Jayne Bryant MS

Chair, Children, Young People and Education Committee

Senedd

Cardiff Bay,

Cardiff CF99 1SN

9 February 2023

Dear Jayne,

Scale of violence, abuse and sexual harassment towards staff in schools

We are grateful to have the opportunity to comment on the correspondence from the WLGA to your committee, dated 6 January 2023.

The information from the local authorities does not correlate with the data captured by our UNISON Cymru Wales survey of the experience of school staff.

https://cymru-wales.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/sites/9/2022/11/UNISON-reponse-3.11.22.docx

It could be that head teachers are underplaying behavioural problems, portraying them to staff as ‘part of the job’. If head teachers are not encouraging people to record incidents on the forms, the committee might want to ask local authority directors of education to collate information on how many forms are being recorded by each local authority and how many relate to violence and sexual harassment.

Our survey of school staff also revealed that staff do not feel supported when incidents take place. When asked if they have experienced a violent incident, whether they felt supported by their head teacher/line manager, 41% said no.

Yours sincerely,

Rosie Lewis & Helen Huelin,

UNISON Cymru Wales lead officers for schools