Author: Michael Savage

Schools staff crisis looms as austerity hits teachers’ pay

Michael Savage

By: Michael Savage. 

Recruitment slumps as figures show a 10% fall in salaries since 2003

Ministers have conceded that teachers’ pay has fallen by thousands of pounds a year since the public spending austerity drive began, amid warnings of a “looming crisis” in attracting and retaining new staff.

Classroom pay has fallen by more than £4,000 a year since 2010 in real terms, according to a government assessment. Damian Hinds, the education secretary, warned that only a 2% increase can be expected for the next academic year.

The admission comes in the Department for Education’s official submission to the School Teachers’ Review Body, which makes recommendations on pay deals. It states that pay is also lower than it was 15 years ago in real terms. “From 2002-03 to 2017-18, classroom teacher median salaries have seen a drop of 10% and overall teacher median salaries of 11% in real terms,” it says. It argues that the fall was smaller than that suffered by private sector graduates.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “We welcome the DfE’s admission that teachers’ pay has fallen so far in real terms. It is no good Damian Hinds trying to argue that this is the same for private sector jobs – those figures reflect the many graduates forced into low-paid, part-time, semi-casual jobs, whereas we are talking about the pay rates being offered to those joining a profession.”

The number of secondary school pupils is forecast to rise by 15% during the next decade. However, the government missed its recruitment targets for trainees for the past six years, with the biggest shortfalls in key subjects like maths, modern foreign languages and physics. Ministers have responded with a series of measures designed to ease the pressures with job shares, more support for new staff and a reduction in paperwork.

James Zuccollo, from the Education Policy Institute, said there was evidence that “targeted pay increases” could greatly reduce the looming crisis. “Recent research suggests a 5% pay supplement for early-career science and maths teachers could have avoided the increased shortages since 2010, for instance,” he said.

“The government’s new bursary scheme for early-career teachers may help to tackle acute retention problems in shortage subjects and disadvantaged parts of the country. But, unless it is applied immediately to existing teachers, it is likely to be a few years before we see any improvements to exit rates.”

Hinds has announced that English schools will no longer be punished for failing to meet government standard on tests, in an attempt to release teachers from the stress of results and stop schools with challenging pupils from being punished. He also wants to cut down on marking, data collection and lesson planning.

However, Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, said years of cuts had led to teachers being “thousands of pounds a year worse off. Across our schools we are seeing the result in the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention. Teacher recruitment targets have been missed year after year, with more teachers leaving the profession than joining. In response to this crisis, the government will give the majority of teachers another real-terms pay cut.”

Labour is pledging to end the public sector pay cap with additional, ring-fenced funding.

School leaders have been angered by a suggestion last week that they will have to fund this year’s pay increase from their existing budget, without extra help from the government. A note from the department warned: “A pay increase for teachers of 2%, in line with forecast inflation, is affordable within the overall funding available to schools for 2019 to 2020, without placing further pressure on school budgets.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Last summer saw the biggest teacher pay rise in almost 10 years, worth between £800 and £1,366 for classroom teachers and supported by a £508m government grant. In addition to an annual pay award, many teachers also receive increases from promotions and responsibility allowances.

“Whilst we know pay is an important issue for teachers, there are also other factors which can affect recruitment and retention. That is why in January we unveiled the first ever integrated recruitment and retention strategy in England, which will provide teachers with more early careers support and opportunities for flexible and part-time working. The strategy also builds on the work we have done to support school leaders to strip away unnecessary workload.”

Source or the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/09/teacher-pay-down-real-terms-since-2003

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Schools can’t be substitute parents, Ofsted chief warns

Michael Savage

By: Michael Saavage. 

Issues such as obesity are better handled in the home, says Amanda Spielman

Parents must not “abdicate their responsibility” by expecting schools to solve all the major problems children face, the chief inspector for schools will warn this week.

In a robust intervention attacking the increasing burdens placed on teachers, Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman will say schools “cannot be a panacea” for all social ills and will criticise some parents for neglecting some of the “most basic of parenting tasks”, such as toilet training.

