2012

Performance Management

Commenting on the changes planned for September 2012, announced by the Department for Education today, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union said:

“The changes to the appraisal and capability policies will rightly be seen by teachers as an attack on their professionalism and will anger and depress them in equal measure.

“Best practice in schools is about taking pains to ensure that teachers are supported in developing their professional practice. Teaching is about getting the very best from every learner in every lesson. It isn’t about ‘performing for observers’.

“What the Government proposes is potentially a bully’s charter. The Union believes that many well-functioning schools, where development and professionalism is prized, will not adopt Mr Gove’s model.

“If schools are serious about addressing the issue of teacher competence should it arise, they must do it in a fair fashion and not be constrained by a one term time limit. It is far better to improve teachers than to seek measures to sack them.”

END pr06-2012

For further details contact Caroline Cowie on 0207 380 4706 or 07879480061

Briefing for NUT Reps

Ipswich Teachers Association

Briefing for NUT Reps

Subject: Pensions negotiations

Date: January 2012

This briefing is for NUT reps to use in school meetings to provide information to members and help discussion.

On December 19^th the government asked trade unions to sign a Heads of Agreement document.

This document contained a set of principles, which would then be taken out of the negotiations, allowing for more detailed discussion on remaining items.

Signing the Heads of Agreement document means accepting:

• A 50% increase in pensions contributions
• A retirement age of 68 for teachers
• A pension based on a career average salary, rather than a final salary
• The switch from RPI to the lower CPI as the index for the annual increase in pensions

For these reasons the NUT has refused to sign up to the Heads of Agreement – amongst the teacher unions the NASUWT and UCU have also refused to sign

Some unions in other schemes have also refused to sign.

Of the teacher unions the ATL, ASCL and NAHT have signed the Agreement.

The government did make some concessions in the Heads of Agreement document:

• An improved accrual rate of 1⁄57th of pay per year of service
• If you retire early then your pension is cut by 3% each year for the first three years and then the current 5% a year for extra years.
• those aged 50 or more on 1st April 2012, will stay in the current scheme and have full protection. Those aged between 46¹⁄2 and 50, will stay in their current scheme longer.

These changes have come about as a result of our campaigning and action, but go nowhere near enough to meet our concerns.

The important thing to note is that the major threats to our pensions - pay more, work longer and get less - are still there. These are the threats against which we took action on June 30^th and again on November 30^th.

Crucially, the government have offered no more money

The NUT and NASUWT have written to Michael Gove seeking urgent talks; they have told the Secretary of State that these proposals fall far short of our expectations and that more money needs to be provided to meet these.

Our case remains the same:

• teachers can’t work to 68,
• our pensions shouldn’t be taxed to pay for the deficit
• our scheme is affordable and already on track to make substantial savings as a result of the changes made just five years ago

The NUT is now talking to other unions who have not signed the Heads of Agreement about taking the campaign forward and about the possibility of taking more strike action.

We have produced a motion for school groups to discuss and let us know their views

Motion for school NUT groups to discuss

We would like school groups to discuss this and report back the views of members to our next meeting on January 24th

In particular we would like an indication of members’ support for further strike action by the NUT.

Motion

This union meeting notes that the Heads of Agreement “offer” made by the government to teaching unions on December 19^th still means that we would have to pay more, work longer and get a smaller pensions.

We note that the government is still intent on:

i) increasing our pension contributions by 50%;

ii) raising the retirement age for teachers to 68;

iii) introducing a pension based on a career average rather than final salary;

iv) using CPI, rather than RPI, as the index for annual increases in our pensions.

These are the measures against which we took strike action on June 30^th and November 30^th and for these reasons we believe the NUT was right not to sign up to the Heads of Agreement.

We note that the NASUWT and UCU have also refused to sign up to the Heads of Agreement.

We note that whatever concessions the government has made have only come as a result of our campaign and strike action, but go nowhere near enough to meet our concerns.

We believe that the campaign to defend our pensions must continue and that this should involve further strike action.

We call upon the NUT National Executive to draw up plans for further strike action and to discuss these with other unions who have also refused to sign the Heads of Agreement.

We therefore agree to indicate our support for:

i) the decision of the NUT to reject the Heads of Agreement document;

ii) further strike action in defence of our pensions.

Please send a copy of the minutes from your meeting to secretary@ipswich.nut.org.uk and include the name of your school and the number of members present at the meeting. Thank you.

Disability Living Allowance to be replaced–protest now

The Welfare Reform Bill is currently in the final stages of its way through Parliament, and Peers are debating its Report Stage in the House of Lords this week.

We’re very concerned about many of its implications, especially on disabled people, large numbers of whom face a reduction in benefits as the universal benefit Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is replaced by the more conditional benefit system of Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

DLA is currently available to disabled children and adults to help them meet the extra costs associated with having a disability. It’s not work or contribution dependent, and it comes at different levels, to take into account assessed needs for ongoing help with care and mobility. Under the new system, DLA recipients will have to claim again for PIP, and given that the government have stated they want to make savings by focussing the benefit on those who need it most, it’s a fair bet many who were found to need assistance under the lower levels of DLA payment will no longer be given assistance.

