Education Leader and Manager March 2010
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In this issue
Colleges in India
Vetting and Barring
LGBT regulations
School inspection
ATL–ACM merger: vote YES in the June ballot
AMiE is a partnership between ACM and ATL
The National Council of the Association for College Management (ACM) has decided to recommend to its membership that ACM should merge with the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL). A ballot of members will be held in June, and the National Council has agreed to campaign to encourage members to vote ‘Yes’ to merger in that ballot.
For the past 18 months, ACM has been in a partnership with ATL under the Association of Managers in Education (AMiE) brand. ATL has provided financial support to ACM in return for leadership and management expertise and representation of senior leaders in schools. The partnership has been a stunning success, allowing ACM to maintain the high-quality services that are the basis of its strong reputation, including employment support for members. In October 2009, ACM General Secretary Peter Pendle was seconded to ATL on a part-time basis to evaluate whether a full merger would be in the interests of ACM members.
Proposed merger between ACM and ATL
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At January’s ACM National Council meeting, Why is ATL the chosen partner? Peter’s positive report was accepted and In 2007, a telephone survey of a sample it was agreed to proceed towards merger. of ACM’s membership revealed two clear messages:
Why merge? Cover story by Peter Pendle, General Secretary, ACM and National Officer, AMiE
So why does ACM need to merge with ATL? For many years, ACM has been a successful niche trade union and professional association, steadily expanding its membership and extending its influence and reputation. Nevertheless, because of the nature of the membership, consisting mainly of busy and overloaded middle and senior managers and leaders, ACM does not have an extensive network of activists with time to take on casework. Instead, ACM’s team of regional officers each undertakes a caseload, devoting significant resources to each member. While our casework team has a reputation for outstanding work on behalf of members, this is a costly model to support and maintain. In the current tough economic climate and the political unknowns of the future, there are pressures on colleges for cuts in provision, changes to staffing structures, mergers, redundancies and job losses. All of these throw up a good deal of work for ACM – work that is very expensive to provide. The harsh reality is that ACM can only survive with a significant increase in income. Surveys commissioned by the National Council have indicated that members would be unwilling to accept a significant hike in subscription levels. A second option was to seek a partnership with another organisation and thus, in September 2008, AMiE (ACM’s partnership with ATL) was born. Since then, ATL has been effectively franchising representation of its senior leadership members to ACM in return for financial support; this support has enabled ACM to subsidise its services to its members. The management team at ACM, in concert with council members, has been carefully planning the Association’s future with an unerring focus on the needs of our members. We have decided that merger is the best strategy for ensuring that we will have the resources and capacity to continue to provide members with the range and quality of services they deserve.
1 Members felt they would be willing to join with another organisation if it was in the best interests of the membership. They trusted ACM’s leadership to make the right recommendations.
1 Any merger must be with an organisation that shares a similar vision and the values of ACM: an organisation that promotes professionalism, focuses on the service to students, and respects and supports its members. Following discussions with a number of different organisations, ATL stood out from all the others as our partner of choice. Furthermore, we had worked closely with ATL over a number of years, particularly on national pay negotiations. Discussions between elected officers of the two associations quickly confirmed ATL as the best partner for ACM, and subsequently the AMiE partnership was established.
Why is ATL keen to merge with ACM? ATL brands itself as ‘the education union’, representing colleagues in all types of jobs across the sector, including teachers in the maintained and independent sectors, and increasing numbers of support staff, especially teaching assistants. ATL’s objective is to support members from the moment they enter the profession and throughout their career to whatever level of seniority they attain. They recognised that in order to retain senior staff, they needed to develop the kind and quality of support and services that leaders want: their solution was a partnership with ACM.
How will it work? AMiE will become a separate and independent section within ATL, with its own nationally elected committee. It will retain its team of regional officers and will continue to offer excellent and individual support to members. The legal agreement between ACM and ATL will protect the autonomy of AMiE on policy issues (although in actual fact these are often aligned).
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Is there an alternative to merger?
Partners: Mary Bousted, General Secretary ATL shakes hands with Peter Pendle, General Secretary ACM–AMiE
Merger is the best strategy for ensuring that we will have the resources and capacity to continue to provide members with the range and quality of services they deserve.
