Comprising of Motions 66 and 67 plus amendment
Congress asserts that all workers should be protected from unsustainable expectations, foreseeable health and safety risks, and from violence and aggression in the workplace. It is unacceptable that thousands of school staff face these harms every day.
With a broken complaints and teacher regulation system in place schools are unable to defend members from blatant abuse.
There is no excuse for such abuse and it has to stop.
The last government deliberately eroded the relationship between schools and families by transferring their ineptitude and the effects of austerity on to schools.
In public pronouncements made in the media and in the House of Commons, families were encouraged to complain about schools rather than work with them.
As a consequence, the unspoken contract between home and school has broken in many places. This has seen a rise in the lack of support from home in maintaining discipline and a rise in the incidents of abuse against teachers, leaders and school staff.
Congress instructs the General Council to campaign for the protection of school staff from such abuse, alongside campaigns to protect other public sector workers.
Congress calls on the UK and devolved governments to:
i. provide additional funding for schools to enable
ii. safe, healthy and sustainable working environments for staff whose safety and wellbeing are put at risk daily due to insufficient resourcing
iii. increase capital investment in school buildings and facilities, to make them safer places for all, and resilient to the impacts of climate change within this parliamentary session and beyond. Urgently, capital investment must enable the installation of HEPA filters, ensuring at least six air changes per hour in all indoor learning spaces, and provide that no school in the UK has asbestos or RAAC within its fabric.
Congress further calls on the UK and devolved governments to work with recognised unions to:
a. ensure that all employers of school staff proactively exercise their statutory duty of care and take tangible, proactive steps to improve their health, safety and wellbeing, taking action before harm occurs
b. ensure greater use of risk assessments in schools, including those seeking to protect staff from risks to mental health arising from the inspection and other high stakes accountability processes, with bespoke risk assessments for every classroom, covering all significant potential hazards and ensuring the implementation of appropriate mitigations
c. reduce the workload of school staff, including by providing the requisite resources to effectively respond to all pupils’ needs in respect of learning and wellbeing, including those with additional support needs.
Mover: Educational Institute of Scotland
Seconder: National Association of Head Teachers
Supporter: National Education Union