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UNISON Cymru/Wales
represents workers across the education sector. Education members include employees from schools,
further education colleges, universities, early years and
children’s services, career services and more.
Our members work in a variety of roles, including: teaching
and classroom assistants; school business managers; catering,
cleaning and facilities maintenance; IT, HR, administration and
finance staff; librarians, technicians, caretakers, facilities and
maintenance staff; secretaries and administrators; early years and
nursery staff; nursery managers; family support workers; technical
and laboratory services; security; sports centre services; student
union services; specialist learning support, curriculum support;
health visitors; midwives; and more.
UNISON Cymru/Wales represents more education staff than any
other trade union. We are the biggest public sector trade
union.
World class education is not as simple as employing good
teachers and lecturers. Instead, a range of professionals,
administrative, technical and support staff all have a crucial role
to play.
Schools
UNISON is the biggest trade union in schools. We have
experienced an influx of members from the schools workforce and
this is an area of continued growth for us. UNISON Cymru/Wales has
made hundreds of schools visits over the last year alone and much
of our focus has been on the introduction of the Education
Workforce Council (EWC).
Through our visits we have spoken directly to thousands of
school support workers. We can therefore speak with authority on
the experiences of our members.
Teaching
Assistants (TAs) perform a vital role in schools in Wales but they
need training and ongoing support to be able to do it. Too many TAs
are thrown in the deep end without proper professional development
or workplace support. Shamefully some TAs are forced to pay for
their own training with claims the school cannot afford to send
them on courses or to increase pay when training is successfully
completed. Yet the school directly benefits from the new skills and
the Heads will willingly ask TAs to undertake additional duties in
school above their job description.
The majority of
TAs are women; they suffer low pay, a lack of career opportunities
and institutional discrimination that belittles their role.
Part-time, casual and term time working, dominate. UNISON embraced
the Welsh Assembly Government’s professional registration of
TAs as a first step though raising standards depends on investment
in the professional development of TAs, a proper career structure
with transparent fair pay and conditions, uniformly applied across
the whole of the country and a spirit of inclusiveness in schools
that recognises their contribution.
It is wholly unacceptable that professional standards for
school support staff, which should come as a direct result of
registration, are yet to be published. As noted, we welcomed the
notion of the EWC, but it is in danger of becoming pointless and
insignificant without the standards in place.
The EWC claims to enhance
the status of the workforce by promoting high standards of
professional conduct and competence and by ensuring these standards
are maintained. Yet for school support staff, these standards are
non-existent and so the current EWC arrangements are failing them.
Without these standards in place, the process of registration is
meaningless as there is no benchmark.
UNISON
has advocated for a national structure for school support staff so
there is consistency of levels and roles across Wales. This is to
ensure that everyone in the school, whatever their role, is working
to an agreed standard.
The
‘one public sector Wales’ agenda cannot be pursued
without national structures and role profiles being
developed. There are currently in excess of 3000 job titles
for school support staff across Wales – this is clearly
unworkable. Teachers have
nationally agreed, uniform rates of pay, but the salaries of
Wales’ tens of thousands of TAs vary depending on where they
work; pay is set by each of the 22 local authorities and their
experience and responsibility are not always recognised in the pay
structure. For example, every day UNISON
members in schools provide medicine and administer personal care to
students, yet training provision is haphazard and there is no
financial recognition of this responsibility. This is another clear
example of the inconsistency of school support staff roles across
Wales.
The
remit of the EWC has so far been concerned with teaching staff, an
approach which is typical of the education sector generally.
However, we would argue that teaching staff are already clear about
their boundaries and expectations. They are also already clear
about their professional standards.
The
development of the
EWC was to allow for these standards to be applied across the
entire workforce in order to reap the wider benefits of a
professional, consistent, and competent workforce. Instead, school
support workers are being expected to register with the EWC, for a
cost, yet receive very little value in return and are now faced
with the possible consequence of being struck off from the
profession should they not uphold these standards.
Part
of this value comes in the form of acknowledging the integral work
that school support staff undertake as a part of the education
team, which includes instilling fairness across the board and
providing opportunities for staff to develop.
The
EWC and Welsh Government need to refocus away from the current
teacher-centred approach to a more balanced method which recognises
the entire education workforce.
The
current focus on teachers is indicative of the culture across the
schools workforce. In reality, a two-tier workforce exists in
schools with the teachers being treated more favourably than the
rest of the workforce.
The
success of schools is dependent on the entire schools workforce and
so school support staff should be levelled up to receive the same
conditions as teachers – this includes full pay for 52 weeks
of the year, as opposed to the term-time arrangements currently in
place for the majority of school support staff.
Higher
Education
Funding
in higher education remains a challenge, particularly when we
consider the rates of pay amongst the lower earners within the
workforce.
