I’d like to bring you up to date on some issues
that have arisen at the frequently held meetings that I attend on your
behalf with the LA and other unions. These were reported to the branch
at our recent meeting. An abbreviated version of these points will be
published in the next newsletter that will be posted out to schools.
Secondary
Review Consultation has been deferred
for a further 12 months. This is a bit misleading, as the new
consultation documents will be issued during the Spring
term for the process to start afresh. The rebuild at Culcheth
will not be affected by this. The LA have had to act quickly to get
the Building Schools forthe Future money secured as the deadline
for submissions to the DfES was approaching rapidly.
Many
schools (Heads) are not returning to the LA the HSA forms that you
fill out when there has been an incident involving physical or verbal
abuse from a pupil (or any other person). Schools should return these
to the LA so that an accurate picture can be kept and follow up by
the LA which could result in extra resources redeployed to places
of high incidence. Social Services don’t seem to have any problem
in confirming what goes on in the real world. The LA has assured us
that they always send a written acknowledgement to the injured party.
If you have completed a HAS form and haven’t had an acknowledgement
please e-mail me swaldron@cheshire.atl.org.uk or leave a message on the Warrington Branchline (0161 941 4970). Please pass the word to colleagues who
may be in other unions. This is a joint endeavour from all the Teaching
Unions.
The
initial outline for the restructuring of centrally employed teachers
(CET) was presented to the teachers and union officials before being
sent to schools. We have until Christmas to make responses to the
generic plan which leaves most teachers on Teachers Pay and Conditions
as opposed to moving to the Soulbury Scale.
Several possible flaws were noticed straightaway in what essentially
is a cost cutting exercise dressed up as
a greater efficiency innovation. All allowances are safeguarded until
December 2008. Further more intimate parts of the proposed structure
will be revealed in the Spring term. Again, please contact me if you have any
concerns or queries on this matter.
Warrington
will be undertaking a job evaluation for all NJC posts over the next
2 years. This gives an ideal opportunity to review the position of
TAs position on the single status pay spine. At the JCC meeting the
pilot scheme which is currently running was discussed. It turned out
that no level 3 or 4 TAs were represented
in the pilot of 50 employees. It was agreed that these should have
been included and I offered to provide ATL TAs o fit the bill. I haven’t
been contacted so I assume (hope) that Unison/GMB have
done their homework preparation.