EDUCATION LEADER AND MANAGER
Representing leaders and managers in education P O L I CY
ARE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS THE WAY FORWARD? page 8
PROFILE
M A ST E R C L A S S
MARTIN DOEL: ‘LOOK BEYOND THE LATEST CRISIS’ page 14
THE FAIR WORKLOAD CHARTER page 18
DECEMBER 2016 @ATL_AMiE
Arts Company
CORPORATE CLASSROOMS? A LOOK AT THE AMiE REPORT HIGHLIGHTING THE CREEPING CORPORATISATION OF EDUCATION PAGE 10
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ELM / DECEMBER 2016
INSIDE 4
Education news, including new union ballot
6
The view from Northern Ireland and Wales
8
Are grammar schools the way forward? Arts Company
10 13
Corporate classrooms?
Leadership seminar: the retention problem
14
Meet professor of leadership Martin Doel
18 20
The Fair Workload Charter
Q&A: Dealing with a potential disciplinary
22
Apprenticeship standards ELM is the magazine from ATL, 7 Northumberland Street, London WC2N 5RD Tel 020 7930 6441 Email info@amie.org.uk Website www.amie.atl.org.uk Editor Sally Gillen ELM is produced and designed for ATL by Think, Capital House, 25 Chapel Street, London NW1 5DH Tel 020 3771 7200 Email info@thinkpublishing.co.uk
Sub-editor Laura Dean-Osgood Art editor George Walker Designer Alix Thomazi Advertising sales Michael Coulsey or Anthony Bennett 020 3771 7200 Account manager Kieran Paul Managing director Polly Arnold ATL accepts no liability for any insert, display or classified advertisement included in this publication. While every reasonable care is taken to ensure that all advertisers are reliable and reputable, ATL can
give no assurance that it will fulfil its obligation under all circumstances. The views expressed in articles in ELM are the contributors’ own and do not necessarily reflect ATL policy. Official policy statements issued on behalf of ATL are indicated as such. All rights reserved. Material contained in this publication may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior permission of ATL. Cover: Alix Thomazi
MARK WRIGHT AMiE DIRECTOR
Welcome Delegates at a special conference in November voted overwhelmingly to ballot ATL/AMiE members on whether or not they would like to work with the NUT to create the biggest education union in the country. It is a hugely significant decision, at a time when the sector faces multiple threats. The National Education Union, as it would be called, would strengthen the voice of education professionals. Our members, our beliefs and our values would have a better, more secure advocacy platform than ever before. As AMiE council member Robin Bevan commented at the conference, “Our shared purpose with the membership of the NUT is greater than our sectional divisions”. That is surely right. Education leaders and managers, in particular, would be better represented by the new union, with the NUT’s larger leadership section swelling AMiE’s growing ranks. This matters because, as the AMiE leadership seminar heard, leaders face a huge challenge in addressing staff retention. They need a strong voice and intelligent support if they are to create trust-based, collaborative workplaces. Of course, leaders are under pressure to do more with less, to respond to the latest change to curriculum, and to ensure the long arm of our accountability system does not overload the work of their staff. Keeping ethics at the heart of leadership practice, while resisting the creeping corporatisation of education, is critical. While there is nothing inherently wrong with borrowing the best of business practice and translating it into the education context, too often it is the worst business practice we end up with. Leaders must not forget that the real business of education is teaching and learning and that good leadership in education is all about creating an environment in which both teachers and learners flourish. @MarkW_AMiE
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DECEMBER 2016 | ELM 3
NEED TO KNOW
NEWS IN BRIEF KEEP UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST EDUCATION SECTOR NEWS
PHOTOGRAPH: SIMON DAVIS/DFID
BALLOT ON NEW UNION TO BE HELD IN SPRING MEMBERS WILL BE ASKED to decide whether they want to work with the NUT to create the largest education union in the country. Delegates at a special conference held in London in November voted to ballot members next spring on forming the National Education Union. The new union would have almost half a million members, strengthening its influence. Addressing delegates at the London event, ATL general secretary Mary Bousted said school leaders are massively overworked and suffering austerity pay rates. Dr Bousted went on to say AMiE would have a leadership committee in the new union, adding that the NUT’s president is a primary school headteacher. Around 40 members, including a number of AMiE members, spoke in support of balloting on a new union during a two-hour debate. AMiE council member Robin Bevan urged delegates to vote yes, arguing: “You should emphatically and, ideally unanimously, vote yes because our shared purpose with the membership of the NUT is greater than our sectional divisions.” “In a new education union the interests of the small subgroups of our current unions will be better represented. Support staff, FE lecturers, leadership, whichever group it may be,” he added. After the conference, AMiE director Mark Wright said: “The new union really would be the best of both ATL and NUT, and designed afresh to meet the needs of educational professionals in a fragmented and unduly challenging education system.” For a full report on the special conference go to page 21. 4 ELM | DECEMBER 2016
EDUCATION BILL DROPPED PLANS TO HAND responsibility for accrediting new teachers to headteachers may be abandoned after the Government dropped its Education for All Bill. The bill, announced by former education secretary Nicky Morgan in March, would have forced schools to become academies, and scrapped qualified teacher status. However, in October, education secretary Justine Greening (pictured), signalled that Education for All would not be taken forward when she announced a Technical and Further Education Bill, adding: “We do not require wider
legislation in this session to make progress on our ambitious education agenda.” ATL/AMiE had been lobbying against the measures in Education for All. ATL director of economic strategy and negotiations Adrian Prandle said that dropping academy plans was “a victory for common sense and we are pleased the Government has listened to our members.” He added: “We hope this also means the Government has abandoned its plans to abolish qualified teacher status.”
FOCUS ON THE STUDENTS, NOT EGO NEWLY APPOINTED senior leaders sometimes impose change because “their focus is on results, their own status and their own ego,” rather than students. That was the message delivered by Gary Toward, a former teacher, and trainer at organisation Decisive Element, whose comments were met with nods and murmurs of agreement. Speaking at AMiE's first LeadMeet, he said: “I’ve seen leaders just make changes and take away the whole ethos of a school or department that links into the ethos of the school without thinking about it, without consulting. And they wonder why things go wrong. “What you do as a leader should never be about results and it should never be about you,” he added. “It should always be about one thing: the kid that sits in front of you.” Co-founder of Decisive Element Chris Henley, who also spoke, said all teachers are leaders and agents of change.
“All teachers are, by definition, leaders within the classroom,” he said. “A teacher is a leader of those 30 young people, and what a privilege it is to make a difference to their lives. Once you have made a difference to that young person’s life you will be important to them for the rest of their lives. “As a leader you will make a difference to the department, to that team of teachers at that curriculum stage, and to the body of your staff as a whole – your teachers, your TAs, everybody in that amazing team that makes up your school.” He went on to say: “If your aim as a leader is, with every interaction, to make things better not worse, then you are going to be on the way to being that inspiring leader who makes a difference. The hallmark of an inspiring leader is when members of the team want to do what you want them to do because you inspire them.”
WHO IS YOUR AMiE REP OF THE YEAR?
Nominations for rep of the year are now open. We have some excellent reps working hard daily to support AMiE members. Who do you believe should be
recognised? The deadline for nominations is 16 December. Visit www.atl.org.uk/repawards to nominate your rep.