The AMiE section must remain independent unless, in a ballot, 60% of the AMiE membership votes to disband it. AMiE will continue to operate from its current office in Market Harborough. We have undertaken a detailed due diligence exercise, which has confirmed ATL as one of the most financially secure trade unions in the UK.
What will merger mean for individual ACM members? The purpose of this merger is to ensure the current range and quality of services to members. However, our intention is that we will take the opportunity of merger to further improve the quality and good value of the services we provide to members. If the merger ballot is successful:
1 we will immediately reduce subscription rates to all existing ACM members: we anticipate a reduction of at least 20% annually and a new rate of £200 from 2011
1 AMiE members will have access to ATL’s subsidised training and development programme (including Edge Hill University’s Masters award) and many other additional benefits
1 AMiE will have sufficient resources to produce more of our highly acclaimed best practice guides
1 behind the scenes, ATL’s lobbying capacity will open more doors for AMiE, giving us greater influence to express the policies that members support in the corridors of power.
Failure to win a ‘Yes’ vote in the ballot for merger will put the continued representation of ACM members at some risk. Existing resources and reserves are sufficient to maintain operations in the short to medium term, but beyond that the quality of service may be at risk. The problems for colleges caused by the present economic climate have a knock-on effect for ACM: cuts, mergers, restructures, redundancies load further pressure on our resources. In the longer term, ACM would have to increase subscription rates significantly or, ultimately, plan to wind up.
A merger ballot in June A ballot of all ACM members will be held in June. If the ballot is successful, the formal merger will take place in January 2011. In the meantime, ACM General Secretary Peter Pendle and members of the National Council will be visiting branches to explain the benefits of merger and why members should vote ‘Yes’. If you would like Peter to visit your branch, or if you have any questions regarding the ballot, then please email him at peterpendle@acm.uk.com or call the ACM office on 01858 461 110.
It’s ‘the logical next step’ Following the National Council meeting in January, AMiE President Stella Mbubaegbu, Principal of Highbury College Portsmouth, said: ‘This is a critical but exciting time in the Association’s development. ACM has made tremendous strides over the past 22 years, speaking out for and protecting college leaders and managers. The National Council sees this as the logical next step in the Association’s progress, guaranteeing that it will be able to continue doing what it has done so well for so long, not only for college managers but also increasingly for leaders in schools. And it will finally consolidate the Association’s position at the top table as the leading advocate for leaders and managers across education. We strongly urge all ACM members to vote in favour when the time comes.’
ACM/AMiE supports principals in India
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A passage to India Reg Chapman, ACM/AMiE Council member
The Association gets many unusual requests. So there was nothing unusual about a request from Cornmarket, the main sponsor, to provide a speaker for a conference on leadership for college and school principals – except that the conference was in Assam, a remote part of north-east India. For several years, Cornmarket’s charitable foundation has sponsored Irish teachers to work alongside local teachers in Assam to mentor and coach them. A local partner had asked Cornmarket to provide three speakers for its annual educational leadership conference to over 200 Indian principals and headteachers. The speakers’ brief was to provide European insights into leadership from three perspectives: a business perspective from the CEO of a leading Irish multinational; the latest thinking on teaching and learning from an academic at an Irish university; and from our Association a practitioner’s perspectives from a college senior leader, provided by myself.
This is widening participation Indian-style.
The three-day conference entailed a week-long trip, which was a huge learning experience for all three of us. The conference venue itself, the Don Bosco Institute, is a unique institution created and run by the Don Bosco order of Catholic priests with a mission to educate underprivileged young people. Though little known in England, the order has over 100 schools in India and is widely respected for its work. The Institute in Assam is wholly self-financing and includes a residential school for 200 young people from local villages and tribes, taking IT or administration courses to equip them for local employment.
