More than 90,000 new members already joined this year
A new recruitment campaign, aimed at increasing the record number of public service workers who’ve joined UNISON since the start of the pandemic, is being launched by the union today (Monday).
The 60-second animated advert is being screened on Sky, ITV, Channel 4 and YouTube with the message that no worker should feel alone in these uncertain times.
The film was created by the GOOD Agency, with whom UNISON has worked for seven years, along with animation studio Coffee & TV. At its heart are the messages that reassurance, peace of mind and security are the benefits that membership of the union brings.
UNISON is currently experiencing a membership surge, with more than 90,000 people signing up by the end of May. That’s an increase of almost a quarter (23%) on the same period in 2019.
A quarter (25%) of this membership increase came in May alone, with 23,040 joining last month, a 51% rise on the same month last year, says UNISON.
Altogether UNISON welcomed 91,925 new members during the first five months of 2020. The net rise is estimated to be well in excess of 24,000 people when leavers and retiring members for the period are discounted.
One sector where growth has been significant is among school support staff, says UNISON. Recruitment for May among those working in education was more than four times higher (308%) than the equivalent month in 2019.
The union’s campaigning on behalf of care workers throughout the coronavirus pandemic has also prompted a marked increase of 135% year-on-year increase for May in social care membership.
Figures also show that three in ten of all new members (31%) are employed in the private sector.
UNISON assistant general secretary Liz Snape said: “Even when times are good, everyone in work should be in a union. With the added challenges of life during the pandemic, it’s more important than ever.
“Unions aren’t just for when things go wrong, but are there to improve working lives too. They hold poor employers to account, help workers’ improve their skills and work with governments to ensure work is safe and fair.
“During the pandemic, thousands of people working in the NHS, social care, schools, police forces and local government have been joining UNISON. They realise it makes sense in troubled times to have somewhere to turn that has their best interests at heart.
“But there are still many workers out there who need support and advice, and who’ve never belonged to a union. This film shows how becoming part of the UK’s biggest union makes perfect sense.”
Commenting on the new ad campaign, GOOD Agency CEO and founder Chris Norman said: “Appreciation of our public service workers across the country has been incredible over the last few months, but they also need the type of support that allows them to focus on the jobs that we all rely on, especially in these uncertain times.
“That’s why we are so pleased to have worked with UNISON on its latest membership recruitment campaign. Being part of UNISON gives members the confidence and peace of mind to focus on doing what they do best, looking after all of us.
“The brief was to create a campaign that will beat the previous target-smashing campaign, with the added complication of doing it during lockdown. Working closely with the fantastic team at UNISON and the brilliant people at Coffee & TV, we believe we have done just that.”
Sarah (not her real name), a teaching assistant who is supervising two ‘bubbles’ of key workers’ children. She says: “My family have asthma and I’m concerned about spending more time in the classroom. I put my clothes in the washing machine and have a bath as soon as I return from school.”
-Louise (not her real name), a learning support assistant who is a single mother without childcare. She says: “Cover teachers are coming in to work with several classes, compromising the bubbles. I’m scared to bring the virus home to my children. I’ve offered to work in the mornings when learning takes place but the head says I’ll lose pay and my job. She says it’s imperative I return to work although I’ve no childcare.”
Survey highlights safety failings with some schools ignoring ‘safe’ class size guidance
Rushed government reopening plans have led to guidelines on ‘safe’ class sizes being ignored by some schools, according to a survey published by UNISON today (Friday).
More than one in five (22%) support staff say primary schools have operated class sizes bigger than the 15 pupils per group maximum recommended to maintain social distancing.
Nursery school ‘bubbles’ – where infants remain in small protected groups – also have more than the eight-child preferred maximum contained in government guidance, say nearly half (48%) of those surveyed.
The data was compiled from the responses of more than 8,000 employees, of which seven in ten (71%) are teaching and learning support assistants working in primary, nursery and special schools in England.
The findings come as the government stepped back earlier this week from opening primary schools for all year groups until September at the earliest.
