Annual General Meeting 2010.
The AGM will be held at Dukinfield Town Hall on Wednesday 27th January 2010 at 4.30pm. In addition to the business of the meeting Helen Andrews National Executive Member will present 25 Yr Membership Badges to twelve long service members.
ANNUAL REPORT TO MEMBERS 2009
PRESIDENT:
Anne Slater Greenside Primary School
ASSISTANT SECRETARY (CASEWORK)/ HEALTH & SAFETY ADVISER UNION LEARNING REPRESENTATIVE
Pat Davies Tel: 01457762883 (home) O161 342 2566 (office), nut.worker@virgin.net (home), pat.davies@tameside.gov.uk (office)
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES REPRESENTATIVE
Ann Slater
Ben Miskell
Mark Smith
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE MEMBERS
Helen Andrews
Leslie Alder
Teachers Consultative Committee (TCC) Report
The TCC consists of up to four delegates from each of the teacher organisations. The NUT representatives are Anne Slater, Caryl, Pat Davies and myself. The TCC meets monthly and every other month meets with the Director of Young People and Children's Services and other officers. The main issues during this academic year have been BSF, Academies, Trust Schools, Budget Updates. Minutes of these meetings can be found at www.tamesideschoolssupport.net . The weekly meetings of the Negotiating Sub Committee (NSC) which consists of the secretaries of each of the teacher unions is the most influential body that we are involved with in Tameside. The Director for Young People and Childrens Services, Jim Taylor regularly attends as do many of the key officers responsible for education. All policies affecting education are discussed at these meetings. Termly confidential meetings are held on schools causing concern.A good working relationship has been established with the other teacher unions and several joint initiatives have been enacted including join visits to school to speak to headteachers where issues affecting all staff are common.
School's Forum
The School's Forum meets termly and consists of head teachers, governors and a representative of the TCC. The other teacher organisations have observer status. The main items on the agenda for the meetings has been school budgets. This body has the power to accept or reject proposals put forward by the Authority. However it has no power to amend proposals.
Tameside Trades Union Council Report
Tameside Trades Council has ceased to exist as a functioning and representative body of trade unionists in Tameside. We have not affiliated this year and send no delegates.
ASSOCIATION Secretary Report
My first complete year as secretary has been a particularly busy one. Some administrative issues that revolved around the operation of the union office have still not been fully resolved. The early penalty payment on the Risograph has meant that some savings on office running costs has been achieved. However the renewal of the lease of the office, which should have been agreed in March, has still not been resolved. I predicted last year that after the smooth transition we had experienced in the merging of Stamford High School and Hartshead High School into New Charter Academy we may encounter problems with the establishment of the Droylsden Academy. My initial suspicions have since been confirmed. Negotiations were difficult from the outset and I have since received numerous complaints from members at the two merged schools about working conditions. I also predicted that the last major reorganization of secondary education with the merger of Two Trees and Egerton Park into Denton Community High School would be a more straightforward process. The process has so far been fairly amicable but the proposal to make the new school a Trust School has resulted in us voicing our outright opposition to such a proposal. The original trustees, Ashton 6th Form College, Manchester University Education Dept and City in the Community (Manchester City Football Club) have since been joined by Tameside Council. While this allows a degree of continuity it still takes employees at the new college out of local authority control.
Last year's NUT Annual Conference was held in Cardiff and our delegates, Ann Slater, Ben Miskell Mark Smith and myself found the debates both inside the conference hall and outside very useful. A full list of resolutions can be found in the office or on the NUT website.
Our delegates to the Regional Council, Pat Davies, Ann Slater and myself, continue to play an active role submitting. I was elected Regional Treasurer at this year's AGM. I was further asked to assist in the drafting of the two motions to be sent to the NWTUC AGM in March from our union. I have continued to attend the half termly Divisional Secretary's Meetings, which have been very useful in obtaining information on a wide range of issues. Our involvement in Tameside's Teachers Consultative Committee has continued with our delegates, Anne Slater, Pat Davies, Caryl Hughes and myself all making valuable interventions. Committee meetings of the Association have been held half termly with good attendances from Committee members, our regional officer Noel Hulse and national executive members Helen Andrews and Lesley Auger. There has been three General Meetings over the year, two of which were quorate. The main focus for two of the meetings was the Campaign Against the KS2 SATs. Unfortunately these were poorly attended by primary school representatives.
Termly newsletters have continued to be produced and sent to all members via the internal mail system. This link with the membership has been complimented with the website which is regularly updated and carries advice to members. We continue to obtain copies of Campaign Teachers which is distributed termly to members in schools.
The membership has increased slightly again this year with the best growth in the area of NQTs. This was partly due to the national campaign for 4 terms membership for £1.00. One particularly positive development this year has been the increases in the number of school representatives that have been elected. Our aim must be to have one in every school in the Authority.
The Association continues to play a key role in all areas of the Local Authority and has established a good working relationship with the Director of Young Persons and Children's Services, Jim Taylor and his team and with the recently reorganised HR Dept.
I look forward to a more settled year for the Association and an even greater involvement of the membership in its work.
Finally I would like to thank Pat Davies, Caryl Hughes and Norman Jones for the supprt and help they have offered over the year.