While teachers “can play a role” in educating children about the dangers of knife crime and obesity, primary responsibility for these complex problems lies elsewhere, she will warn. When it comes to keeping to a healthy weight, she will say, “schools cannot take over the role of health professionals – and above all parents”.

In a speech marking the publication of her second annual Ofsted report, Spielman will say: “Our education and care services don’t exist in isolation from the local areas they serve. They are and should be a central part of our communities. But being part of a community means being very clear what your responsibilities are, and what issues, however worthy, can only be tackled beyond the school, college or nursery gates.”

Knife crime will be singled out as one of the most recent issues to place an additional burden on schools. “Most of our schools are safe, and we fully support measures, including zero-tolerance policies on the carrying of knives, to keep them that way,” Spielman will say. “But beyond that, while schools can play a role in educating young people about the danger of knives, they cannot be a panacea for this particular societal ill.

“Instead, preventing knife crime requires all local safeguarding partners to work together to protect children from harm while the relevant agencies tackle criminal activity and bring to justice youths and adults who cause harm to children.” Spielman said the obesity crisis was also “an issue which sits largely beyond the school gates”.

“Schools can and should teach children about the importance of healthy eating and exercise … their PE lessons should get them out of breath.

“But beyond that, schools cannot take over the role of health professionals – and above all parents. The answer to the obesity crisis, particularly among younger children, lies in the home, and parents should not abdicate their responsibility here.”

By the start of primary school, almost a quarter of children in England are overweight or obese, and the proportion rises to more than a third by the time they leave for secondary school. However, research by Ofsted has found no pattern to suggest that, on their own, interventions at school can be linked to a direct and measurable impact on weight.

Spielman will also chastise parents who allow their children to reach school without being toilet-trained. It comes amid growing evidence of children arriving at reception unable to use a toilet. “This is difficult for teachers, disruptive for other children and has a terrible social impact on the children affected,” she will say. “This is wrong. Toilet-training is the role of parents and carers, and should not be left to schools. Only in the most extreme cases should parents be excused from this most basic of parenting tasks.”

Spielman’s comments represent a blunt message to ministers keen to tackle topical issues by placing more responsibilities on schools even as they face cuts to resources in the face of austerity. Over the summer the Home Office issued lesson plans for children as young as 11 about the dangers of knife crime, which would involve them being told it is a “myth” that they will be safer with a weapon.

Plans were also announced to educate teachers on related slang.

Children’s minister Nadhim Zahawi said the lesson plans would “help illustrate the real impact of knife crime on young people’s lives” and that schools “up and down the country are taking advantage of them”. With evidence that the average age of knife crime victims is falling, some NHS doctors have called for school exit times to be staggered to reduce the chances of clashes.

There have been major concerns about teachers’ workloads and the impact on the numbers staying in the job. The Department for Education recently pledged to ease pressures on teachers in England after a report blamed an “audit culture” for causing stress among staff.

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/dec/02/schools-parents-ofsted-knife-crime-obesity
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Special educational needs ‘It’s hard to watch your child struggle. All you can do is chase people’

Michael Savage

By: Michael Savage.

As council budgets are slashed, desperate parents speak about their exhausting battle in the courts to protect the forgotten victims – their children

As a former bouncer working in north London nightclubs, John Roden thought he knew a thing or two about stressful situations. But taking on the care of his five-year-old granddaughter Hope brought his greatest confrontation. Hope is disabled, and her rare condition means she cannot walk unaided and communicates using a form of sign language.

“Caring for Hope is stressful at the best of times,” says Roden, one of a group of carers to launch a legal challenge heard in court last month against proposed cuts to special educational needs funding in Hackney, east London. “Hope came to me when I was 57. I’m 62 this year. All this is heaping a lot more pressure on us. It grinds you down. There’s so much going through my head that I’ve been forgetting simple things. You spread yourself thin and something has to give. But we can do it.”