NEED TO KNOW
SEND INSPECTIONS COULD TRIGGER OFSTED HEADTEACHERS ARE BEING urged to ensure their schools are fulfilling their responsibilities under the SEND code of practice 2014 or risk triggering an Ofsted inspection. As part of a programme of joint inspections of SEND provision by Ofsted and health regulator the Care Quality Commission, a number of schools are inspected across local authority areas. If inspectors gather evidence that reveals a safeguarding issue, this would then trigger an Ofsted section 5 inspection. Other evidence gathered as part of the inspection could then be used to inform Ofsted inspections.
Around 14 inspections have been carried out since May, when the programme was launched. Common findings to date have been that schools are not consistently following the code, some schools are not welcoming students with SEND, and their parents are being subtly encouraged to seek a place at another school. ATL policy adviser Anne Heavey said: “Headteachers should be aware that evidence from local area SEND inspections is shared with Ofsted inspections in the local region and may inform future inspections.”
PRESIDENT URGES LEADERS TO SUPPORT NEW TEACHERS
PHOTOGRAPH: HARVEY MANNS
AMiE PRESIDENT JULIA NEAL has underlined the importance of supporting new teachers. Speaking at AMiE’s first LeadMeet – a gathering of leaders who give short presentations on topical subjects – Neal highlighted the growing recruitment and retention crisis, before adding: “New teachers coming in are getting more and more responsibility thrust on them at an earlier time and they need more support. “That’s a big deal and we need to be talking about it.” Earlier, Neal spoke about the burden of unnecessary workload at the event, which was held at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in October and attended by
education leaders, teachers and thirdyear trainees. At Torquay Girls’ Grammar School, where she taught for 38 years, leaders have introduced initiatives to cut workload, said Neal. They include scrapping marking of exercise books. “That’s quite controversial and it has to be really well explained to parents,” she said. “Each of the departments in school is going to set half-termly assessments, which are prepared very carefully in the class for the students. There is a very detailed feedback form that they can fill in with target-setting and their own assessment and, if they want it, oral feedback.”
LEADERS SHOULD FOCUS ON TEACHING AND LEAVE OPERATIONAL MATTERS TO OTHERS PRIMARY LEADERS SHOULD focus on teaching and learning, and delegate the business of managing a school to others, according to a report commissioned by the Teaching Schools Council. The report, Effective Primary Teaching Practice 2016, is based on work by 11 heads and teachers. It says that, in effective schools, the most senior leaders are visible and know what is going on in their classrooms. “This is not about draconian micromanagement or lots of formal high-stakes lesson observations,” it adds. “Rather, it is part of a collaborative discussion about improving pupil outcomes between teachers and leaders through informal, frequent drop-ins.” The report recommends that headteachers and leaders in schools reassess their practice, considering, in particular, their role in leading teaching and learning and their role in investing in teachers by providing professional development. AMiE director Mark Wright said: “This is a really useful reflection tool for senior and middle leaders and classroom teachers keen to ensure effective teaching and learning that is not at the expense of staff.” Read the report at http://tscouncil. org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ Effective-primary-teaching-practice2016-report-web.pdf.
PRIMARY LEADERS SURVEYED ON ASSESSMENT PROPOSALS ATL HAS SURVEYED primary school leaders in England to gauge views on whether measures announced by education secretary Justine Greening to improve primary assessment go far enough.
Following lobbying by ATL, Greening said that schools will not face intervention based on 2016 assessment data alone. Guidance on the teacher assessment of writing, supported by mandatory
training for local authority moderators, was also announced. SATs resits at Year 7 will be shelved. The survey also asked leaders what other changes, if any, should be made to primary assessment.
DECEMBER 2016 | ELM 5
COMMENT: WALES
Speaking up for ALN AS WELSH ASSEMBLY MEMBERS PREPARE AN ADDITIONAL LEARNING NEEDS BILL, THEIR PRIORITY SHOULD BE MAKING SURE CHILDREN GET THE EXTRA SUPPORT THEY NEED
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TL Cymru and other education unions held a joint briefing for assembly members (AMs) in September ahead of the publication of draft additional learning needs (ALN) legislation. The event was hosted by Hefin David AM and attended by minister for lifelong learning and Welsh Alun Davies AM. It gave us an opportunity to set out for AMs the key issues they need to have in mind when they begin scrutinising the bill, which is due to be laid before the Assembly this month. ATL Cymru and the other unions have a number of serious concerns about the potential content of the imminent draft legislation. We are also concerned about the funding to implement it, given the cuts by local authorities to ALN budgets. We also believe the ALN coordinator job description must be manageable to ensure recruitment and retention, and the postholder must be given sufficient non-contact time. Headteachers should not be given the role. It is also important that specialist provision is made available and funded under the bill, and we are seeking assurances that it will say access to specialists, such as educational psychologists, “must” be provided rather than merely “should”. A ‘may’ or a ‘must’ can make a huge difference to the impact of legislation. Laws can change lives. My mother has said to me on many occasions that without the 1981 Education Act, I would not have had the educational opportunities I have had. As a partially sighted person I would not have had a statement of needs and access to local authority support. I might have gone away to a specialist school and my life could have been very different. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a parent, a teacher or someone else to fight for them, to articulate their needs, or to be able to do so for themselves. The law should be there to make sure there are no gaps for any child to fall between.
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COLUMNIST MARY VAN DEN HEUVEL POLICY OFFICER, ATL CYMRU At the meeting, I told AMs that we need a law for ALN that allows children and young people to access the right support for them, at the right time, without having to fight for it every step of the way. The issues we have identified about the ALN coordinator job description, as well as duties on governing bodies, workload, duties on health, the assessment process as well as the issues about what a tribunal will look like (and many more) are common to many of those who responded to a draft bill published last year. We look forward to working with all those involved and to seeing the bill when it is laid before the Assembly.
“THE LAW SHOULD BE THERE TO MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO GAPS FOR ANY CHILD TO FALL BETWEEN.”
COMMENT: NORTHERN IRELAND
Enabling equality DISABILITY ACTION’S NEW REPORT GIVES KEY ADVICE ON ENSURING EQUALITY FOR WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES
M
anaging employees with disabilities can be fraught with pitfalls, but it needn’t be. AMiE has worked closely with the charity Disability Action, whose new publication provides a wealth of sound advice and
COLUMNIST MARK LANGHAMMER DIRECTOR OF ATL NORTHERN IRELAND
signposts to support. Most managers will be aware of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995, which makes it unlawful to treat job applicants or employees with a disability less favourably than other people. Notwithstanding the DDA, the employment rate for those with disabilities in Northern Ireland runs 15 percentage points behind their equivalents in Great Britain. Only 33% of disabled people are in employment – less than half the number of non-disabled people. Half of employees with a disability feel uncomfortable about disclosing their disability at interview stage, and many in employment are uncomfortable about disclosing or being open about their disability to their manager or employer. Less than half of disabled respondents asked for reasonable adjustments as they “didn’t want to draw attention to their disability” or because it would be “embarrassing”. Of those who did, nearly a third reported receiving little or no help following their requests. Clearly, there is work for managers and employers to do. One teacher, recently represented by ATL, commented: “The school principal wanted to retire me on medical grounds, but my job is vital to me and I didn’t want to leave it. The peer advocate contacted my employer and a meeting was arranged with them and my union representative. Initially the employer was reluctant, but through continued discussion, reasonable adjustments were put in place. A year later, I was promoted to head of department. I can’t thank Disability Action and ATL enough.” By taking collective action, employers, Government and
people with disabilities can help secure equality of opportunity in employment, and an enriched workplace. Disability Action’s new publication, Hard at Work: Employment and Disability in Northern Ireland, provides tips and advice for managers: • Talk to disabled employees and avoid making assumptions, because disabled people are usually experts on their disability. • Review human resources policies and practices at your college or school and ensure they comply with the law. • Implement reasonable adjustments promptly and be open and flexible to a range of adjustments, which are specific to individual circumstances. Review adjustment plans regularly as circumstances can change. • Seek advice and support and access the wide range of support available (see below). • Provide support and training for employees and, particularly, for line managers of disabled employees. • Celebrate the positive contribution disabled staff make to the workplace. • Promote employment for disabled people, and share your practice with other colleges, schools and educational employers. Promoting inclusion makes good organisational sense. Support is available to managers and employees with disabilities. • The Government Disability Employment Service provides a range of services to those seeking a job or needing in-work support. Programmes that may be relevant to education managers are: - Access to Work (NI) - Work Connect - The Job Introduction Scheme - Workable (NI) - The Condition Management Programme -O ther Government schemes include ‘Job Grant’ or the Travel to Interview Scheme. • The Occupational Psychology Service provides services to people with disabilities who are seeking work or experiencing difficulties in work. 3 MORE INFORMATION For further information, contact Disability Action on 028 9029 7880; text-phone 028 9029 7882; email employmentadvocacy@ disabilityaction.org; or vist www.disabilityaction.org.
