The National Education Union (NEU) announced this afternoon that their members across England have voted in favour of taking industrial action. Unlike the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), the NEU were successful in meeting the ballot turnout requirement, with 50% or more of their eligible members voting and at least 40% of those voting in favour of taking industrial action. NEU report that 90% of their voting members voted in favour of strike action for a fully-funded, above-inflation pay rise.
NEU have confirmed they will be taking seven days of strike action in February and March, although any individual school will only be affected by four days strike. The first strike will take place on 1 February, affecting a reported 23,400 schools in England and Wales. The full list of strike days in England published by the NEU so far are:
Whatever action the unions take and whenever it starts, one thing is clear: this action is going to be disruptive to pupil learning if not managed carefully. The Department for Education (DfE) require academy trusts to engage in appropriate contingency planning, taking steps to minimise any disruption to pupil learning and to keep schools open as far as possible.
Trusts should consider carefully what steps they are taking to plan and prepare for industrial action. If schools are to close, then trusts should expect to be challenged if appropriate consideration – and where possible appropriate notice – is not given.
Planning and preparation are key to minimising further learning loss that many students will already have suffered through the pandemic. Industrial action also raises difficult personnel issues regarding strike participation and pay.
Browne Jacobson will shortly be sharing details of our ‘Industrial Action Support Pack’, which provides essential, detailed guidance for employers dealing with industrial action and which supplies a suite of letters, risk assessment and preparation checklists to support employers in managing the disruption.
Additionally, we will shortly be publishing details of our upcoming free webinar: ‘Industrial Action Essentials: What you need to know’ which will be taking place before the end of January 2023, prior to the commencement of industrial action.
Regardless of the outcome of ballots on industrial action, unless there is drastic change to funding for schools in relation to pay increases, it will be unusual to find any organisational budget that is not impacted by the current economic situation.
There’s been little evidence of interventions or financial management reviews this year and it appears the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has re-focussed on financial delivery. It’s also telling that there were no discernible changes to the reporting of financial irregularities in the Academies Trust Handbook 2022.
The Children’s Commissioner, Rachel De Souza, has recently published a report “Beyond the labels: a SEND system which works for every child, every time”, which she intends to sit alongside the DfE’s SEND Review (2019) and SEND Green Paper (2022) and which she hopes will put children’s voices at the heart of the government’s review of SEND system.
Official statistics show that 15,336 claims which included a complaint of age discrimination were received at the Employment Tribunals between March 2020 and March 2021.
As well as providing day-to-day support to help you focus on managing your settings, we also provide training and professional development on a range of topics to keep you and your staff up-to-date.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHCR) recently issued new, non-statutory guidance regarding the wearing of natural or protective hairstyles, specifically in reference to their representation in uniform, behaviour or standalone appearance policies.
Emma Hughes, head of HR services at Browne Jacobson, explains how CST’s updated executive pay report and the linked benchmarking service from XpertHR can help trust boards make robust decisions on pay.
There’s greater opportunity than ever for parents, carers and guardians to voice any concerns they have relating to their child’s education and for their concerns to be heard and to be taken seriously. While most staff in schools and academies are conscious of their legal duties relating to complaints management, many are struggling to cope with such a significant increase in the volume of complaints they must manage.
This guidance has been prepared to support academy trusts (Trusts) who want to hold a fully virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) or a hybrid AGM, as we know that Trusts may want to be prepared for future disruption as well as having a general interest in holding more meetings virtually. The guidance also applies to other meetings of the Members (known as General Meetings).
We’re pleased to collaborate with Lloyds Bank, who recently asked us and audit and risk specialists Crowe UK to offer guidance that academy trusts would find helpful when considering setting up a trading subsidiary.
The World Cup kicks off in Qatar on Sunday 20 November 2022, with the final taking place on Sunday 18 December 2022. Undoubtedly, this is a huge sporting event, and many employees will be keen to show their support for their favourite teams. However, due to the time difference, start times for the matches are between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. UK time, which could have an impact on employers if employees who wish to watch the matches are scheduled to work.
The DfE has published new guidance and opened the application process for window two of the Trust Capacity Fund (TCaF) for 2022/2023, with a fund of £86m in trust capacity funding focused particularly on education investment areas.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was established in March 2015. We now have its report. As you would expect with such a broad scope, the report is long and makes a number of far-reaching recommendations. In this article, Dai Durbridge highlights seven of the 20 recommendations, sets out how they could impact on schools and suggests what steps to take now.
Browne Jacobson’s education team has been named as winner of the ‘Legal Advisors to Education Institutions’ category at the Education Investor Awards 2022 for a record sixth time.
Since the new Suspensions and Exclusions Statutory Guidance was published, we have received a lot of questions about the use of managed moves. For the first time, the Statutory Guidance does explain what a managed move is, but in relatively broad terms and does not cover the mechanics of how a managed move should operate.
Over 3000 young people from across the UK and Ireland took part in a virtual legal careers insight event, aimed at making the legal profession more diverse.
Holly Quirk, an associate barrister in Browne Jacobson’s Manchester office, was awarded the Legal Professional of the Year Award at this year’s Manchester Young Talent Awards.