When the council announced proposals that could cut spending by more than £300,000 over the next academic year, Roden was among those who agreed to take on the fight. Like many parents looking after a child with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), Roden describes an exhausting fight to secure the best support.

Fellow Hackney campaigner Dana Thompson’s daughter, Sade, 16, has narcolepsy and cataplexy, conditions that can cause her to fall asleep suddenly, or collapse. Thompson’s application for support was rejected four times before she received help – a battle that lasted 10 years.

“I couldn’t live with myself knowing I didn’t try one last time,” she says. “Unfortunately, many children have fallen through the net. That affects mental and physical health. With Sade, it has affected her.”

As councils nationwide face budget pressures that threaten them with bankruptcy, some are having to consider cuts to SEND funding that they would never have contemplated just a few years ago. Yet their desperation to balance the books has run up against the desperation of parents determined to secure support for their children. The clash is now being played out in court actions across England.

Alicia McColl is among the parents taking action against Surrey county council’s proposal for a £21m cut in its SEND budget. She has been battling for the right support for her 14-year-old son Kian, who has autism, hypermobility, dyspraxia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. After years of campaigning, she is aware of the toll on her family. “All my money and inheritance went on my son’s education – on the battle,” she says. “The people who have missed out the most are my other two children. I try to make up for it now, but my eldest son is an adult and he missed out on a lot of my time. The impact is massive.”

Hopes have been raised by the success of a case in Bristol in the summer, in which a judge ruled that the council had unlawfully cut its SEND budget by £5m. Other campaigns are being drawn up in areas including Portsmouth, Gloucestershire and Sussex.

Hackney councillor Chris Kennedy insists everyone is “on the same side”, but adds that the court case “doesn’t address the fundamental issues that have led to councils up and down the country facing bankruptcy in their efforts to fund one of the most important services they provide”. Surrey county council said it was facing “huge financial pressure” and that it was wrong to describe the £21m saving as a cut “because we haven’t made or even proposed cuts to services”.

So what is causing the system to creak? The trouble, according to experts and council insiders, is that funding cuts have combined with recent education reforms to create a system loaded against councils – forcing them into cuts and legal battles with parents.

They point to 2014 changes designed to give “greater control and choice” to parents, which raised expectations about the support available and increased the legal responsibilities of councils. However, the new system was not matched with the necessary funding. With schools also under pressure to keep costs down and improve results, some are finding ways of removing SEND pupils from their rolls, or not accepting them in the first place.

That often leads to even higher costs for councils. Parents realised that some kind of national action was needed. A legal case has been launched against the government, with campaigners arguing that it is simply not providing sufficient funding. Among the parents in the group is Lorraine Heugh, who has faced cuts in funding for the care given to her son Nico, 15, who has autism and anxiety. “We had to go down the legal road and in the end they did supply the funding,” she says. “It didn’t stop there. The following September we had the same problem again. Now we’re in a situation where they have given a little bit of funding, but cut by half.

“The people who get forgotten are the children. For children like my son, when their needs are not met at school, it has a knock-on impact on them. It leads to children having breakdowns – why would you allow a child to go through that?”

Kirsty McFinnigan, from North Yorkshire, got involved through social media. After fighting for resources for her son Benedict, 14, she joined the legal battle out of “sheer and utter desperation”. “There’s too many people in this position,” she says. “My son is 14. I’m going to ultimately have to answer to him about why he didn’t get an education, so at least I can say I did everything I could.”

For Mary Riddell, who has fought her council in Birmingham over the support given to her nine-year-old daughter Dakota, it is simply about trying to be heard.

“We’ve had to fight every step of the way,” she says. “It is hard to watch your child struggle and all you can do is chase the people who are meant to be helping you – and knowing their hands are tied.

“I’m not holding out any hopes that they will instantly say, ‘here’s lots and lots of money’. But I would like them to take notice and understand what kind of effect these cuts are having.”

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/nov/10/its-hard-to-watch-your-child-struggle-all-you-can-do-is-chase-people

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