EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGISTS

AND THE

NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS

JUNE 2005

New Members No Form No Fuss Joining Hotline 0845 300 1669

Existing Members Records and Subscriptions Helpline 0845 300 1666

See the Soulbury section of the NUT website:

THE NUT AND EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGISTS: A LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP

The NUT is the largest teaching organisation in England and Wales. It has had in membership local authority educational psychologists for well over half a century.

Indeed, the NUT has represented all local authority Soulbury-paid officers continuously since the national Soulbury Committee – which negotiates national pay scales for all Soulbury officers – was first established back in the late 1940s. The Leader of the Officers’ Side of the Soulbury Committee is the General Secretary of the NUT, Steve Sinnott. The Union also provides the Secretariat to the Officers’ Side.

The Union’s Soulbury membership is growing. The NUT has always had members in the three groups traditionally represented in Soulbury:

  • educational psychologists;
  • educational inspectors and advisers; and
  • youth service officers through its partnership with NAYCEO.

In addition, however, the NUT also has in membership in the various other categories of local authority employed staff that provide Soulbury services and many of whom are paid on Soulbury. These include: national strategy consultants, school improvement professionals, literacy and numeracy consultants, EMTAG teachers, advisory teachers, ICT advisers, science advisers, pupil service officers, pupil assessment and monitoring staff, early years advisers, behaviour support officers and advisers, early years co-ordinators and many others.

In fact, the NUT is the only Soulbury organisation which has members in both the three traditional Soulbury groups and also in the other newer Soulbury groups. No other Soulbury organisation has such a comprehensive coverage of the growing range of Soulbury employed staffs.

WHAT THE NUT OFFERS ITS EP MEMBERS

The NUT has always believed in the need for, and the immense advantages to be gained from, all professionals involved in the educational service working together. As a professional association open to all qualified teachers the NUT is in a unique position to defend and promote the interests of children and all members of the education profession including, of course, educational psychologists. Membership of the same organisation can help break down barriers and create dialogue among professionals throughout the education service. All of the NUT’s Soulbury members, including educational psychologists, are entitled to receive the same benefits as any other teacher member.

The NUT has an unrivalled degree of legal and professional expertise. Every Soulbury officer needs legal and professional cover. Most Soulbury officers know of somebody who has faced difficulties at some time in their career. Next time it could be you. The NUT recognises and understands the needs of Soulbury educational psychologists. Our members are covered through an unmatched network of regional offices in England and, in Wales, through the NUT Wales Office, NUT Cymru. Each of the Union’s regional offices has a solicitor based there, all of whom are experienced in dealing with educational and employment-related matters. With mobile teams of qualified experts, including experienced caseworkers and solicitors, the NUT’s regional and Wales officers can bring advice, support, assistance and aid directly to your doorstep if need be. All this means that unlike some other associations, the Union does not, therefore, need to rely on local high-street solicitors (whose experience may be in other areas) to defend its members.

The NUT has a long-standing Soulbury Advisory Committee which informs the national Executive of the views and concerns of Soulbury members. A number of educational psychologist members serve on that committee. The NUT also has a dedicated Educational Psychologist Working Party comprised of educational psychologist members which also ensures that the views of psychologists are reflected in Union policy. In addition, the NUT delegation to the Officers’ Side of the national Soulbury Committee includes an experienced educational psychologist member alongside an inspector/adviser member and senior members of the national Executive.

The majority of educational psychologists are female. The majority of members of the NUT are women. The current President of the NUT is female. So are the Deputy General Secretary, the two Ex-Presidents, the Vice-President, the Assistant Secretary of the NUT Legal and Professional Services Department and the majority of the Union’s regional solicitors based in the NUT’s regional offices and in NUT Cymru.

The NUT provides a range of group insurance policies that cover members automatically against a range of risks such as personal accident, hospitalisation, and loss or damage to personal property and motor vehicles. It also only endorses organisations or companies that it believes provide high quality products and services designed to meet the needs of Soulbury-paid educational psychologist officers.

A CAMPAIGNING UNION

The NUT prides itself on being a campaigning union:

Pay The Soulbury Officers’ Side, led by NUT General Secretary Steve Sinnott, reached agreement on a three year pay deal from September 2004 to August 2007 that represented the best deal in local government in 2004.

Pensions Pressure from the NUT and other public sector unions has persuaded the Government to step back from imposing changes to public sector pension schemes that would have affected the age at which Soulbury officers could retire on an unreduced pension. The Government has now given a commitment to further negotiations on its proposals. The NUT will continue to play a leading role in those discussions and will seek to persuade the Government to withdraw its proposals. Indeed, NUT Conference 2005 reaffirmed the NUT’s commitment to seek to protect the pensions of all NUT members, including Soulbury-paid members most of whom are in the Local Government Pension Scheme.

The Children’s Workforce Strategy The NUT will be seeking to protect the interests of its Soulbury-paid members in the light of potentially far-reaching changes suggested by the Government’s Children’s Workforce Strategy. In particular the NUT will draw attention to the problems of growing workloads facing Soulbury professionals and the challenges of multi-agency working. The NUT will also be seeking topreserve the importance of education as a discrete service within the Government’s wider Children’s agenda.

Every Child Matters: OFSTED Children’s Services Inspections The NUT has responded to OFSTED’s new inspection arrangements. The NUT’s detailed response on the implications of this major Government initiative was informed by contributions from its Soulbury members via the Soulbury Advisory Committee. The NUT also held a seminar in 2005 that was devoted to the implications of Every Child Matters for its educational psychology members.

Continuing Professional Development The NUT has led discussions with the employers in producing a national framework for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Soulbury-paid officers. This is particularly important given the fact that the proposed statutory regulation of educational psychologists will require EPs to undertake a certain number of days CPD each year in order to retain registration. When finalised, this CPD framework will offer guidance on the essential elements of CPD programmes which should be established within each authority. The framework will be accompanied by an on-line “good practice guide” which will offer benchmarks of acceptable practice to aid local negotiations.

Statutory Regulation of EPs The NUT is continuing to push for the costs of statutory regulation to be met in full by local authority employers and to ensure that EPs are provided with the appropriate amount of CPD that will be required under forthcoming regulations.

Stress and Workload The Union is pushing Soulbury to issue further advice and guidance on measures to tackle stress and excessive workload and ensure a better work-life balance for Soulbury officers.

THE NUT AND YOU

You will be glad you are a member:

  • if you have an accident at work;
  • if you are accused of assaulting a child;
  • if a child or parent assaults you;
  • if you have a grievance or are unfairly treated;
  • if your health puts your work at risk,
  • if your work puts your health at risk;
  • if you are not being paid correctly; and
  • if there is a complaint made against you.

If you are already a teacher and member of the NUT, and are considering becoming an educational psychologist, you are fully entitled to stay within membership of the Union. If you are a qualified teacher but are not a member of the NUT and are training to become an educational psychologist, you are fully entitled to join. You can ring our no form no fuss new members joining hotline on 0845 300 1669.

NUT Salaries Department

June 2005