NEU welcome ambition and action in Government's Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

 From the National Education Union

Commenting on the Government’s new education Bill, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:

"This is a significant, decisive Bill with an exciting set of announcements. It’s got ambition but also action.

"The NEU thinks this Bill will make a meaningful difference to the lives of staff and children. It shows a Secretary of State with a real breadth of vision and determination to get the system working together better, through collaboration and co-operation, in the interest of every child in a local area.

"We fully support the announcement that all teachers will be covered by the same pay and conditions framework (STPCD) regardless of whether they teach in a community school or an academy. Having the same pay and conditions framework enables teacher mobility across the school system and is obviously fairer, by making sure all teachers work under the same protections. We hope this takes us closer towards a fair national pay structure, with no element of PRP, with mandatory pay levels and with career stages that are sufficient to value, recruit and retain the teachers and leaders our schools need.

"Ending the presumption that all new schools need to be academies shows a willingness to set a new and better direction. This is particularly welcome because it’s the first step in responding to the SEND funding crisis. Local authorities need the power and ability to open special schools, so we can break the unaffordable reliance on independent special schools. It’s much more cost effective to let local authorities play this fuller role.

"The Secretary of State pledged a re-set with the profession and to value the expertise and dedication of the workforce, so it’s a relief to hear the ‘duty’ to force schools into multi-academy trusts will go. It was never evidence-led policy. We’re going to push during the passage of the Bill for the option for schools to leave MATs so that schools can join local rather than national ‘groups’.

"It should be a source of shame for the Conservatives that after 14 years in power more than four million children now live below the poverty line. Labour’s commitment to breaking down barriers to opportunity is positive and there is real potential in the Government’s Opportunity Mission. For this to have meaning on the ground, schools must be adequately funded from next year’s spending review onwards, and properly staffed so children and young people have the familiar faces and continuity in each subject that stable staffing brings. The NEU will continue to press the issue of adequate investment with Labour.

"The new steps around safeguarding are important and the NEU absolutely supports a register for children who are learning at home, whilst wanting to boost the capacity of the system to keep more young people with SEND at school."