This is widening participation Indianstyle, as few students come from families with education and they represent the first step in breaking a cycle of low aspiration and achievement. The delightful students provided hosting, administration and hospitality services to the conference, as well as providing for the delegates an evening of music, dance and entertainment reflecting their varied cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The Institute is also a teacher training centre for surrounding provinces, as many teachers are untrained and the Institute makes training accessible to them. Finally, the Institute is a management centre for conferences and corporate training. Visiting schools and colleges in the area was a great learning experience for us all, as was the chance to exchange views with conference delegates from across India. My own conference sessions were about distributed leadership, teamwork and motivating and managing staff (including the difficult ones) – very much promoting the values and practices that the Association stands for. But although my examples and references were all about education in England, it was clear that we shared some common concerns – perhaps the universal concerns of educational leaders throughout the world:
1 managing performance and motivating staff to give of their best, accepting the need to change, and innovating to give students a relevant education at a time of great economic turbulence and challenge
1 interfering, if often well-meaning, politicians – the bane of all our lives! Often investment pours in at the top of the education system but does not find its way through to the front line. Politicians typically indulge in simplistic, centralist solutions, rather than trusting the professionalism of teachers and managers
1 funding shortages in state schools and colleges, some strong and enterprising voluntary sector (mainly churches in India) schools, and the growing presence of commercial, profit-oriented institutions (targeting the huge and growing Indian middle class)
1 the importance of having a clear mission and being good at strategic positioning; being able to answer the question ‘Whom do I serve?’ together with having the skill and enterprise to deliver effectively. All these common concerns were set within the unique context of the booming Indian economy (6% growth per annum, even in the current recession) and the largest middle class in the world, with young people determined to make India an economic powerhouse. India turns out over 70,000 MBAs a year, which says something about the nation’s aspirations.
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Yet alongside this success story is huge poverty. For example, the best schools we saw were superb (one principal was proud to show us his Olympic-size swimming pool, which would attract fee-paying middle-class parents), but some of the state schools were depressingly Dickensian – physically and educationally. Our contributions to the conference were well received. There was a thirst to know how we manage and lead our educational institutions in the West. We didn’t claim to have got things right nor to offer answers to India’s problems. Our task was to talk honestly about our experiences of leadership, our successes and failures and in so doing to express the values which ACM/AMiE promotes. We learnt much from our hosts and hopefully we stimulated them towards addressing their own problems. But one thing we all agreed on: leadership and management matter. They make a difference to the success of students and institutions whether in England, Ireland or India.
India turns out over 70,000 MBAs a year.
Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults
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Government changes the Vetting and Barring Scheme … a bit John Lowe, AMiE Council member
Colleagues will know that ACM has consistently criticised the Government’s Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) as an inappropriate and excessively bureaucratic response to concerns about safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.
Last autumn it looked as though the message was finally starting to sink in. The media were full of stories about authors not being able to perform readings in schools, and schoolchildren not being able to visit old people, without first having a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check. Ofsted is even alleged to have intervened to prevent two policewomen from arranging their shifts so that they could look after each other’s children. The concerns were taken up by the Government. On 14 September 2009, Secretary of State Ed Balls wrote to Barry Sheerman, Chair of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, to reassure him about the VBS, while acknowledging that some fine judgements needed to be made to draw the line that separates those situations that should be covered from those that should be excluded. Ed Balls commissioned Sir Roger Singleton, Chief Adviser on Safety of Children to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and Chair of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), to exercise the wisdom of Solomon. Sir Roger reported on 14 December and Ed Balls immediately accepted all ten of his recommendations (see below).
Headteachers’ concerns On 8 December the leaders of all the private and state school headteachers’ associations wrote an unprecedented joint letter to Ed Balls, to express their ‘concern about the excessive bureaucracy being incurred by schools and other public bodies as a result of vetting and barring systems … we believe that the newly introduced system is disproportionate to risk … the new system, even if thorough, will not be an absolute guarantee of safety’. The letter then listed in detail the many harmful consequences of the scheme and concluded with a remarkably forceful criticism of both the VBS and of the narrowness of Sir Roger Singleton’s brief to review the scheme:
‘Concern has also been expressed by colleagues that there could be a sense of false security engendered by the completion of checks. It is also worth reminding you that Ian Huntley might well not have been exposed by the CRB system. We know that Sir Roger Singleton has been asked by you to review processes, but we are concerned that he will only be able to tinker with the system because of the constraints of his remit, whereas we are urging a review of the whole strategy. We do need systems to help keep children safe, but possibly not these ones.’
