ECSG updates from the frontline: February 2023

Prospect’s full-time officers for the Education and Children’s Services Group give their updates from the last few months.

• Stuart Anderson – Scotland, North and Midlands
• Claire Dent – London, South East, South West and South
• Angela Moffatt – Northern Ireland

Stuart Anderson – Scotland, North and Midlands

I have recently given advice on two contrasting cases of member being dismissed during their probationary period, in two different employers in my region.

Probation arrangements, either in a contract, appointment letter or workplace policy, do generally give employers a wide discretion to end a person’s employment if they do not think they are suitable for the role.

However, a process still has to be followed to dismiss somebody during or at the end of their probation and those in local authority, like most of Prospect’s education members, will have a robust probation policy to rely on.  This will likely layout several meetings where any concerns should have been raised throughout the probation period, a final meeting if dismissal is being considered and an appeal stage.

In one of the two cases, despite ongoing efforts supporting the member with an appeal, a dismissal has occurred and if the appeal is unsuccessful there is likely to be no further option for a legal challenge to the dismissal. This is because the right to claim unfair dismissal at the employment tribunal generally only arises after an employee has two years’ service with an employer.

However, as in the second case, there are some exceptions to this two year qualifying period, such as if there has been unlawful discrimination, or if the dismissal is for one of the automatically unfair reasons, these include:

• making a flexible working request
• being pregnant or on maternity leave
• wanting to take family leave, for example parental, paternity or adoption leave
• being a trade union member or representative
• taking part in legal, official industrial action for 12 weeks or less, for example going on strike
• asking for a legal right, for example to be paid the National Minimum Wage
• doing jury service
• being involved in whistleblowing
• being forced to retire (known as ‘compulsory retirement’)
• taking action, or proposing to take action, over a health and safety issue

In the case I have advised on it does appear that our member was dismissed for taking action on health and safety grounds, this was well documented and the employer had not given other valid reasons for the dismissal.

The important thing to understand from these two examples is that if you are having problems during your probation, you think you are going to fail a probation or be dismissed during probation contact Prospect for advice, there may be action we can take despite the lack of two years’ service with the employer.

Claire Dent – London, South East, South West and South

Hertfordshire

The formal recognition agreement was up for renewal in the New Year. I did ask whether we could seek wider recognition for staff not covered by Soulbury but this was declined. However, I have a good relationship with Hertfordshire and they do include me in all consultations, irrespective of whether it directly affects Soulbury employees.

Dorset

There is a new project sponsor for traded services with schools which continues to engage with schools and the services who trade with them. Their activities include centralising communications, improving consistency between services across children’s, place and corporate services and refreshing the processes for contracts and training bookings.

Their key communication and transformation focus this month is supporting the services who trade with schools to have their offers ‘live’ by the end of January. Schools will be able to purchase from February allowing them time to plan and budget – something they have asked Dorset to deliver this year.

Plymouth

Plymouth have been working towards the implementation of the ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance Guidance’. The new guidance means that schools and the local authority will be working differently in some areas in order to ensure the best outcomes for children and families.

Croydon

They are now implementing the restructure of the Children’s Social Care following the consultation that was concluded in November.

East Sussex

East Sussex are currently running Phase 2 of the restructure for the education division which is due to conclude on 10 February with the final structure being issued on the 20 February. Their stated intention is to create a structure that brings together the key areas of education standards, attendance and behaviour into three area-based teams.

I have had limited engagement with this, only being made aware of the proposal by a member that is directly affected.

Medway

Pay negotiations are currently underway. The Council have offered a Cost of Living increase of £1000 (pro-rata) for all staff. This is significantly less than the unions’ pay claim.

Personal Cases

I have several personal cases focusing on internal investigations within Children Services across my area. It is important to remind all members that any decisions  made about how services are delivered is documented in an email. Only written evidence can be relied on to prove conversations that may have taken place. If you are instructed to do something which you think may be open to challenge later, please follow it up with an email so it is clear where the instruction came from.

Recruitment

Again I would ask for your help. If you work for a local authority or MAT and would like to get more involved in the work Prospect do please get in touch.

I have been working closely with my organising colleague to identify areas where we don’t currently hold formal or only limited recognition but where the organisation works well with Prospect and shares information consistently.

Angela Moffatt – Education Authority Northern Ireland

Glenn Walsh has continued in his role as Interim President for the Education & Children’s Services group (ECS) of Prospect, and continues to represent ECS on issues within a range of forums within the broader union.

We are seeking interest from members in becoming more active as reps, and at central level within the Education & Children’s Services group in Prospect – so please let us know if you’d be interested in getting involved – [email protected] or contact Glenn Walsh direct.

Glenn and I have continued to attend Directorate Joint Forums on behalf of members, and handle a range of personal and group issues.