The figures raise serious concerns around safety, especially the lack of time given to schools to minimise the risk of coronavirus infection, says UNISON.
Almost half (48%) of all the respondents said that – after the first week of opening for reception, year one and year six pupils – they weren’t reassured by their experience of working with increased pupil numbers.
Their biggest concern (56%) was contracting Covid-19 and passing it on to others, with nearly half (48%) saying social distancing between pupils is only being followed to a small extent or not at all.
The survey results highlight failings in ensuring measures are in place to keep staff and pupils safe. Four fifths (80%) of respondents say their school or nursery has not provided any detail on how the government’s ‘test, trace and isolate’ system will work in their area.
In addition, nearly one in five (19%) say they weren’t consulted on their workplace risk assessment in good time before the wider reopening.
A third (33%) say their school or nursery is not allowing staff to use personal protective equipment (PPE) if they wish to. Almost a quarter (23%) said they were not given PPE even after a risk assessment said it was needed.
Other concerns highlighted includeschool managers asking staff with childcare issues, the clinically vulnerable and black staff to return to work on school sites, without carrying out individual risk assessments.
Comments submitted to UNISON from staff who took part in the survey include:
-“I’ve been allowed to work from home after the doctor signed me off sick for anxiety. Then I was told it was highly likely I’d be needed from 1 June. I’ve been going to work half days leaving my child at home alone.”
-“It’s been a very scary time as we have had no PPE, no guidance as to what guidelines we should be following and no risk assessment.”
-“There are no structured lesson plans, no alcohol sanitiser, no PPE. One bottle of cleaning product and one cloth is shared between four classrooms.”
-“I’m more anxious about the situation now than before. The risk assessment wasn’t given to staff, but the school wants no liability. They say take it up with the government.”
Commenting on the findings, UNISON head of education Jon Richards said: “This survey shows the pressures schools have been under to meet the June deadline.
“The result is some corners have been cut, with staff either not consulted in time, or not at all in some cases.
“The focus has been on supporting pupils already in school, those still at home and the most vulnerable children. Now unions, staff and ministers must work together to get many more pupils back in September.
“Children and staff must be brought back safely, and parents allowed to get back to work.”
Slowing down the reopening will allow proper planning
Commenting on the announcement today (Tuesday) that primary schools in England will not have to open up to more pupils before the end of the summer term, UNISON head of education Jon Richards said:
“This was the right thing to do. As important as it is to open up schools, the challenges of bringing back all children in the next few weeks would simply have been too great.
“There have already been Covid cases in schools and many support staff and parents remain understandably anxious.
“Many schools simply don’t have the space to put in place the new rules, nor enough masks and preventative kit to fill staff with confidence. This delay will allow time to ensure the essential test, trace and isolate system is fully working.
“Confidence needs to be rebuilt amongst parents and staff to ensure a safe return so young people don’t miss out on any more of their education and parents can get back to work.
“Unions will continue to work with ministers to ensure the September opening can happen safely and vulnerable families get all the support they need.”
Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, responding to news that plans for all primary school years to go back before the end of term are being dropped by the Government, said:
“If the Government confirms today that it will not be mandating reopening of schools in full before the summer this will be welcome.
“For weeks headteachers, education unions, school staff and many parents have stated that the plans to open whole schools before the summer could compromise any safety measures a school had been able to implement with reduced pupil numbers.
“The Government has completely failed to show leadership. They should have brought together all those who needed confidence in their plans, from education unions and local authorities through to parents’ associations.
“The Government must now give answers on what resources it will provide to adequately support home learning, from the provision of digital devices to all pupils who need one through to targeted online tuition.”
The curriculum has, for me, always been concerned with three interwoven strands: the development of skills, knowledge and general education/enrichment with entitlement as its strong backbone.
When I use the term skills I am referring to the various incarnations of government sponsored generic skills initiatives from common skills to core skills to skills, the dabbling in essential skills and, most recently functional skills as they relate to mostly a narrow vocational curriculum but at a times a broader and more meaningful wider curriculum that has attended to cross the academic/vocational divide and generate a genuine learning curriculum.