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Frequent or intensive contact The same rationale lies behind Sir Roger’s fourth recommendation: ‘Individuals who go into different schools or similar settings to work with different groups of children should not be required to register unless their contact with the same children is frequent or intensive.’ This not only addresses the issue of visits by authors, but also by plumbers and others who might go to lots of schools but who do not have frequent or intensive contact with the same children.
Care arrangements
Minimum age
Sir Roger made several changes to the system. His first two recommendations simply confirm what was in the original legislation: namely, that mutual arrangements agreed between parents and friends for the care of their children should not be covered by the VBS, whereas arrangements made by schools or clubs should be.
His fifth recommendation will be of particular interest to colleges as well as schools, as it deals with the minimum age at which registration under the VBS is required. In the original legislation it was 16; now it is more nuanced. Students who are 16, 17 or indeed become 18 during the academic year will not be covered by the scheme when taking part in work experience or community service programmes organised by their school or college. However, students doing an early years course, for example, can still be required by their placement providers to be CRB-checked and registered with the ISA. It will, in fact, be an advantage to such students to be registered, as registration is valid for life. All employees and volunteers aged 16 or over will still be required to be checked and registered if they engage in regulated activity.
It is has to be said that this is the area where most media comment had been directed, and Sir Roger also urged the Government to intensify its communications efforts to dispel myths and ensure that there is widespread understanding of how the scheme will apply. Ed Balls has agreed to do this.
Defining contact The third recommendation deals with the tricky issue of defining ‘frequent’ and ‘intensive’ contact. How long is a piece of string? This is an essential element in deciding whether someone is subject to the VBS. Once again, much ill-informed comment has ignored this and treated any sort of contact with children as coming within the scope of the scheme. Sir Roger’s recommendation is that: ‘The frequent contact test should be met if the work with children takes place once a week or more. The intensive contact test should be met if the work takes place on 4 days in one month or more, or overnight.’ This is slightly more demanding than the original legislation. The rationale for this is that for contact to come within the VBS, it should be frequent or intensive enough to give someone the chance to build up a relationship of trust with a child.
Overseas group leaders Sir Roger’s sixth recommendation allows overseas group leaders to bring children to the UK for up to three months without having to be checked and registered.
School exchanges His seventh recommendation concerns school exchange visits. There had been considerable concern about the requirement to check and register parents. It is worth quoting Ed Balls’ response in full: ‘We should lift the requirement for registration where schools are organising exchange programmes with other schools, the parents accept responsibility for selection of host families who will look after their children, the host parents are unpaid volunteers, and the visit lasts for less than 28 days.’
We do need systems to help keep children safe, but possibly not these ones.
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Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults – continued This should remove the anxieties that many have expressed about the VBS making such exchanges very difficult. However, there is one important caveat to note: ‘the parents’ hosting activity will remain a regulated activity so that a barred person would commit an offence if they carried it out’. Schools and colleges will have to hope that barred parents do not offer their services. These first seven recommendations all concern contact with children but, as far as I can ascertain, the changes do not also apply to contact with vulnerable adults. This is a big mistake, especially in the college context where we deal with both children and vulnerable adults. It will inevitably lead to confusion about which regulation applies to whom and it will introduce unnecessary bureaucratic complexity. In the TUC’s submission to Sir Roger Singleton (to which ACM contributed) we made a plea that any changes should apply across the board. This is something that we shall continue to press with the Government. The final three recommendations are of a different order and, as far as I can see, they do apply to vulnerable adults as well. They are not recommendations for specific changes, but for a more far-reaching review of some aspects of the scheme. In this sense Sir Roger has gone beyond his narrow brief and done something more akin to what ACM and the headteachers wanted.
Healthcare practitioners The eighth recommendation concerns the registration of self-employed healthcare practitioners. Ed Balls accepted the recommendation ‘that this issue should be reviewed to ensure we do not have a safeguarding gap in relation to the medical treatment of children or vulnerable adults’.
‘Controlled activity’ The ninth recommendation is particularly significant: ‘The Government should review the continuing need for “controlled activity”.’
The issue here is that people who are barred from working with children or vulnerable adults are barred from ‘regulated activity’ but not from ‘controlled activity’. There isn’t space here to deal with this fully: briefly, controlled activity does not offer as much opportunity to develop relationships of trust with children or vulnerable adults, and a barred person may be employed or accepted as a volunteer in controlled activity, provided sufficient safeguards are put in place.
