ECSG updates from the frontline: November 2022

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

Since the last edition of Education Eye, local authorities have been quiet in terms of issues impacting on ECS members. One exception is one Northern Local Authority that is being dissolved, with two new unitary authorities set up in its place. The Authority currently has a team of school advisers to support their maintained schools.

Three options for the education service are being considered: hosting the staff in one of the two authorities; TUPE into a jointly owned LLC; or disaggregation into the two authorities. All three options have the potential to impact on members’ work lives. The preference of most appears to be disaggregation, so that each of the new authorities would have a team of advisors, as this seems to be the least disruptive.

It is important that staff are properly consulted if there are to be changes to their employer, working practices or terms and conditions. It is important that you contact Prospect for advice if you find yourself employed by a local authority that is being dissolved. A number of issues can arise for example in the application of TUPE protections around a transfer or on pay and grading if Soulbury grades staff are to be transferred to an employer that does not intend to use the Soulbury scales.

I have also advised a number of members on individual enquires, including on ill health retirement from both the Local Government and Teachers’ pension schemes, and a data protection issue.

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

I have not been involved heavily in the education arena over the last few months, with only very limited engagement with local authorities and education providers. I have recently passed over responsibility for many areas in the West to my colleagues in the Bristol office.

Hertfordshire

As previously reported, Hertfordshire CC proposed changes to the Terms and Conditions for Youth and Soulbury staff. These changes were beneficial for all staff in scope, improving sick pay provision. No members raised any concerns with me. Subsequently, these changes were delayed whilst work was completed on the Future Workforce plan. However these changes have now been implemented and were backdated to 1 November 2021 and paid in August 22. Employees received a variation of contract document and Prospect signed the collective agreement.

Herts for Learning (HfL)

The HfL annual report in September announced that 2021-22 had been a strong year for the organisation. They reported a revenue of £23.3m with a £307k profit. This was in line with budget forecasts. They also hold what they describe as a strong cash balance in excess of £5m and have total reserves in excess of £3.8m.

Given this strong financial standing it is hoped that pay negotiations next year recognises and rewards the staff that have made this company so successful.

Herts for Learning intend to change their name slightly over the coming months to HfL Education. This is to demonstrate education is at the heart of the company but also establish the expansion of the business to areas outside of Hertfordshire.

Personal Cases

I have several personal cases which involve members feeling stress and anxiety due to workload pressures. My advice in these instances is always to try to resolve the situation early by informing the line manager in writing of the concerns and asking for support.

Once you have detailed the issues the employer has a duty of care to take steps to protect your health and wellbeing. It may be difficult to admit that you are struggling but until you do you cannot expect the employer to do anything about it.

Other themes that reoccur and are interlinked with stress are around performance review processes. Again it is important to keep records of any issues encountered at work around performance, that includes all the positive conversations you have about how you are working.

I usually find that members are concerned that issues have been raised about performance but previously to that they have received very positive verbal comments about their work. Follow up any positive comments with an email thanking the person and detailing what was said. This will give you an on-going audit trail which can support you in any discussions around performance.

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 colleagues 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.

We are currently looking at Bexley, Bedford, Oxford, Croydon, Ealing and Herts for Learning so if you work in these areas and would be prepared to help achieve this by becoming more involved with Prospect please contact Danajoti Cait Hughes [email protected] directly and she can talk to you about what this would involve.

Angela Moffatt – Northern Ireland

It has been a relatively quiet period for Education Authority members in Northern Ireland over the summer period.

Aside from dealing with the usual queries and personal case issues for members, Glenn Walsh, EA representative and I have attended JNCs for Education, CYPS, O&E, & HR, as well as Pay, Terms and Conditions.

Glenn is also continuing to attend the GEC on behalf of members and input NI views/experience there, and has recently joined the NI Committee for Prospect to ensure input for Education members there.  Glenn is also seeking to meet with new interim director Cynthia Currie, to get a sense of her agenda moving forward and present members’ concerns.

SEN educational services: Independent Review of Education Interim report

We’re concerned with developments in this area, and will be inputting to ensure our members interests are protected – please let us know any views by contacting Glenn direct or emailing [email protected].

Soulbury pay

Pay scales have now been updated after input by Glenn Walsh.  We’ll continue to remind members to check their eligibility and contact us if they need advice and guidance in this area.

Recruitment – our numbers remain steady but we are always seeking new recruits!  Please encourage a colleague to join.