While skills like problem-solving, teamwork, study skills communication have a crucial role to play in post-16 education I agree with the argument that the notion of either a knowledge-free curriculum or of a content free pedagogy is a manifest absurdity. As the basic skills only model of skills development still seems to be winning again over a fuller, more developmental version of skills comprising improving own learning, working with others and problem -solving, the need for a core module on ‘learning to learn’ is as important as ever.
These wider, survival skills that can be seen as street-wisdom or working class seem to be undervalued and undermined by those whose diktat it is to decide on what the curriculum is and is for.
Clearly skills, be they termed common, core, key, functional or anything else need to relate to either generic learning skills or the specific learning skills relating to a subject and have a major role to play, especially, one might argue, with students from less traditional backgrounds.
The economic imperative has raised broader educational and social questions. It is not just vocational training that people should receive. They have a right to be educated more broadly. Once again that might be seen purely in economic terms. How else can people experience fulfilment as human beings?
Pedagogy
As a young teacher reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire as a crusade for humanity it made me see dehumanization both as an historical reality and as an individual experience in the lives of many of the learners I worked with. This informed my teaching for many years. As time passed I saw the matter in greyer terms, but remain wedded to the view that barriers to learning are neither purely educational concerns to be addressed by teachers nor problems to be solved by social workers. In almost all cases they existed and continue to exist at the cusp of education and social care.
As a consequence of this I became more and more interested in the importance of learning things that can make a difference and have continued to be drawn to the idea of pursuing interests where possible and using the situation you find yourself in as your university if you are not in that fortunate position.
Now
These questions are as vital live now as it was then and successive governments have failed to address the skills gap.
Similarly those based genuine assessment for learning that have not just been state-sponsored assessment objectives aimed at perpetuating a system that required the many to fail so that the few can succeed in the system have fostered a genuine progressive curriculum. Curriculum development and delivery and assessment methodology alike need to be matched with both the appropriate skills, and attitudes and the syllabus aims and objectives which are: see meanings beneath the surface of, say a text; understand the nature and interplay of its constituent parts; show appreciation of what impacts on it; make a well-considered personal and critical response.
Armed with the results of a ‘skill audit’ practitioners are able to produce an introductory skills based modules including an identification of skills and attitudes, the aims of a specification and demystify he hidden curriculum . A teacher can, where these conditions exist, work collaboratively with learners on something that enhances the student learning experience, impacts on teaching and learning styles and develops the curriculum in its broadest sense. Ever since I can remember there have been problems about the assessment of generic skills and general education aspects of vocational education, be it liberal education; general studies; communication skills; general and communication studies; social and life skills; people and communication and, more recently functional skills
If then, there is nothing new about the problematic nature of assessing these transferable skills, supposedly a pre-requisite for a competitive UK industrial and service workforce, why the commotion on the pages of the education press and beyond? Perhaps it is because now, these ‘core’; ‘key’; ‘transferable’ or ‘generic’ skills are, for the first time, making an impact on traditional academia as well as vocational further education.
Learner engagement should determine a curriculum that is meaningful and personalised and one which will foster the development of personal, learning, thinking and employability skills in a safe environment for all 14+ learners.
This curriculum outline is based on an entitlement model and is, at the same time, developmental and aspirational. With English and Maths at its heart and with engagement, enterprise and employability as its chief objectives, the curriculum will emphasise personal and social development and provide vocational tasters. Learning is supported by regular 1:1 coaching sessions and target-setting reviews; Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE) and citizenship and a wide-range of enrichment activities aimed at enhancing overall learning experience.