Schools and colleges will have to hope that barred parents do not offer their services.
ACM argued from the beginning that this distinction introduced an unnecessary complication to the scheme and very few employers or voluntary organisations would want to be bothered with it. We therefore welcome the fact that the Government is to review this aspect of the scheme.
Ongoing review Similarly, the tenth recommendation addresses one of the key criticisms that ACM originally made of the scheme: that it duplicated rather than replaced existing statutory requirements to obtain CRB disclosures. We therefore welcome the Government’s acceptance of the recommendation that it ‘should review both the statutory requirements and its advice in relation to the continuing need for CRB Disclosures for safeguarding purposes once VBS is in place’. It is worth noting that the review will not change existing requirements for a CRB check when a new employee or volunteer is not already on the ISA register; nor will it change the entitlement of an employer to seek a CRB check of a person who is already on the ISA register if they are engaged in regulated activity.
Full guidance The Government intends to publish full guidance on the scheme and to publicise it widely, so that myths are dispelled and everyone understands how the scheme will apply. The full requirements of the scheme will come into play in November. We will keep you informed of key developments.
Sources The government documents used to prepare this article can be found on the DCSF’s Online Publications web page (accessed 6 January 2010): http://publications. everychildmatters.gov. uk/default.aspx?Page Function=productdet ails&PageMode=pub lications&ProductId= DCSF-01122-2009& The headteachers’ letter can be found via www.ascl.org. uk/home/news_res ults/?l=l&ListItemI D=499&ListGroup ID=2 (also accessed 6 January 2010).
College funding in Wales
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Should this have a different title? It was the same last issue
Brian Thornton, AMiE Regional Officer for Wales
The view from Wales
Coleg Menai welcomes over 9,000 students every year
AMiE has put forward evidence to To his credit, the new First Minister, Jones, has accepted that, the Welsh Assembly Government’s Carwyn in the longer term, the quantum (WAG’s) finance committee of funding for education needs regarding the draft budget for the to be increased substantially. education sector. Money spent An efficient and effective sector on education and training now The clear message from those working will pay dividends for the whole in the FE sector and schools is that of Welsh society in the future. there are no more efficiencies to be We were therefore alarmed to learn that the budget will require an average efficiency gain across the post-16 sector of around 5%. Further attempts to clarify the exact nature of these euphemistically entitled cuts have not been entirely successful. We fear a re-run of last year’s funding fiasco, when the WAG attempted to cut 7.43% from colleges’ budgets, only to be forced to replace the money after strong, concerted action from the trade unions and fforwm (as Colegau Cymru was then called).
We fear a re-run of last year’s funding fiasco.
Anything worse than a flat line budget would be indefensible, given that the sector has been led to believe that this will be the case.
found. Colleges have been delivering ever better value for money over the last 15 years, as the value of the funding unit has been falling since 1993. Although the value of the funding unit has been falling, the sector has still been able to meet growth targets and deliver high-quality learning to learners and communities. Not only have colleges delivered on the value for money agenda, but – and one could argue more importantly – they have delivered on the quality agenda, and on all the other issues where the WAG has brought forward new policies. The sector is efficient and it is effective, and is seen to be such, as numerous Estyn reports testify.
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College funding in Wales – continued Long hours
Senior managers in colleges are clear: there is no further ‘fat’ to be trimmed. Staff are often working more than their contracted hours, and student contact hours are at a minimum. Management structures are tight, after repeated restructures, and managers are often working an unhealthy number of hours to continue to deliver the high-quality education that learners have come to expect. These long hours parallel those worked by many headteachers, and in both cases give cause for concern and action. The stark fact is that colleges and schools cannot provide the same level of output for less funding. There are also fundamental questions about well-being and work–life balance.
Rising costs
It is not politically or socially acceptable that students in one part of Wales do not have an opportunity to study, say, economics, while students in other parts of the country do have that opportunity. Such a situation runs completely counter to the very principles on which the Transformation Agenda is based – widening of choice and opportunity.