DECEMBER 2016 | ELM 7
P O L I C Y M AT T E R S
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS: IS THIS THE WAY FORWARD? The Government’s schools green paper will not deliver “schools that work for everyone”. Instead, it will advantage a minority at the expense of the rest WORDS PAUL STANISTREET
8 ELM | DECEMBER 2016
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ot long after she became prime minister, Theresa May declared her intention to ignore the lessons of educational research and the advice of experts, and overturn decades of cross-party political consensus, by lifting the ban on the creation of new selective grammar schools. She was, she said, “unapologetic” about her “belief in social mobility and making this
country a true meritocracy – a country that works for everyone”. In September, her Government published Schools that Work for Everyone, a green paper that proposes the expansion of selection by educational ability. A range of other changes are also included, such as removing the 50% admissions cap on faith schools and allowing them to select up to 100% of their pupils based on faith. The paper also unveiled plans for independent schools to sponsor schools in the state sector and for universities to play “a direct role in improving school quality and pupil attainment”.
Expansion aspirations The green paper aspires to “expand radically the number of good school places available to all families” and to deliver “a diverse school system that provides all children, whatever their background,
P O L I C Y M AT T E R S
with schooling that will help them achieve their potential,” but, regrettably, it has little else to recommend it. Indeed, it is difficult to see how the proposals will do anything other than worsen social mobility, restrict parental choice and further narrow opportunity for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. As ATL general secretary Mary Bousted points out, “grammar schools are not, and never have been, a vehicle for social mobility”, which may explain why the paper is full of caveats and safeguards to prevent its proposals having an entirely predictable negative impact on the poorest children. “There is nothing really to like in the paper at all,” says Simon Stokes, ATL senior policy adviser. “It’s not the way we would have approached raising standards within schools. There is a lot of good work being done in schools at the moment. But this paper ignores that and goes down a route that we thought was dead and buried.” Selection is at the heart of the green paper. It mentions “good evidence to suggest that grammar schools deliver high-quality education … and that their pupils outperform their counterparts at non-selective schools” and proposes reversing the ban on new grammars, pledging to ensure they “help children from all backgrounds” and earmarking £50 million a year to support the expansion of existing selective schools and the creation of new ones. The main problem with selection, however, is that it cannot possibly “work” for every pupil. It is premised on the failure of the majority. Unsurprisingly, then, as the OECD has made clear, there is “no relationship between increasing selection and how well school systems perform”. “It may help the 20% of kids who get into grammar schools, but it will brand as failures those who don’t make the grade,” argues Stokes. “That can have a demoralising effect on children of that age. It’s not going to work for everyone. It’s just going to work for a very small minority.” Advantage over ability That minority is likely to be drawn overwhelmingly from among the already-advantaged. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that only three per cent of pupils at existing grammar schools are eligible for free school meals, compared to 17% in grammar school areas as a whole. The OECD notes that “schools are very good at selecting students by their social background but are not very good at
selecting students by their academic potential”. This helps explain Sutton Trust research that shows students from comprehensive schools outperform students from independent and grammar schools with comparable grades once they get to university. “Selection will worsen social mobility, because the aspiring middle classes will tutor for the tests,” Stokes says. “It won’t be a test of ability; it will be a test of the ability to pay.” He dismisses suggestions that a new 11-plus test will be one that cannot be tutored for. “There’s no evidence to support that. In fact, there is a lot of evidence out there that says that all tests can be tutored for. Exposure to tests is important. Parents who can afford that additional tuition will pay for their child to have exposure to 11-plus tests to give them that advantage in applying to a grammar school.” There are similar concerns that plans to allow faith schools to select all pupils on the basis of their parents’ faith will also further benefit the already-privileged. Research shows that higher-income religious families are more likely to have pupils at faith schools than lower-income religious families, and suggests that the reason faith schools
majority of schools, 85%, are good or outstanding. Parents just want a good local school for their children and that’s what we need to offer.” A fortunate few The green paper seems to assume, first, that state schools are struggling and, second, that independent schools and universities are best placed to support them. However, independent school teachers usually benefit from smaller class sizes and from pupils who are, on the whole, willing and well-prepared to learn, and it is far from clear that putting independent school teachers into state schools will work. The track record of independent school involvement in the state sector is patchy at best. The same can be said of university involvement in the academies and free school programme. University engagement in their communities is uneven at best and there is little to support the assumption that universities know best when it comes to running successful schools. There is also a danger that university involvement will further distort careers advice for students who may suit less academic and more technical routes.
