Minutes of the executive Committee of the Norfolk Association meeting
Wednesday 8th November 2017
St Nicholas School Dereham
Present
Alix Lewis (Chair); Chris Smith; Scott Lyons; Chrissie Smith; Vicky Warnes; Steve Smith; Letitia Willins; Mike Smith; Jayne Spurrier; Hazel Ryan
- Minutes of last meeting
- Minutes of meeting 20/09/17 AGREEDas a true record
- Matters arising
3A card has been sent
7Information circulated regarding Charlton Park Academy Special School. £50 will be donated to Newham GMB fund.
RO suggested independent schools should be removed from “Where to Teach”. It was as felt they were not publicly funded they should not be included as this would distract from funding cuts campaign.
Simon Jones will take a motion to the National Exec conditions of service sub- committee regarding a national roll out.
10Irma was happy with the action taken
11 Newsletter. CS will write article on YT social
13Alternative venues for social events will be considered for next year.
- Apologies
- Nick O’Brien; Helen McGuiness; Tina Humber; Sean Simkins
- Reports
- Secretary’s reporttabled on website
- Treasurers report was circulated
There was discussion regard £1200 paid to The Trades Council for affiliation. It was agreed that records should be checked to see where and when this payment was authorised.ACTION SECS
The Treasurer will produce accounts for the next meeting showing income and expenditure breakdown for 2016/2017 and Sept 2017 to Dec 2017. ACTION SS & VW
- Regional Council meeting Saturday 18th November. VW; SL; CSm;MS; CS; AL to attend
- VW to check with TH regarding conference hotel booking.ACTION VW
- Division Secretaries Briefing: SL reported that it was lively meeting with strikes and ATLs campaign for ethical leadership being discussed. There were concerns expressed over declaring local branches in academy trusts. It was felt this would be a retrograde step. All schools within a county should be one branch.
- Mental Health proposal
The following motion was proposed for inclusion on the agenda of the next OGM:
Motion 1
Norfolk NEU/NUT voted to send Officers and Reps to be trained as Mental Health First Aiders. When we offered this to Reps, the response was fantastic! We have had to turn members away who are keen to train and they have asked when we will be doing this again. The Mental stresses on our member colleagues are acute, as we know, and it is getting worse. Our members know how crucial this training is, as does the government. An independent review on how employers can better support the mental health of employees, including those with mental health problems or poor well-being, has been published this month. The Stevenson/Farmer review,Thriving At Work, contains 40 recommendations. They include:
• all employers should adopt certain mental health core standards, set out in the report;
• public sector, and private sector employers with over 500 employees, should take additional steps, again set out in the report;
• employers should be encouraged by legislation to report publicly on their workforce's mental health;
• professional bodies should implement training and support measures for their employer members.
We want employers to take responsibility, we need to be taking a leading role.
The National Education Union will be campaigning on ethical leadership and workload. Our efforts in Norfolk are our based around our website: wheretoteach.co.uk to promote conditions of service and challenge those employers who do not.
We now want to further promote well-being, work-life balance, and ethical leadership by empowering and training Reps and hopefully members in schools to become Mental Health Champions - through training as Mental Health First Aiders.
After their confidence and knowledge has been boosted, they will have the strength of the mental health debate and evidence-based binary data eg. conditions, stress surveys to knock on management's door and not be ignored - demanding a response to sustainable and maintained workload change. Furthermore, trained members can become Reps or even H&S Reps in their schools/Trust, building up the profile of the NEU as the 'education experts' and as an active Union.
The ambition should be to have a Mental Health Champion in every Norfolk school.
We have over 450 schools in Norfolk so to train a member in every school would be very expensive (at least £100 per trainee)
A more cost-effective way would be for a local officer to be trained as a Mental Health First Aid Training Instructor who can then deliver free sessions to NEU members as local CPD but also charge non-members to attend. CPD is a vital channel to promote the Union and connect with members who feel they are getting something back for their monthly fee.
The proposition is for Scott to deliver this training as he is already involved in giving Social Media Awareness training and can use Mental Health First Aid workshops as a way of getting in schools, engaging with members, helping staff and promote the NEU.
Moreover, the training can be offered to Trusts who pay into the Local Facilities Fund (as with the social media training) As Trusts question the costs of Facilities and the role of the Unions, we can diversify our role as education experts by becoming a powerful voice in helping to train and empower staff in schools in advancing mental health, devising collective responses to workload and strengthening the Union's challenge against any dilution of pay and conditions.
It is proposed, that Norfolk NEU/NUT section train Scott as a Mental Health First Aid Instructor, at a cost of £2790.60 inc VAT for 7 days training in 2018
Proposed: Scott Lyons
Seconded: Vicky Warnes
The proposal was unanimously acceptedAGREED
It was agreed SL would approach NEU/ATL Section to pay half of the costs. ACTION SL
Motion 2
Warwick Mansell is a prominent education writer and leading voice in challenging the neo-liberal agenda on education. He also writes a fortnightly blog for the NEU
He has set up a website
The website at launch last week included news exclusives including new analysis showing the way the academies policy has seen the cost of school management rising very sharply; an investigation into England's third-largest academy chain which raises questions about its schools' non-faith designation and wider issues around private interests controlling publicly-funded institutions through academisation; an account of the troubled history of a free school built next to an airport runway; governing body minutes showing how a free school chain’s CEOs asked for a school to cap the limits of SEN/EAL pupils; and an exclusive on the workload pressures facing Ofsted inspectors and their possible implications for schools.
It will have a strand about what Warwick thinks are shocking levels of transparency in some publicly-funded organisations. He blogged on Friday about DfE free schools data which shows just how challenging Theresa May's targets for new free schools are and sets out for the first time the statistical detail on free schools closures since the policy was launched. He wants it to be asinnovative as possible in the coverage, utilising elements including video journalism and data analysis.
The information is invaluable for challenging the government's education policy and keeping members informed of the latest developments and evidence that usually support our campaigns - workload, recruitment, free schools, funding. Local Officers can use this information on Twitter and Facebook.
The individual premium subscription is £12.50 for three months. Warwick is working with the Union to establish an Association subscription of approx £500.
It is proposed, that Norfolk NEU/NUT pay approximately £500 for the Association subscription
Proposed: Scott Lyons
Seconded: Vicky Warnes
Agreed unanimously. AGREED
SL will invite WM to address a members meeting. ACTION SL
- Nomination of Officers
SL will circulate nomination forms to all members. These are to be returned by 29th November.
- Academies and Free schools
- Sewell Park:
- Part time workers are being discouraged from seeking other work. This will be taken to local JCC.
- Dress code - This will be taken to local JCC.
- Extended day by 1 hour for year 11 is not affecting current staff but new staff will be expected to work an extra hour. This will be taken to local JCC.
ACTION VW
- Pay uplift: Following representation many trusts have agreed to setting a 2% maximum and a 1% minimum.
- There are 35 different trusts in Norfolk. 32 have accepted a TU agreement. CET, Long Stratton and TEN have not accepted an agreement. SL is negotiating with Wymondham High.
- Current Campaigns
HM wants to organise a social for LGBT members – this will need to go to the OGM as a formal proposal ACTION HM
- Newsletter
Officers will be asked to produce biographies for the next meeting.
ACTION All Officers
- Next meeting
- Gathering: 7.00 for 7.30 Thursday 30th November at The Reindeer Dereham Road Norwich. Food to be served at 8.30.
- Xmas social: 8th December at Vodka Revolution
- Exec: 7.30 pm Wednesday 10th January St Nicholas School Dereham
- AGM:Thursday 8thFebruary at Bignold School