The
proportion of University’s income allocated to staffing has
consistently dropped for years, yet the income being generated by,
for example international students, is increasing. This is in stark
contrast to the pay inflations experienced by Vice-Chancellors at
Universities. In our understanding it is often those Universities
paying the highest wages to Vice-Chancellors that have the largest
number of low paid or casualised staff and many experience poverty
despite being at work.
University coffers
have swollen by millions. Since 2010, the amount spent on staff by
UK universities has decreased by 3 per cent but their reserves
stand at £21 billion. Since 2009, we estimate that below
inflation rises have cost our members at least £1,600. Many
more have lost thousands of pounds in real terms.
The average salary
for a vice chancellor in Wales is £228,401. 210 Welsh
university executives are now paid over £100,000 a year.
Employers are choosing to reward the highest earners rather than
the majority of their staff.
Against this, our
request that no employee in Higher Education should be paid less
than the Foundation Living Wage of £8.25 per hour, is very
modest. We are concerned too, about the shameful gender pay gap in
universities, prevalence of exploitative zero-hours contracts and
out of control spending on agency workers.
Low
pay and casualisation is bad for the workforce and is bad for the
delivery of education.
Where
services have been outsourced, work should be undertaken to bring
them back in-house. The Cabinet Secretary for Education recently
called for universities to recapture their civic responsibilities
and strengthen links to communities. UNISON is in agreement with
these principles, but they must become a reality. For example, the
Swansea University campus in Swansea Bay, made possible through
European funding, welcomes students from across the world and state
of the art campus. However, the security at the campus is provided
by a private company which employs staff on zero hour contracts.
This is not acceptable.
Marketisation
in both higher and further education is a false economy; when
serious problems materialise later in the contract it is the public
sector left to sort out the mess. All forms of marketisation should
be resisted as harmful to the quality or services for students and
the pay and working conditions of staff. As a minimum, all our
universities should be Living Wage employers and registered with
the Living Wage Foundation.
Furthermore,
we have seen a trend of higher education institutions closing
defined benefit pension schemes. This is unacceptable, particularly
when we take into consideration the fact that spend on
staffing, as a
proportion of income, continues to decline.
Further
Education
Colleges are as
important as schools and universities: further education offers
vital second chances to adult returning to education and those from
more deprived communities; the majority of learners in further
education are women and further education also supports students
with learning difficulties. Despite this, further education has
suffered budget cuts and lacks the prestige of schools and higher
education. Further education needs to be provided with adequate
funding and held in equal esteem with higher education and schools.
The Welsh Government education policies need to reflect
this.
There are
significant public monies being invested in apprenticeships but
there is a question on how that money then supports other Welsh
Government policy objectives such as tackling poverty and economic
development.
Good quality
apprenticeships helping people move from education to work and into
quality jobs is essential. We encourage publically accessible and
accountable education in Wales across the board, except with regard
to apprenticeships. Delivering apprenticeships funded by the public
purse through further education could help revitalise the sector as
well as delivering better value for money by reinvesting money
currently siphoned off as private profit.
Further education
institutions have well-trained, monitored and accountable staff.
There are no guarantees on the levels of delivery for training
apprentices in the private sector.
The Government
agenda has been to increase the number of higher level
apprenticeships and to encourage this to be seen as a vocational
alternative to higher education. However, if it is to be held
in the same esteem by learners and employers, then there needs to
be a high standard of provision. To ensure this standard
there should be a similar level of monitoring and accountability as
exists in higher and further education.
A qualification
framework should be implemented for further education support
staff, guaranteeing training and career development. In the context
of public spending cuts the distinction between the roles in
further education is becoming increasingly blurred. A qualification
framework would help address this and would ensure that workers are
being paid appropriately for the work they are
undertaking.
Furthermore, as
with higher education, the proportion of income allocated to
staffing costs in further education is falling. Improving the
conditions, pay and incentives for all staff must be a
priority.
Workforce
casualisation
The casualisation
of the workforce has a detrimental effect on the quality of
education and has a negative impact on workers. Poor working
conditions will result in a high staff turnover, low morale,
instability, and a lack of consistency.
The issue of a
casualised workforce, along with term-time only pay, pension
provisions, and clarity around expectations and boundaries is a
theme for support staff across the education sector. It is
predominantly education support staff who suffer from these issues,
and we have growing concerns about the issue of a two-tier
workforce in education when we compare teaching and lecturing staff
to support staff.
World class
education relies on the whole education workforce, not just
teachers and lecturers. The entire workforce should be valued and
appropriately rewarded for the essential contribution they make to
education in Wales.
Child
Protection
It is our view
that the Welsh Government should immediately review the Child
Protection Risk Register. At present councils lack sufficient
staff, have heavy workloads and do not provide a universal service.
In order for risk registers to work effectively, a review must be
undertaken to decide the most beneficial system for the child and
council worker.
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