“THERE IS A LOT OF GOOD WORK BEING DONE IN SCHOOLS AT THE MOMENT. BUT THIS PAPER IGNORES THAT AND GOES DOWN A ROUTE THAT WE THOUGHT WAS DEAD AND BURIED.” perform better in exams is more to do with the socio-economic background of parents than with the religious character of the schools. There is no evidence to suggest that pupils from poorer backgrounds perform better at faith schools. The paper reports “demand from parents” for more grammar schools and parental choice is frequently cited as a driver of the reforms. However, it is unclear how the green paper will deliver this, still less whether this is the sort of choice parents want. “In fact, it will remove choice from parents,” Stokes argues. “At the moment, parents indicate which school they want their children to go to. The green paper proposals will allow schools to select which pupils they take. It’s the same with faith schools. It will be the schools that decide. It’s removing parental choice. And according to the latest Ofsted reports, the vast
There is an odd perversity at the heart of this green paper. Having declared grammar schools a driver of social mobility, it then spends most of its 30-odd pages tying itself in knots attempting to mitigate the inevitable damage the expansion of grammar schools will have on social mobility. If the Government is serious about providing ‘schools that work for everyone’, the annual £50 million earmarked for grammar expansion might be better spent on the 15% of maintained schools that currently underperform. It is difficult to think of a set of policy proposals less likely to deliver the stated aim of a paper. Theresa May called the green paper “an ambitious package of education reforms”. Far from being ambitious for the future of our children and young people, it expresses lack of ambition of the worst kind – by accepting implicitly that a good education can only ever be available to a fortunate few. DECEMBER 2016 | ELM 9
F E AT U R E
Corporate classrooms? An AMiE report highlights the “creeping corporatisation” of education and reflects on the results-driven culture now rife in many schools and colleges WORDS SALLY GILLEN ILLUSTRATION ALIX THOMAZI
O
nce it would have been inconceivable that the most senior leader in a school would not be required to have experience of working in education. Not these days. When a multi-academy trust advertised for a new chief executive, it said “schools or education experience is not considered essential”. Instead it sought someone “commercial in outlook”. This example of the increasing business ethos in education, along with numerous others, is included in a new report by AMiE director Mark Wright called Business As Usual: the increasing corporatisation of education leadership and management. The report is likely to make uncomfortable reading for many working in education. Its findings, however, won’t come as a surprise. After all, it was AMiE members who voiced concerns about the creeping corporatisation of education, passing a motion at ATL’s Annual Conference 2015, calling on the union to carry out a deeper investigation into the issue. Business As Usual, produced in response to the motion, concludes that a results-driven culture is rife in many
10 ELM | DECEMBER 2016
schools and colleges, where performance is prioritised over pupils. The report links the proliferation of academies with the rise in business practices. Academies increasingly appoint people from the private sector, from outside education, to the most senior positions. They bring with them hardnosed business practices that impact on the workplace culture. “Many multi-academy trusts now routinely favour a corporate focus and business skills over education experience when recruiting executive heads, while heads of schools find themselves operating as middle managers in an essentially corporate organisation,” says Wright in the report. Arguably, there is nothing wrong with the principle of incorporating some business practices into education. In an ideal world, leaders’ focus would be on teaching and learning, but there is still the running of the school or college to
Academies increasingly appoint people from the private sector who bring with them hard-nosed business practices.
Arts Company
DECEMBER 2016 | ELM 11
F E AT U R E
manage. A new report Effective Primary Teaching Practice 2016, commissioned and published by the Teaching Schools Council, acknowledges the difficulties this places on headteachers and recommends using a school business manager. AMiE vice president Josie Whiteley would agree that business managers have their place and that business principles being incorporated into the education system is not entirely a bad thing. “If we are talking about business principles used by reputable companies with staff who feel valued and supported to deliver high-quality products, why would education managers and teachers not support that?” In Whiteley’s view, however, this is not what is happening. Instead, she says, “We seem to be in a race to the bottom, slashing budgets while expecting first-class outcomes. Such an approach is entirely incompatible with quality, no matter how many extra hours the profession works.” One such example of budgets being cut is in FE. Whiteley says to begin with there may have been areas in which efficiencies could be made, but there is a tipping point, and cutting budgets to the bone has become all too common. “We reached that a while ago in FE and both staff and students are suffering because they are required to deliver the undeliverable. When did a ‘full-time’ post-16 course become deliverable in just two days a week? “No investment and insufficient resources lead to a sub-standard product. Surely this isn’t a good business model?” she asks. Redirected finances There is also no shortage of examples of finances being drained away from the core function of schools and colleges, which is to deliver learning, if some of the cases AMiE regional officials are dealing with are anything to go by. At one London school, an assistant principal who was paid an allowance for undertaking some of the tasks that are part of deputy head post, which was unfilled, was told they would no longer receive the money. At the same time, an executive headteacher, appointed in addition to a headteacher to take on the school’s 12 ELM | DECEMBER 2016
A tipping point has surely been reached at one college, with a decision to rename curriculum departments as ‘companies’. business interests, was given a salary of £250,000. AMiE regional official Mark Hughes explains: “AMiE successfully represented the assistant principal by highlighting that the school was not compliant with the agreed terms as identified within the School Teachers Pay and Conditions (STPC) document in two ways. Referring to the STPCD, AMiE was able to highlight that our member’s pay was below those being recommended and that the school had additional costs due to the appointment of an executive head on a salary in excess of £250,000 per annum. “It is well known that recruitment is becoming increasingly difficult and taking away resources to fund executive heads will only exacerbate the situation. “We should be asking questions about the impact on the motivation of school leadership of taking away resources from teaching and learning and using the finance to restructure a school,” he says. A tipping point One place where a tipping point has surely been reached is at a college in the south of England, with a decision to rename curriculum departments ‘companies’. Language of this type reveals the business mindset of those leading the college. But, as Wright argues in his report, adopting a business-first rather than learner-first approach is not inevitable. There are ways for leaders to resist it, even in the face of considerable pressures. In Business As Usual, Wright argues: “Good leadership is able to temper the assembly line pressures that impact on both staff and pupils, in spite of the system. They are able to inculcate a positive and collaborative culture, and these schools tend to be able to resist the excessive demands of a workhouse system of education.” He adds that there are many examples of private-sector companies that treat staff well, paying them sufficiently,
setting reasonable working hours and not only drawing up but following well-being policies. “For example, leading global tech firm Infosys has taking care of its staff as its primary strategic goal, and places its customers second to that. It knows that strong leadership which places its staff at the heart of the business leads to customer contentment,” he says. Recognising the environment that many leaders are working in, AMiE has published Leading in Tough Times: keeping ethics at the heart of your practice, a booklet combining theory and practice on how to lead in an ethical manner, even when the pressure for results may put leaders’ ethics to the test. Real-life case studies are featured in the booklet that highlight some of the poor practices in the ‘wild west’ culture growing in the education system. Among the case studies is one that involved a relatively new academy, where the principal was alarmed by the ruthless and unethical demands of the academy chain sponsors, who were concerned by what they viewed as the slow rate of improvement. The principal was told to shelve plans for an alternative curriculum for disruptive students and use more permanent exclusions instead. So concerned was the principal by this and other demands, they eventually decided to resign. Other staff followed – some left voluntarily, others were forced out. The booklet offers inspiration with tools and techniques to help reclaim the values that got many of us into education in the first place and in ways that lead up to effective leadership, says Wright. “While Business As Usual identifies the problems we are seeing across the system due to an appetite for ‘win at all costs’ business practices, just recognising the problem is half the battle. The report gives us the story so far but we now have an opportunity to help write a more positive next chapter,” he adds. “Resources like Leading in Tough Times: keeping ethics at the heart of your practice show that by making small changes we can make a difference to workplace culture.”
LL EE A AD D EE R R SS H H II PP SS EE M M II N NA AR R
PHOTOGRAPH: SHUTTERSTOCK
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he scale of the staff retention challenge facing leaders is laid bare by what AMiE president Julia Neal describes as an “alarming” statistic: of the 2010 intake, 30% had quit the profession within five years. Tackling the growing retention problem was the theme of an AMiE leadership seminar held last month, where Neal and a range of other speakers presented leaders with ideas on how to hold on to staff by focusing on staff engagement and well-being. Introducing the seminar, Neal cited National Foundation for Educational Research that shows the proportion of teachers leaving for reasons other than retirement rose from six to eight per cent between 2011–15. The numbers of teachers leaving, coupled with a predicted increase of nearly one million pupils in the next decade, will mean leaders need to be proactive in addressing retention, she told delegates. Several factors affect retention, including workload and support from managers. “We are asking leaders to think differently about these issues,” she added. “We know the pressures on leadership, and the Government hasn’t helped by loading on all these initiatives and cutting funds, but you need to be proactive.” Engaging the workforce, talking, trusting and valuing teachers all make a difference to retention.