Many will dismiss these proposals as utopian, in dismissal of the professionalism of teachers which is understandable given Britain makes no effort to present teachers as expert professionals. What the current crisis proves however is teachers are key workers. You can take away the exams and associated bureaucracy as has been done and teachers still innovate in delivering learning opportunities for students who will still progress to the next stage of their lives. Take the teachers out of this the exam boards cannot do fill their roles. Is it really utopian to suggest teachers be free to exercise the full professional agency their status deserves? After all teachers working conditions are children’s learning conditions and if this crisis can create a better understanding of how to enhance these then it will not have been wasted. At the end of it all, after post-coronavirus, re-imagining education and seizing a new initiative, as well as protecting these gains, should be a rallying call for radical educators.
Ian Duckett is Secretary of the Norfolk and Suffolk Branch of the Socialist Educational Association and Post-16 Officer for Norfolk NEU.
An overwhelming majority of school support staff don’t feel reassured by government claims that English schools are safe to open to more pupils from the beginning of June, according to a UNISON survey published today (Friday).
Only 2% of employees felt reassured by the Prime Minister saying it was safe to open schools more widely from 1 June.
Almost all staff (96%) felt ministers hadn’t put safety first when developing their back to school plans, according to the survey of 45,200 teaching and classroom assistants, cleaners, administrative, management staff, and technicians*.
The primary, secondary, special and early years workers were surveyed soon after Boris Johnson’s call earlier this month for children in reception and years 1 and 6 to return to schools in England from a week on Monday.
More than three in five (61%) of staff surveyed were already working in schools – on a rota basis or full-time throughout the lockdown – so are well aware of the challenges of operating in schools during the pandemic.
Workers’ confidence in their own schools’ ability to be ready for a wider opening in June was low. Just over three quarters (77%) didn’t feel their school would have the resources to cope with the additional responsibility of putting health, safety and risk assessments in place in time.
As well as the threat to their own health, staff were concerned about the impact of a rushed return on their own children.
Of those with school age children, 95% said they didn’t feel it was safe to send them back to school. One worker said she was ‘petrified’ at the thought of her seven-year-old going back.
The research provides insights from school staff who have often been shut out of the debate about schools opening more widely, despite being among those who would be hardest hit if they contracted Covid-19, says UNISON.
That’s because support staff tend to be older, are disproportionately from the BAME community and come from more disadvantaged backgrounds than teachers, says UNISON. The government has not modelled the impact of an increase in pupil numbers on this group of staff.
Commenting on the findings, UNISON head of education Jon Richards said: “The survey sends out a strong message that ministers shouldn’t gamble with the safety of pupils, staff and the wider community by sending them back to school too early.
“It makes no sense for there to be such a push for schools to open more widely in England, while other parts of the UK are taking a much more considered approach.
“The government must commit to a safe and structured return. There’s little confidence in ministers’ plans, that’s clear to see. Staff, parents and schools aren’t ready to go back without reassurances that safety is the number one priority.
“Unions want to work with ministers to make schools as safe as possible, so that parents, their children and staff will want to return. But the rush to get some schools open to meet an arbitrary date isn’t at all helpful.”
Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on the guidance in relation to schools re-opening, said:
“In the absence of clear scientific advice and a safety plan, the Government has not demonstrated it is in a position to start planning for the wider safe opening of schools, or given any reassurance to parents, teachers and pupils that they will be safe.
“There is no information about how social distancing will work in schools, how teaching and support staff, pupils and parents will be protected from the virus, how small class sizes will be achieved, and no evidence behind the decision to select some year groups over others.
“The Government must urgently convene education unions and the profession more widely and address their concerns, to allay the anxiety and confusion caused by Boris Johnson’s announcement and this guidance.
“By working with the sector the Government can create a workable plan for the reopening of schools when the science indicates it is safe to do so, and which has the confidence of all those affected.”
Ian Duckett is Secretary of the Norfolk and Suffolk Branch of the Socialist Educational Association and Post-16 Officer for Norfolk NEU.
Chris Smith is Youth Officer for Norfolk NEU and a member of the Labour Party and SEA.
Ian Duckett is Secretary of the Norfolk and Suffolk Branch of the Socialist Educational Association and Post-16 Officer for Norfolk NEU.