Derek Clarke
Membership Secretary's Report
We have a new tool on HEARTH to get (fairly) accurate information about our membership base. It is not entirely accurate - we have found one NQT who is definitely a member but is not on the list, and it does depend upon members informing that they have moved in (or out) of the authority - we can see several people on the list who we know have moved but who are still, presumably, paying their subs to Tameside and others who have arrived and are still paying subs to another Division.
According to the new figures we stand as follows:
Total Membership: 1034
Retired/Life members 106
Supply Members 57
NQTs (NQT, NQT1, NQT2) 136
We have undertaken several membership campaigns this year including attendance at Freshers' Fairs, NQT events and a targeted recruitment drive which has, so far looked at disabled teachers and Black and Ethnic Minority members. All NQTs who have not yet joined the NUT have been contacted, as have all those who have, for whatever reason, not renewed their membership. Any new members are sent a welcome letter. Recruitment ideas are always welcome.
Caryl Hughes Membership Secretary
HEALTH and SAFETY
The main focus of H&S work this year has naturally been the impact of Swine Flu in our schools, particularly the changes regarding self-certification being extended to 10 days in certain circumstances. As yet I have not been made aware of any problems in this area but, as always, let me know as soon as possible. I was asked to research the possible effects of an outbreak of Slapped-faced Syndrome in a school where there were pregnant staff members. This I did and sent out information and guidance to the heads of all primary schools which I also the LA Health and Safety group. The most worrying aspect of H&S work is, as always, the mental well-being of the teachers. Although there is legislation in place to actually reduce work load it does not seem to be having the desired effect and many teachers are being made ill with the pressure. It is, therefore, vital that each school has a H&S rep. so that teachers who are beginning to feel the strain have someone at school they can talk to. I can then offer advice or come into the school. Should you wish to become a H&S rep let me know and I will arrange training. Finally, I have attended all the LA H&S meetings and the H&S Champions meetings which involves all the unions employed by Tameside.
Pat Davies
CASEWORK
Following on from the H&S report the issue of teachers suffering from stress has escalated into quite a large problem. Many people carry on, ignoring the onset of symptoms, until they are ill enough to go to the doctors and need a sicknote. The problem comes when the absence runs on, they begin to feel to inadequate, threatened, bullied etc. My role is often to accompany the teachers to Occupational health which I have done for several people this year. When they are ready to go back to school I will go with them to a return to work meeting to which EVERYONE is entitled, no matter for what reason you were absent. It is ESSENTIAL that you have someone with you for this meeting; either me, or Derek Clarke or your own NUT rep. Please let me know if this applies to you. Another aspect of casework which does not seem to diminish is that of bullying and harassment by management. I have dealt with four such cases this year and I am happy to report that, in all cases, once the perceived harassment had been pointed out, the two parties were able to sort out their working relationship. Often seemingly awkward situations can be eradicated over a cup of tea! Use your REP. If your school does not have one please consider becoming the Rep. yourself. There are lots of training opportunities in the NUT.
Pat Davie
ULR Report
This has been a busy year. First I will begin with the failures! I organised two training courses, one for new reps or those who are considering becoming a rep. And the other for people who might like to become a H&S rep. Although six people said they would attend the first of these no one actually turned up. The second one had no takers at all. More successful was the seminar for those who were considering retirement in the not too distant future. This was well attended and very good. I am running another such seminar in May. Details later in the year. Together with the ULR from the other teacher unions I have continued the input into NQT training with the authority. We arranged a social event at the Pearl restaurant; a talk about nutrition to boost energy and defeat stress and voice care. This year the social event is on January 22nd and we have already had the talk on nutrition. Later on I have arranged for a seminar for NQTs on all matters financial. A great deal of work has already been done to arrange a series of events for next year's Learning at Work Day. This will take place over two weeks and this time will involve primary schools in Hyde.
Next time we will be targeting another part of Tameside. I still continue to attend the Learn for Life forum and I am on the sub committee which has been redrafting the Learning Agreement.
Pat Davies
Minutes Secretary Report
Minutes have been taken at all Committee and General Meetings and it is followed as required
Caryl Hughes
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES REPORT
As equal opportunities officer, I attended the NUT course on Stress and Well Being. This 3 day course took place at Stoke Rochford in February and contained lots of practical advice aswell as giving an understanding of the rights of individuals in the workplace.
In July I represented the teachers association at the TREC annual general meeting and was pleased to hear of the work being undertaken within Tameside to promote equal rights. The leaflet 'Equal rights... It's the law' was distributed at the meeting and I obtained two copies to the Office for reference.
On December 5th I attended the Latin American Conference at Congress House. There were a large number of guest speakers including Yessika Hoyos a laywer from Columbia who spoke of the difficulties facing anyone who tried to organise or represent others in a union. Her own father had been killed for speaking out to support others. Bill Greenshields also gave an interesting talk about schools in Cuba and Ken Livingstone gave a plea for understanding for refugees who are displaced and then arrive in UK.
Finally I have booked a place on the NUT course 'Love Music, Hate Racism' which is a 3 day course commencing 29th of January and will report back on its content at a later date
Anne Slater