“The pressures all round are increasing with fewer resources. Supporting staff well-being is important,” she said, adding the numbers of teachers taking medication such as anti-depressants and sleeping pills has grown “exponentially” in recent years. More than half of teachers who leave state schools will take up jobs elsewhere in the education sector, which are not necessarily higher-paid roles. High-risk leaver groups include male teachers with more than five years’ teaching experience; secondary school teachers; and science teachers, particularly those with a portable qualification. More experienced teachers are more likely to leave than younger teachers, said Neal. However, she went on to say members of ATL Future had told her they were concerned about being handed responsibility far too early without adequate support from managers. Following Neal’s introduction, trainers and co-authors of AMiE’s new publication, Leading in Tough Times: keeping ethics at the heart of your practice, Jackie Christie and Peter Rushton, outlined the benefits that creating an ethically sound work environment can have on staff retention. Rushton, who along with Christie is a trainer at Promoting Excellence, told the seminar there is global evidence, from inside and outside education, showing a
Learning from leaders WITH ALARMING LEVELS OF TEACHERS QUITTING, AMiE RAN A SEMINAR LOOKING AT WHAT LEADERS CAN DO TO IMPROVE STAFF RETENTION WORDS SALLY GILLEN
strong link between a values-driven organisation and keeping hold of staff in difficult times. Delegates were asked to think about inspirational leaders they had encountered, reflecting on what the key qualities of these leaders were. Fairness, a caring attitude towards staff, calm tone of voice and communicating well with staff, even when under pressure, were among the attributes of good leadership highlighted. AMiE director Mark Wright led the final session of the day and illustrated several effective tools and techniques to address staff well-being. Leaders “set the weather” in their organisations, he said, adding that they also set an example in terms of encouraging staff to focus on self-care and making sure they give staff regular praise so they feel valued, particularly during challenging times. “A lot of leaders say they praise, but when teachers are asked, they don’t always see it the same way,” he said. “When workload is high you need to acknowledge this and take extra effort to recognise staff efforts because you are setting the weather on a daily basis
“AS A LEADER YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT NOURISHING BOTH YOURSELF AND THOSE IN YOUR CARE.” and it isn’t enough to think you gave recognition last week.” Leaders need to walk in the shoes of staff, to have concern that their physical, emotional and mental well-being is considered because this, in turn, impacts on their overall health and appetite for the job. Leaders need to demonstrate this care if their staff aren’t to vote with their feet and gravitate to a more compassionate and understanding employer. “As a leader you need to seriously think about nourishing both yourself and those in your care,” he concluded. And as one participant said: “I felt guilty about being out of school all day but it was incredibly worth it – lots of food for thought – things are going to change!” JULY 2016 DECEMBER 2016 || ELM ELM 13 13
PROFILE
M
artin Doel’s eight years as chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC) were marked by tumultuous and constant flux in the further education and skills sector as well as substantial reductions in Government funding. While schools and universities have also been subject to fundamental reform and significant fiscal constraint, the rate of change has been faster and the depth of the cuts has been deeper in FE. “If the same level of cuts had occurred in schools or in universities I think you would have had meltdown in the system,” says Doel. “But colleges and independent training providers have, overall, proven themselves to be highly resilient in the face of that much change.” While that resilience is typical of a sector that has had more than its fair share of testing change, Doel, in his unique new role as the first Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL) Professor of Leadership in Further Education and Skills, wants sector leaders to think their way beyond the here and now. “The accelerating rate of change in the sector is a real challenge to leaders,” Doel explains. “But the difficulty with just coping is that you sometimes find it hard to develop a longer-term perspective. That applies as much to my former job as it does to leaders within colleges. When I was at the AoC, I was used to dealing with the next crisis. You hope, of course, to
make the world better, but in the end you often just make it less bad through what you do. Hopefully, almost by accident, you maintain a direction of travel. Most often, that’s driven by your own values and what’s important to you and the institutions you are supporting. But after a time that can become almost self-defeating, you become prey to the whims of whatever the latest change is or whatever the latest policy direction is. In a way, that is admirable, but it doesn’t protect the distinct contribution that colleges, training providers, sixth-form colleges and other specialist institutions are able to make.” It is this distinct contribution that Doel wants to clarify and defend in his new professorial role, based at the University College London’s Institute of Education and funded by the FETL. It is a new challenge for Doel who, prior to his role at the AoC, directed training and education for the Ministry of Defence and worked for the Royal Air Force as director of personnel and training strategist. His aim
in his new role is to “influence thinking” and, he hopes, inform policy for the sector. His research will focus on both the distinctive contribution FE and skills can make to national prosperity, and the leadership challenges facing FE providers of all kinds. He plans to combine reflection on the significance of selfdefinition in managing uncertainty with case studies and structured interviews with leaders. Speaking at City of Glasgow College’s first International Education Symposium in October, Doel told delegates that he would seek “to stimulate debate and thinking beyond the immediate and, in particular, to deeplying trends and deeper, more fundamental questions,” including questions about FE’s “defining purpose and intent”. This, Doel argues, is “the key leadership role”, particularly in a sector where mission statements are often “insufficiently focused and distinct”. It is a question that should engage not only principals but, importantly, governing bodies, which have a vital responsibility in setting strategic direction.
Finding a clear sense of purpose “You need to define who it is you serve, why you are serving them, why you are doing things you do and what most usefully you can contribute to individual prosperity, national productivity, and greater social inclusion and self-realisation,” Doel argues. “We should challenge ourselves to say what, particularly, we or our institutions are,
Leaders must do more than just cope
AS HE BEGINS HIS NEW ROLE AS PROFESSOR OF LEADERSHIP IN FE AND SKILLS, FORMER AoC CHIEF MARTIN DOEL URGES LEADERS TO LOOK BEYOND THE LATEST CRISIS AND THINK LONGER-TERM ABOUT THE ROLE AND PURPOSE OF THEIR ORGANISATIONS WORDS PAUL STANISTREET
14 ELM | DECEMBER 2016
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
PROFILE
most effectively, contributing, rather than just going with the flow.” If we fail to do so, he says, we cannot expect to navigate change and uncertainty effectively, with short-term survival bought “at the cost of long-term distinctiveness and viability”. In a sector that changes “too often and in too much detail”, a clear sense of purpose is essential, not just in weathering and emerging strongly from uncertainty, but in avoiding being squeezed by competing interests. Part of Doel’s new role will be to think about the purpose and mission of the sector, how it complements the missions of schools and universities and what it adds to the educational “ecosystem” – his term for the distinct local space in which providers operate. Doel would like to see institutions from different parts of the sector working more collaboratively, recognising that they are part of the same ecosystem, with the same
overall objectives to educate, train and equip students for life and work. “It’s an instructive way of thinking about what goes on in a locality,” he explains. “If you look at area reviews through the lens of ecosystems, having a greater degree of differentiation between players in a local area is more likely to induce a greater degree of mutual respect and collaboration than the current situation where institutions, certainly over the last 25 years, have been encouraged to be almost Hobbesian in their approach to competition, as though you only prosper at the cost of another institution or provider. That can’t be a sustainable way to go forward.” Incentives for greater collaboration must not be top-down, Doel argues, but should emerge more naturally, over time. “Thinking in this way obliges you to take a longer-term perspective,” he says. “Inevitably, it requires people to give some things away while retaining others. While colleges sometimes continue to deliver academic [rather than technical or professional] provision because it earns them income, it is not necessarily the appropriate provision for the young people following the courses. At the same time, some independent
“WE SHOULD CHALLENGE OURSELVES TO SAY WHAT, PARTICULARLY, WE ARE EFFECTIVELY CONTRIBUTING RATHER THAN JUST GOING WITH THE FLOW.”