The Coronavirus pandemic has exposed the necessity for government to work with and be led by experts. Trade Unions should embrace this as a chance to present themselves as when at their best they truly are: the experts in their field. Nowhere is this truer than in education where teachers, including supply teachers, and their unions should advance the professional status of their members as their biggest asset.
Any student of politics will appreciate the dictum “never let a good crisis go to waste” so let us follow that advice in imagining how education post COVID19 can be improved. Neither would any progressive educator miss the opportunity to develop the curriculum and assessment strategies in a way fitter for the modern world. Teachers like health care professionals, although not to the same terrible extent, have suffered the neglect of a lost decade of austerity and now must grasp the current crisis’ upending of accepted wisdom to enhance their professional agency whilst there is understanding of the value of experts. I am referring to exams here, alongside even the Daily Telegraph who on April 21st ran a piece asking if the temporary cancellation should be made permanent . Finally acknowledging an argument education professionals have been advancing for years that teachers professional judgments should be recognised as of more value than a snap shot of student performance. Transforming education and re-imagining it should be a priority for progressive educators post-pandemic.
The earliest revelation for many of the current crisis was that of who the real key workers of society are. Teachers are on this list, not in the same way as health workers for sound and obvious reason and this holds within it another revelation about the place and status of the teaching profession. Teaching has often been referred to as a “Cinderella profession” where politicians will regularly refer to teachers as professionals akin to doctors in times of demanding something from them but then when it comes to the practicality of pay, conditions and professional autonomy happy to dismiss the views of these same public servants. With disastrous consequences for both teachers and students. Many outside the profession will be familiar with how unattractive it has become through headlines of the numbers who have left it due to disgust with Govian reforms, unlimited workload and accompanying stress. This all underpins the most demoralising issue: the lack of professional status. As a teachers ourselves now of too many to count and eight years respectively, we have survived the first milestone of five years service after which a reported 30 – 40% quit and am now contemplating leaving before the ten year milestone which is frequently reported as a point by which 50% leave. The conflict between what teaching should be and what it is are my reasons which is why I am excited, and it should be noted for the first time in quite some time, by the potential for a brave new world of education.
Back to exams. If they can be forgone this summer and students still progress into employment, apprenticeships or university as it is expected to the point of certainty that they will then why return them? The case for exams is as follows: they are dispassionate and anonymous; they are standardised thus fair; They allow for results that are easily understood; They enable schools and teachers to be held to account by providing a way of measuring school achievement in terms of how many students achieve “good” results. This final point is the critical one as it is the most significant reason why many politicians are loathe to replace exams. It is also why ending exams as we know it would be such as a radical transformation as it would shift the balance of power in favour of classroom professionals in a way politicians are unwilling to do as it would create a self-confident profession possessing autonomy on an inconvenient scale.
Speaking about the TUC’s joint statement outlining the measures needed for the safe reopening of schools, sent to the Secretary of State for Education on behalf of unions with members in the education sector, Unite national officer Jim Kennedy said: “As the Prime Minister moves impatiently to a premature easing of the lockdown, it is essential we have in place the safeguards that protect our workers and communities.
“The public support for our essential workers across the public sector has shown that they will not accept another botched process, Boris Johnson has been exposed for his, and the government’s, catastrophic handling of this crisis and I sure we are all fed up to the back teeth with his jingoistic language as some sort of elixir to the daily tragedies our communities are suffering.
“Our school support staff, teachers, pupils, parents and relatives are rightly concerned and alarmed at the thought of a hasty programme to reopen our schools, therefore the school support staff unions including Unite, teaching unions and the TUC have set out the key principles and tests that must be met before that can happen.
“We know what a fantastic job our teachers and support staff have done in caring and educating the pupils of our essential workers, they have done so at great risk to themselves and their families, we must now ensure that the key tests contained within the trade union joint statement are fully applied, nothing less is acceptable.
“Just a few shorts days ago we marked International Workers Memorial Day where we stated that we will remember the dead and fight for the living, Unite is committed to fulfilling that pledge.”