Bigger classes, fewer contact hours Members across colleges and schools report increasing class sizes, with several hitting over 25. This imposes strains on students and staff alike. We have also been told of freezes on the employment of new staff, which have led to existing staff having to teach in subject disciplines that are new to them, for example a computing lecturer teaching chemistry and a Classics lecturer teaching politics. The reduction of contact time for courses has meant cramming in the syllabus with little opportunity for thought and discussion, which surely are the hallmarks of good education.
The FE sector has terms and conditions where there are automatic increments – costing around 1% to 2% per annum. We applaud the WAG’s decision to seek pay parity between lecturers and teachers. This policy ties lecturers’ pay to the teachers’ pay settlement, currently 2.5%, and as a result Closures the sector faces increasing costs of around 4%–5% per annum. Furthermore, as a result The restriction on growth for colleges will of people living longer and the variable stock mean that not all demand is met. The market performance, pension costs are rising. increasingly tight economic circumstances require, in effect, that all provision meets Tensions in consortia economic viability. This has already led to the closure of much provision in adult Colleges and schools have supported the community learning, which is often the Transformation Agenda, and the enormous first step for some learners in returning changes happening within the 14–19 phase. to learning and to social engagement. The reduction in funding causes tensions among the partners in consortia, as schools Expensive provision, such as that for students with special learning difficulties and colleges each try to manage the and disabilities, has also been hit. In the impact of inadequate budget settlements. South Wales valleys, provision that is, in effect, basic skills provision, will not run, Inequalities as the class sizes are often below ten, which is an uneconomic size. Colleges Where a college is the only post-16 provider, will seek to reduce rental costs and will FE funding cuts have impinged – and will be under pressure to rationalise the obviously impinge – on all post-16 learners. locations in which they offer learning and Where there is a more mixed economy, the this will reduce the geographic spread picture is more nuanced, although many of learning opportunities. This will have schools are finding huge pressures on their ability to maintain their post-16 options. In one a deleterious effect on other attempts to college, subjects that we might consider core, make Wales a ‘learning country’ and will disproportionately impact on NEETs (young such as A Level Economics and A Level DCT, people not in education, employment or as well as A Level Environmental Studies, training) and other vulnerable groups. have disappeared from the curriculum.
The stark fact is that colleges and schools cannot provide the same level of output for less funding.
AMiE is the leading trade union and professional association for leaders and managers in colleges and schools. Our services Our services include:
1 representation, help and advice Resources cost money
on all employment matters. Our casework service is recognised as simply the best offered by any trade union
1 publications and best practice It is important to note that it is not only the headline budget figures that affect the FE sector. There has been, for example, a 30% reduction in supplementary funding which funds the support needs identified for students with particular learning needs. This will have a direct impact on the quality of support for students with learning needs – an area where colleges have been able to demonstrate considerable success.
Contingency Fund reduced The Financial Contingency Fund, a hardship fund for students who are over 19 and seeking to return to learning with a view to entering employment anew or even for the first time, has been reduced and there are concerns that it will be removed entirely. This fund is often used by students to place their child in a college nursery and the removal of this fund could mean that those students are unable to attend their course. There has been a reduction in the capital maintenance budget over the last few years, which causes pressure on the revenue budget where funding is insufficient.
Long-term future By the time this article goes to press we will, no doubt, know what the outcome of the budget will be on individual colleges. AMiE will continue to argue that the WAG must support its policies with its monies and recognise the importance of the sector to the long-term future of Wales.
guides on curriculum and management issues
1 policy influence in political circles 1 education news updates 1 pensions advice, including information leaflets on important topics such as improving your pension prospects
1 good deals on insurance and many other services and products.
Our membership We welcome college managers at all levels in further education colleges, sixth form colleges and adult education provision; school headteachers, deputy headteachers, bursars and heads of department. We also have many members in national organisations, training organisations and other areas of the education sector, including higher education.