training providers ride on the back of colleges by identifying profitable students and courses and leaving others to pick up the rest without acknowledging how they are interdependent and being properly respectful of each other. It would be a shame if, after area reviews, we ended up with fewer, larger colleges who behave in exactly the same manner and end up in the same place as a larger number of smaller colleges.” The same considerations apply to schools, Doel says, warning that the growth of large academy chains, often at the expense of other providers, “can undermine overall outcomes for an area, resulting in a narrower curriculum and a lack of diversity”. Other parts of the system then have to deal with the consequences, with an inevitably negative impact on the “wellness of a place and the people within it”. In a similar way, FE colleges “pick up the tab” for those students who have failed to acquire GCSEs in English and maths by the age of 16, another significant distorting factor that runs counter to the idea of a learning ecosystem. “It’s an honourable task, and colleges should be recognised for the enormous efforts they are making. But it threatens to be a huge diversion from what might be regarded as colleges’ core role of providing technical and professional education. There is only so much you can get out of £4,000 per student and if you are pouring a lot of that into English and maths you are not pouring it into all of the other things Government has aspirations around.” While Doel values the sector’s role in giving people “second chances”, he is wary of colleges becoming known as places “where people who haven’t succeeded elsewhere go ... That is absolutely not what the colleges I know do and have as an aspiration,” he says. “However, it is sometimes how the rest of the system regards them. Defining their purposes and expertise more clearly will assist in rebalancing that perception. From my perspective, getting people in FE to think more deeply and longer-term about their mission and contribution, while increasing awareness within academia of the importance of FE and skills, will mean my role will have been a success.” DECEMBER 2016 | ELM 15
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ABOUT AMiE
AMiE BOOKLET ON ETHICS AND LEADERSHIP NOW AVAILABLE Being an education leader has arguably never been tougher. The expectation for success is great, but so, too, is the potential to fail. Anyone working in such a pressured climate can find their ethics tested. Every day, leaders and managers are making difficult decisions. But how do you make sure the decisions you make are fair? How do you know that your recruitment practices are ethical? What kind of leader are you, do you give praise for a job well done? A new booklet produced by AMiE looks at what it means to be an ethical leader. A combination of theory and practice, the booklet contains many real-life case studies involving leaders who have grappled with difficult issues. For a copy of Leading in Tough Times: keeping ethics at the heart of your practice, go to http://amie.atl.org.uk/ help-and-advice/resources/cpdpublications.asp. New union regional roadshows ATL is holding a series of meetings about creating a new union, the National Education Union, with the NUT. A senior ATL spokesperson will present the case for creating a new union, answer your questions and
discuss your hopes and concerns about the proposal. Details will be posted on the website shortly www.atl.org.uk/ new-union, along with a booking form for each event. If you wish to register your attendance now, please email the organising team at organise@atl.org.uk. Schools Cuts interactive website An interactive map that allows users to see how individual schools could be affected by the Government’s intention to implement a new funding formula has been launched. By entering a postcode on www.schoolcuts.org.uk, visitors can see all the schools in an area and how they are likely to fare between now and 2020, and how that estimated funding loss equates into numbers of teacher posts. In education secretary Justine Greening’s own constituency of Putney, in London, 13% of funding will be lost – £740 per pupil, for example. ATL general secretary Mary Bousted said: “No school should be forced to cope with a drop in funding that will jeopardise its ability to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum and recruit and retain staff.”
LEADERSHIP COURSES FOR MEMBERS AMiE has a UK-wide network of elected representatives and members of staff who can help you with your queries. For more information on your regional contact and their contact details, please see amie.atl.org.uk/ about-amie/your-union/contact-us.asp. Here is a selection of course names and dates. LEADING CHANGE SUCCESSFULLY IN TURBULENT TIMES London 20 January 2017
We are the only union to represent managers and leaders across the entire education sector, providing: • help, advice and support: a confidential helpline, online guidance and a network of professional and experienced regional officers to support you in your role as both an employee, and as a manager or leader • excellent personal and professional development: accredited training and development opportunities for you in your role as a manager or leader • a voice in the education debate: an opportunity to influence policy and get involved in issues that affect you • publications and resources: a range of free publications focused on contemporary leadership issues • more for your membership: discounts and rewards for you and your family on a range of products and services. And, with 50% off your first year’s membership*, there’s never been a better time to join AMiE. Join online at www.amie.atl.org.uk/join or call 0845 057 7000 (local call). Let AMiE take you further. WHO CAN JOIN? Colleges: AMiE welcomes managers at all levels in FE colleges, sixth-form colleges and adult education providers. Schools: We warmly invite school headteachers (including those in academies), deputy headteachers, assistant headteachers, acting headteachers, bursars and business managers to join AMiE. We also have many members in national organisations, training organisations and other areas of the education sector, including HE.
CONTACTING AMiE AMiE 35 The Point, Market Harborough Leicestershire LE16 7QU Tel: 01858 461110 www.amie.atl.org.uk National helpline Tel: 01858 464171 Email: helpline@amie.atl.org.uk Mark Wright Director of AMiE Tel: 020 7782 1530 Mobile: 07436 805330 Email: mwright@amie.atl.org.uk For membership queries, please contact the membership department on 020 7782 1602 or email: membership@atl.org.uk. *TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY, VISIT WWW.AMIE.ATL.ORG.UK FOR FULL SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS, MEMBERSHIP ELIGIBILITY AND FURTHER INFORMATION.
25 January 2017 For more information on these courses and to book, please see www.amie.atl.org.uk/join-in/cpd/overview.asp.