Also, increasing the initial qualifying period from 3 to 6 months will see many people face extra months of hardship before they get assistance. Many current DLA recipients will face a further blow if they’re denied access to PIP, as DLA is a qualifying benefit, which means that being assessed to receive it then means you are eligible for other assistance. Losing DLA will see people getting those other benefits withdrawn.

With such severe cuts for thousands of vulnerable people, you’d think the government would be scrupulous about understanding the impact of the reforms. But the consultation for the Bill has been rushed through, run for two weeks shorter than usual, and with the legislation presented to Parliament before the consultation was even finished.

A group of disabled activists have come together online to research the reforms. They’ve used Freedom of Information powers to get a copy of the consultation results, and conducted a thorough crowdsourced analysis of the previously unreleased documents.

The “Responsible Reform” report that they have written and produced tells a remarkable story, with 74% of organisations and individuals responding to the consultation opposed to the overall plans, with even higher margins against on specific measures, such as 98% opposing the extension of the period people have to wait to receive benefits.

This tells a rather different story to the government’s claims of support from the consultation responses. With only days to go now, Peers need to know what respondents, from charities working with disabled people through to Mayor of London Boris Johnson have said about the danger of these reforms.

What can you do?

You can find the report online here. Please have a look at it (there's a helpful summary at the beginning, as there's a lot of material in there) and help get this important information used as widely as possible, by taking any or all of these actions online:

1 Tell your friends

Please tweet about the report, or spread the message to friends. The hashtag #SpartacusReport has been trending today, so please use that if you can to keep it in the public eye online. If you want to share the text of this email, you can find it online here.

2 Tell the House of Lords

Please help spread word of this important report to Peers. Use the They Work For You site to find a member of the House of Lords to email – If you can only write to one, please focus on the Liberal Democrat or Crossbench Peers, who are more likely to change their vote over this issue. Getting a message to them Thursday’s report stage will help ensure they don’t go into the debate without knowing the concerns of thousands of disabled people from all over the country.

3 Add your name

And please if you’ve not yet signed up, add your name to Pat Onions’ petition to Number 10 for a pause in these hurried reforms – it’s reached over 10,000 signatures now, but needs more to be recognised by government. Rushing this legislation through at a time of spending cuts and economic difficulties for vulnerable people is creating a perfect storm for many disabled people. A pause to ensure reform is carried out more fairly and effectively is desperately needed.

Going To Work is a project of the Trades Union Congress (TUC)
This email was sent to:
secretary@ipswich.nut.org.uk

TEACHER TRAINING:

NO PLACE FOR RACISM:

BUILDING CONFIDENT CLASSROOMS

Show Racism the Red Card and Suffolk Learning and Improvement Service will be running three training days for school leaders, teachers and governors in Suffolk

Monday 23rd Jan 2012: Ipswich Town FC, Portman Rd Ipswich, IP1 2DA

Tuesday 24th January 2012: Orbis Energy, Wilde Street, Lowestoft, NR32 1XH

Wednesday 25th January 2012: Parish Council Hall, Jubilee Centre, Jubilee Way, Mildenhall, IP28 7H

9.30am to 3.30pm

Aims

The training will:

• raise awareness of issues of racism and the impact on young people

• empower delegates to challenge racism and respond to racist incidents

• equip delegates with knowledge and resources to educate young people against racism

• examine how race equality can be promoted through the curriculum

• give delegates the opportunity to raise their concerns and have these addressed

• help schools to meet their obligations under the Single Equality Act (2010)

The conference is called "No place for racism: building confident classrooms" and applicants must book on line at www.suffolkcpd.co.uk

Cost is £30.00 per person for a day's conference.

Dates are: 23rd/ 24th/25th January 2012 at Ipswich, Lowestoft and Mildenhall - in that order.

www.teachersolidarity.com

The site that Mary Compton has created is www.teachersolidarity.com. Did we know that Teachers in Cyprus were on strike in December against 'austerity'? On the site there is, for example, a message of solidarity from the South Korean Teachers Union in support of the Langdon School NUT striking against bullying managers! I think this should be a permanent link on the Ipswich NUT blog to inspire resistance. As a retired rank and file member that is what I would like to see, and members encouraged to create their own rather than the 'news' put out by the BBC etc.

Anthony

Pensions Campaign Sell Out? Have your say…

From a local member…

I am totally against any form of sell out. The point here is that we are not asking for anything. We are being attacked. There are no offers by the government as we do not want anything more! We want our pensions to be left alone. We must hang on to what we have and demand that the government proves its case with the pension audit demanded by the NUT. I did not take part in strike action to give our benefits away.

We should now take this to the next level and move to longer and strategic action that will make this government listen. The NUT should consider other action such as withdrawing from assessment, not taking part in any extra curricular activities, no parent evenings, no school trips, no cover at all, morning and afternoon walkouts, be strategic! We do not need to lose a days pay each time we take action if we do, we will lose support. The list could be endless. We all know that this government is dishonest and is trying to use us to pay of the deficit. Fight back now or lose much more including the length of holidays, and other terms and conditions.

Do you agree? Post your comments please. This will be the topic of our next Association Meeting. TBA.