To join AMiE To join AMiE, call 01858 411 541, visit our website www.amie.uk.com or email membership@amie.uk.com Encourage your colleagues to join by passing on the enclosed recruitment flyer. For further copies, please email membership@amie.uk.com or telephone 01858 461 110. AMiE is a partnership between the Association for College Management (ACM) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL)
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School federations
The case for federation? Yvonne Fleming, National Officer for School Leadership, AMiE
The Government’s 2009 White Paper on 21st century schools* put forward as one of its proposals the idea that all governing bodies should consider federation as a requirement when they are faced with the resignation of a headteacher. The assumption is that federation is, in itself, a good thing. While federations in many forms have been entered into voluntarily for at least the past seven years in places where local context made the move desirable, whether this has been a successful enterprise – and one which should be pressed on all other schools – is less clear. So a recent report by the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services, The Impact of Federations on Student Outcomes (October 2009), has been received with interest. The study, which combined the expertise of Manchester and Oxford Universities, examined the link between federation and student outcomes, particularly since the 2002 Education Act made joint governance arrangements a possibility. Federation can take many forms – from a ‘hard’ federation, which creates a single or joint governing body across two or more schools, to a ‘softer’ approach, where one or more governing bodies delegate some, but not all, of their powers to a subcommittee for a limited purpose (usually associated with promoting inclusion, raising standards or finding new ways to approach teaching and learning).
* Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century schools system (DCSF, June 2009)
The data presented in the report is based on a random sample from 50 local authorities, from which 264 comparator schools and 122 federations were identified. The majority (88.1%) of the federations encompassed two schools; only 3.4% had four or more schools. Schools from all phases were included, primary schools comprising 39.6%.
Most federations (around 66% of the sample) were formed in either 2007 or 2008. Care was taken to match the comparator schools in terms of type, gender intake, phase and achievement. Six types of federation were identified, from cross-phase to size, faith and performance, indicating the variety of motivational factors behind governing bodies’ decisions. In the primary sector, there were no significant differences in English and maths results in the cross-phase and faith schools, while the comparator schools showed a better performance in English in federations based on size. It was only in performance federations (where highand low-attaining schools were grouped) that outcomes were better in English and maths. In the secondary sample, where only crossphase and performance federations were used in the analysis, the picture was equally interesting. In cross-phase federations, comparator schools showed significantly higher levels of performance, whereas in the performance federations, comparator schools showed significantly lower levels of performance than the federations. Taking all of the schools and types of federation into account, no significant differences were found in any of the analyses. Whether a school was federated or not appeared to make little or no difference to its inspection results. The conclusion must surely be that apart from one category (where federations have been set up to improve performance by twinning high- and low-attaining establishments), there is no significant benefit in federation, especially if the reason is size (where the effect seems to be negative). Moreover, when considering the positive results for performance federations, one should remember that these are based on very small samples, since only federations formed in 2005 or earlier were included, as it was felt necessary to give time for any impact to be made. So before schools are pushed down the federation route, more time needs to be spent on analysing the impact in existing cases. Resources should be targeted where there is a proven formula for improvement. If we get it wrong, the losers will be the young people in our schools.
LGBT regulations
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Know your rights Barry Hansford, AMiE member
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers too often face prejudice and discrimination at work or when seeking employment. Trade unionists have a responsibility to challenge this discrimination. It should be part of our core agenda for managers’ rights. The Government estimates that 6% of the population is lesbian, gay or bisexual (there are no estimates for transexuals). Stonewall claims it could be as high as 15%, however more conservative estimates accept a figure of between 7% and 10%. So how many staff and learners at your college or school are LGBT? All employees are protected by the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003. If you feel that you have been discriminated against or bullied at work because of your actual or perceived sexual orientation, then these regulations might well be relevant to you. When experiencing harassment and discrimination because of their sexual orientation, members of another trade union reported that they were subjected to:
1 not being appointed to jobs 1 verbal and physical abuse and threats from co-workers, managers and service users
Laws on their own do not stop discrimination. It is up to us to take responsibility for our places of work.
1 unfair work allocation or over-supervisions 1 prejudiced and discriminatory attitudes about their suitability to work with children and other vulnerable groups
1 false allegations 1 not being considered for training or promotion
1 non-recognition of families and denial of benefits available to other managers.