DECEMBER 2016 | ELM 17
MASTERCLASS
Pioneering charter to cut workload COULD A NEW INITIATIVE TO CAP TEACHERS’ NON-DIRECTED TIME HELP REDUCE WORKLOAD AND RETAIN STAFF? WORDS SALLY GILLEN
PHOTOGRAPH: SHUTTERSTOCK
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ne unsuitable applicant. That is the woeful response a growing number of heads are getting when they advertise for teachers. And it is not only schools with ‘challenges’ that have traditionally found it hard to recruit which are being forced to spend time and money re-advertising time and again. Now, even outstanding schools can’t fill posts. While the Government looks the other way, denying there is a recruitment crisis, locally heads are pioneering ways to address what is a very real challenge. In Nottingham, headteachers and unions are working to address the recruitment and retention problem by focusing on its main cause – workload. The city’s Education Improvement Board (EIB), which is made up of experts from schools, academies, universities, colleges and Nottingham City Council, launched a Fair Workload Charter for teachers in September (see box). Modelled on the Living Wage campaign, the charter works by allowing schools that sign up to use its logo on letterheads, websites and job adverts, the idea being that potential new recruits will have an assurance that they will have a reasonable workload. Such a guarantee may give schools an edge when they are recruiting. 18 ELM | DECEMBER 2016
More than 60 senior staff from across Nottingham took time out to attend the launch of the charter at a conference, where speakers included Ofsted’s director of schools Sean Harford and Wayne Norrie, chief executive of Greenwood Dale Foundation Trust. Norrie has said the charter will be adopted at the trust’s 30 academies across the country. Eleven schools in Nottingham have signed up and are using the logo. Elsewhere, heads from areas including Bedford, Cambridgeshire and Merseyside have been in contact with the EIB, keen to find out more about its work on workload, with a view to adopting the charter in their schools. Ofsted has voiced support for the charter, and influential MPs, too, are also taking note of what is happening in Nottingham. In October, EIB member and former headteacher David Anstead gave evidence to the Parliamentary Education Select Committee, which is carrying out an inquiry into teacher supply. Asked by MPs to name the single biggest issue affecting recruitment and retention, Anstead was emphatic: workload. The enthusiastic reception to the charter among heads nationwide prompted him to add: “I feel that we have struck a nerve here.” Unsurprising, given that headteachers are in a bind. They are propelled by a
The Fair Workload Charter Staff working in a Fair Workload Charter school can expect: a fair and reasonable workload , which will be ensured by adopting schemes such as the fiveminute lesson plan model, or by staff teaching directly from high-quality schemes of work, and a marking policy clarifying what will and won’t be marked. The policy will be based upon research evidencing practices that have been demonstrated to raise achievement policies, and especially those governing marking, assessment and data entry, being reviewed during the school’s usual cycle – and a workload-impact assessment for each carried out for teachers, the workload requirements of all policies should be reasonably deliverable within an additional maximum two-hour period, unless other contractual arrangements apply. For those with additional leadership responsibilities, a further one hour a day may be required.
desire to deliver the best education for their students, but they are also acutely aware that they need to find ways to ensure that their staff are not pushed to breaking point by workload. As Anstead told the MPs: “Teachers and heads are incredibly hardworking. They have moral purpose and that is why they are there. They could probably earn far more going into other professions. But it is
MASTERCLASS
that desire to do the right thing that is creating the problem. “One of the solutions is to work together to say actually it is all right to be doing a lot less. There’s a safety-innumbers approach to that.” Getting the support of Ofsted was important in promoting the charter among heads, he said. “Before we did our work in Nottingham, one of the things we did straight away was to get in touch with Sean Harford at Ofsted to ask him if he would come and speak in support of it because assuring heads that it is all right for their staff to do less has been really critical.” AMiE council member Ralph Surman, who is also a deputy head in Nottingham and has been involved in negotiating the content of the charter, describes it as a “bold move”. He concedes that while the challenges facing heads are numerous, the pledges set out in the charter to tackle workload, such as capping the time classroom teachers spend on
non-directed tasks at two hours, are realistic and achievable. At his school, he has planned three staff meetings on working smarter before governors decide on next steps in the spring term. Heads cannot afford not to look at ways to reduce staff workload, he argues, adding: “The job can be done in the hours set.”
Overtime hours pledge One of the charter’s pledges is that classroom teachers will not be expected
“HEADTEACHERS CAN’T AFFORD NOT TO LOOK AT WAYS TO REDUCE STAFF WORKLOAD. THE JOB CAN BE DONE IN THE HOURS SET.”
to work more than two hours on top of directed time each day on tasks such as marking and planning; leaders will have their time capped at three hours. Surman says: “We are essentially saying teachers should work no more than an extra 10 hours a week. This was the hardest decision that we came to as part of thrashing out the detail of the charter. It was a really bold step to try to quantify the hours. It took weeks and weeks of haggling. “When members are telling us they work on average 48 hours a week, and some up to 70 hours, then agreeing on up to 10 hours a week seemed realistic,” he added. “The emphasis is on ‘up to’ and not just allocating 10 hours carte blanche.” The charter also says that schools should have marking policies that clarify what will and will not be marked. The pledges draw on recommendations by three Department for Education (DfE) groups on workload, which reported on lesson planning and resources, data management and marking in March. Anstead said the groups’ recommendations were “explicit and sensible”. The DfE report on marking, for example, which makes the point that asking teachers to write extensive comments on every piece is a waste of their time because there is little evidence it improves outcomes in the longer term, is very sensible, he has said. It is hoped many more schools will join those that have already joined up and begin using the charter in 2017. The EIB, which is urging headteachers to use the charter, is offering to attend governors’ meetings to talk about it. “Nobody wants to tell a school how to do it, but we have to give some clear messages that, unless we do this, we are not going to resolve this recruitment and retention problem,” Anstead told MPs. The level of interest the charter has generated among heads so far is a sign they may have reached the same conclusion. 3 MORE INFORMATION Leaders and teachers have been working to reduce unnecessary workload as part of ATL’s workload campaign ‘It’s about time…’, launched a year ago. To find out more, go to www.atl.org.uk/abouttime.
DECEMBER 2016 | ELM 19
DADVICE E B AT E
A complaint about ‘rude’ emails needs careful handling
Advice to a headteacher on dealing with a potential disciplinary matter A member of staff has complained about the tone used in several emails from the deputy head, which the member of staff has found very rude. If this complaint is proved to be true, it could be quite serious. I am a new headteacher. How should I handle the complaint? The first thing you need to do is decide if this matter can be dealt with informally or if it warrants an investigation. If you feel the issue is simply down to poor communication, you may wish to hold an informal meeting with the deputy head to try to resolve it. If not, an investigation should take the form of a fact-finding exercise to collect all relevant information. Making a decision without carrying out a full and reasonable investigation can make any subsequent decisions or actions unfair. Familiarise yourself with the relevant policies and procedures and ensure that these are given to the deputy and anyone else involved in this process. Choose someone to be the investigating officer. This person should: • be fully trained in carrying out investigations • not be personally involved in the issue raised • not be involved in any decisionmaking further down the line. You may want to consider using a manager, someone from human resources or even an external 20 20 ELM ELM || FEBRUARY DECEMBER 2015 2016
consultant. It is always best practice to use a different person at each stage, preferably someone higher in the structure each time. This avoids allegations of one person being judge and jury. With this in mind, be aware that you may need: • someone to carry out an investigation • someone else to make a decision on what action, if any, to take • someone else to hear any subsequent appeal. You should ensure the investigating officer has clear terms of reference: • Do you want the officer to complete a report? (This is advisable). • Do you want the recommendation on how the complaint should proceed? • This must not be a fishing exercise, that is, an excuse to seek out further allegations. • The officer must be fair and objective. • It is not within their remit to find evidence to prove the allegation, just to gather the facts. You must then decide if the deputy should be suspended while the complaint is being investigated. Suspension should only be used as a last resort. Only consider it when: • there is a potential threat to the school or other employees • it is impossible to properly investigate the complaint if the deputy remains at work (for example, because the deputy may destroy evidence or attempt to influence witnesses) • relationships at work have broken down to such an extent that suspension is required • the employer has conducted a preliminary investigation to establish that there is prima facie evidence of the alleged misconduct
• it is not possible to place the deputy in another area of the school while the investigation is carried out. In all other cases, suspension should be avoided. You must emphasise to the deputy that suspension is not an assumption of guilt. You may be asked to justify your decision to suspend if the deputy appeals against the suspension. You should ensure that the deputy is aware of the right to be represented by a trade union official at all stages of the process. If you have made the decision to suspend you should ensure: • the period of suspension is as short as possible • any investigation and hearing is conducted as soon as possible • the deputy is given full pay while suspended – any attempt to suspend without pay will suggest the outcome has been predetermined • give the deputy clear information regarding the length of the suspension and their obligations during that period (for example, not being allowed to undertake any paid work or to contact colleagues or clients) • remind everyone involved of the need for confidentiality. If you are going to be the person making the decision, your involvement in the investigation should cease. Once you have the investigating officer’s report you should review it and make a decision about how to proceed. Try to make this decision quickly but after careful consideration so as not to prolong the suspension. If you proceed to disciplinary, you must follow the employer’s policy and procedure to the letter. For further information, go to www.amie.atl.org.uk.
