Minutes:
Councillor O Temple
I welcome the fact that the County Council has decided to suspend the formal notice of termination and re-engagement issued to teaching assistant members of Unison and ATL. I also welcome its decision to undertake a review of teaching assistants’ roles, function, job descriptions and activities within the breadth of school activities to establish whether current job descriptions adequately describe the role being undertaken by TAs in schools.
In light of these changes of direction, can the Council confirm that it will now be including ATL in any negotiations, as well as other unions, in an effort to ensure the widest possible consensus for any settlement arrived at?
Councillor J Brown, Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services thanked Councillor Temple for his question.
The Council would continue to include recognised trade unions in any negotiations as had been the case throughout negotiations on this issue. For clarity, these were Unison, GMB and Unite.
Councillor Temple asked how some trade unions were recognised, for example Unite which had one teaching assistant member when another trade union, ATL which had over 100 teaching assistant members would not be included in the review as a recognised trade union.
Councillor Brown replied that the review would be of the agreed NJC Green Book National Terms and Conditions of Service and ATL were not part of this agreement.
Councillor M Wilkes
In relation to the ongoing unacceptable treatment of our teaching assistants and the suspension of the formal notice of termination can the portfolio holder please confirm specifically what ‘further information has come to light recently’ as described by senior officers and explain how it differs from any previous information?
Councillor J Brown, Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services thanked Councillor Wilkes for his question.
A number of issues had been raised by teaching assistants, their trade unions and head teachers about the range of duties undertaken and the training and qualifications required to undertake certain roles. There were a number of areas that had been raised which the Council had agreed to look at across the breadth of the teaching assistants’ role within different school settings. Whilst the Council had always been clear that where an individual member of staff believed their responsibilities had increased they should discuss this with their head teacher, the Council had agreed to move ahead with the recognised trade unions.
Councillor Wilkes replied that councillors, teaching assistants and the public had stated there was a raft of issues to be considered before the Council took the action it took, and teaching assistants would now be left in limbo for a period of 10 months before the review was completed. He sought an assurance that the teaching assistants would receive a full and proper review.
Councillor Brown replied that the terms of the review had been agreed with all three recognised trade unions.