U N I O N M AT T E R S
UNION PLANS MOVE FORWARD Special conference delegates have voted overwhelmingly to ballot members on the creation of a new national union with the NUT WORDS SALLY GILLEN
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ext spring, ATL/AMiE will ask members if they want to create a new education union with the NUT to strengthen their voice with decision-makers and improve support in the workplace. Around 300 delegates who attended a special conference last month voted overwhelmingly to ballot members on creating the National Education Union (NEU), which would have approaching half a million members. The new union would be the largest education union in the country, the fourth largest in the TUC, and would represent and support a significant number of managers and leaders across the sector. Opening the conference, ATL general secretary Mary Bousted said: “We have all worked hard to be stronger and more effective and to transform education both for our members and those we educate. “We are a modern, 21st century union, holding our own, using our resources wisely, highly respected by key stakeholders, from Government ministers and civil servants to think tanks and other unions. We have a seat at the table and our voice is listened to.”
assessment changes and the recruitment and retention crisis. “Teaching is no longer a profession for life, with a worryingly high number of teachers leaving early in their careers,” she continued. “School leaders and teachers in England and Wales are massively overworked and have been suffering austerity pay rates.” The new union would have more resources to do much more for its members – more CPD, more legal support, more advice, and better organising. It would also have a louder voice with Government. “Working separately, our resources are divided and our voice is weakened. We direct resources into competing with each other for new members, into sending multiple representatives to local negotiations.” Dr Bousted said the rule book for the new union has been written to encapsulate ATL’s values and culture. This means the new union would protect ATL’s current categories of membership. Places for post-16, independent and support staff would be reserved on the Executive. “The new union will continue with AMiE and will have a leadership/AMiE Committee. The NUT already has more
“You should emphatically and, ideally unanimously, vote yes because our shared purpose with the membership of the NUT is greater than our sectional divisions.” However, she said, attacks on the profession meant ATL has not achieved as much for members as we need to achieve, adding: “And nor has any other education union.” She then went on to make the case for a new union able to take on the multiple threats facing the profession, including funding cuts, unrelenting workload,
leadership members than us. They are active on the NUT Executive – indeed, a primary school leader is the NUT president this year.” Moving on to the issue of industrial action, Dr Bousted said ATL has achieved key safeguards, including the requirement that there must be an indicative survey of members to
demonstrate support for a strike. Dr Bousted added: “And the rules recognise the right of individual members not to be compelled to take action or to suffer any detriment; as a result, something which is not, actually, in our current rule book.” Almost all speakers supported the proposal. The majority spoke passionately about there being strength in numbers at a time of numerous Government attacks on the profession. AMiE council member Robin Bevan said: “You should emphatically and, ideally unanimously, vote yes because our shared purpose with the membership of the NUT is greater than our sectional divisions. “In a new education union the interests of the small subgroups of our current unions will be better represented. Support staff, FE lecturers, leadership, whichever group it may be. “Tomorrow’s education workers deserve to be heard, deserve to be involved in policy formation and implementation, deserve to have workplace reps.” Urging delegates to support a ballot, Dr Bousted said: “I think the arguments are overwhelmingly strong. We should act now, and lead now, for the sake of our members; for the sake of our union.” At an NUT conference held on the same day, delegates overwhelmingly voted to ballot members on creating a new union. If members of both unions vote to form the NEU in the ballot next year, it would start a transitional phase from 1 September 2017 until 1 January 2019, when a new Executive would be elected and ATL and NUT sections would be integrated. 3 MORE INFO If you have a query about the new union, please visit www.atl.org.uk/newunion or email newunion@atl.org.uk.
DECEMBER FEBRUARY2016 2015| |ELM ELM 21 21
FINAL WORD
D espite opposition from employers’ groups, including the Confederation of British Industry, which has called it “a tax on work”, the Government is pressing ahead with the apprenticeship levy, which will begin in April 2017. The Institute for Apprenticeships will be newly established by this date. This is the body that will approve the apprenticeship standards and assessment plans from groups of employers, and the cap on the level of Government funding available for each apprenticeship standard. The apprenticeship levy will raise about £12 billion by 2021 – and will be paid for by a 0.5% levy on the payroll of employers with a wage bill of over £3 million. The principle that employers contribute to the training of their workforce is long overdue, and their protestations that the levy is a “blunt instrument” ring hollow when you consider the unpalatable truth that the total volume of training provided by UK employers fell by around a half between 1997–2012. But that does not mean all in the apprenticeship garden is rosy. The most pressing problem is the poor quality of the training offered to too many apprentices. It is shocking that one in three level 2 apprentices has claimed to be unaware they were undertaking an apprenticeship, and that one in five reported they had not received any training at all by an external provider or in the workplace.
22 ELM | DECEMBER 2016
A National Audit Office (NAO) report on apprenticeships posed some hard questions for Government: if employers are going to be in the lead, deciding which apprenticeships are needed, in what sectors and areas, how can the Government ensure that the programme will address skills gaps and deliver the apprenticeships that offer most value to the economy? The NAO concluded that, without a strategic underpinning, there will be no way of assessing the impact of the apprenticeship programme. The NAO’s concerns are borne out by the evidence that much of the recent growth in apprenticeships (two million people started on apprenticeships between 2011-15, a 70% increase on the previous five years), were in sectors such as customer services, retail, administration and care, which are low paid, and where there is no wage premium for completing an apprenticeship. The NAO pulled no punches when it commented that,
SKILLED OPPORTUNITIES M A RY B O U ST E D, AT L G E N E R A L S E C R E TA RY
“IT IS SHOCKING THAT ONE IN THREE LEVEL 2 APPRENTICES CLAIMED TO BE UNAWARE THEY WERE UNDERTAKING AN APPRENTICESHIP ... AND ONE IN FIVE HAD NOT RECEIVED ANY TRAINING.” in order to achieve most value, “the apprenticeship programme has to raise skills levels across the economy and successfully meet skills needs. It is not enough for individual apprenticeships to be of high quality; where shortages of skills are holding back productivity and growth, sufficient numbers of apprentices need to be training, in the right areas, and at the right levels to meet these needs.” ATL is clear that, in order to safeguard the quality of apprenticeships, the Government should ensure employers pay a fair rate to apprentices. ATL argues that apprenticeships should lead to jobs with a productive purpose and progression opportunities to genuine, secure and long-term employment at the end of the training. Most importantly, ATL believes that FE is central to the delivery of highquality apprenticeship programmes. We are clear that these must include high-quality learning and qualified vocational educators in the areas of teaching, training and assessing and that apprentices must be given sufficient paid time off the job to study in college or in a dedicated workplace training centre. FE colleges have the experience and local knowledge of the skills needs of employers in their area, and work successfully with small and medium-sized employers to develop apprenticeship programmes to meet their needs. Further education is central to the successful delivery of the Government’s ambitious apprenticeship programme.
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