Often when people are subject to this type of discrimination, they end up looking for work elsewhere. Where the harassment is severe, it can lead to depression and even suicide. Often the response is to conceal one’s sexual orientation, but at what cost? I am lucky – I am openly out at my place of work and have never felt anything other than support from my fellow managers and most of my colleagues. It has also been my experience that the majority of learners are not interested in the sexual orientation of their teachers. That doesn’t mean I haven’t suffered abuse and comments; I have – from both staff and students. However, the support of my colleagues has always been excellent. The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 ban workplace discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. The Civil Partnership Act 2004 means that same-sex couples who have registered a civil partnership must be treated the same as married couples. But laws on their own do not stop discrimination. It is up to us to take responsibility for our places of work and to ensure that not only are they aware of their legal duties but that they also have actions in place to challenge prejudice and discrimination.
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LGBT regulations – continued
Key areas to check 1 Ensure that your equal opportunities policy (or equivalent) is cross-referenced to other policies. Make sure that sexual orientation equality is covered in relevant policies and included in diversity impact assessments. Without explicit inclusion, sexual orientation issues are hidden, and this can lead to an unacceptable tolerance of discrimination.
1 Check that any local agreements cover the rights of LGB colleagues, including childcare benefits and pension rights.
1 Check that policies on harassment make it clear that sexual orientation harassment is unacceptable.
1 Make sure that any complaints policies/procedures guarantee confidentiality and that your employer will not ‘out’ you or others.
1 Make sure that homophobic language is not tolerated in the classroom or office environment.
1 Check work–life balance policies to make sure that same-sex couples have the same rights in relation to time off for care duties, bereavement, child-related activities.
1 Check if your firewall allows the words ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’ and ‘bisexual’ through – if it doesn’t, this is probably discrimination.
1 Set up a local LGBT group at work or ask your employer to do so.
1 Ask your employer to consider monitoring recruitment by sexual orientation. This gives out a very strong message that your employer is not homophobic. Finally, consider joining the AMiE LGBT JISCMAIL group, where you can chat in a secure environment with others who have similar views to you. This group was set up in 2009 and has just 11 members at present. But it’s a start! To join, send an email to jiscmail@jiscmail.ac.uk and in the message body type: subscribe amielgbt
Head office ACM/AMiE 35 The Point Market Harborough Leicestershire LE16 7QU Tel 01858 461 110 Fax 01858 461 366 www.amie.uk.com National helpline Tel 01858 464 171 Email helpline@acm.uk.com or helpline@amie.uk.com Peter Pendle General Secretary, ACM and National Officer, AMiE Tel 01992 571 823 or 01858 461 110 Mobile 07810 481 467 Nadine Cartner Director of Policy Tel 020 7254 1445 Mobile 07713 267 748 Sukhi Chana Finance and Office Team Leader Tel 01858 411 543 Neha D’Souza Finance Administrator Tel 01858 411 544 Yvonne Fleming National Officer for School Leadership Tel 0191 370 9939 Mobile 07595 280 408 David Green Director of Employment Services Tel 01858 411 540 Mobile 07711 929 043 Charlotte Martin Membership Coordinator Tel 01858 411 541 Lisa Pavlou Office Administrator Tel 01858 411 545 Julia Pearson PA to Management Team Tel 01858 411 542 Sara Shaw Director of Corporate Services Tel 01858 411 546 Mobile 07545 438 061
Contact the editor Nadine Cartner nadinecartner@amie.uk.com Tel 020 7254 1445 If you’d like to see pictures of your students feature on the cover of ELM, or if you’d like to contribute an article, book review, quote or letter, please send these to the editor.
School inspection
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‘Satisfactory’ – or is it? Yvonne Fleming, National Officer for School Leadership, AMiE
With the right support, funding and resources, all our schools can become outstanding.
Browsing the Concise Oxford Dictionary for the meaning of the word ‘satisfactory’, you will find the following definition: ‘Meeting expectations or needs: leaving no room for complaint’. However, it seems that the grade ‘satisfactory’ is not now good enough for the Department for Children, Schools and Families nor for Ofsted.
Schools and Families, issued new guidance on acceptable behaviour. It is here, in particular, that ‘satisfactory’ is not good enough, despite the grade descriptor indicating that: ‘Students are generally polite and well behaved, social areas are calm and safe and staff tackle issues promptly to ensure that others are not disrupted.’
All primary and secondary maintained schools will have to reach a ‘good’ standard by 2012. If they don’t, they will face the prospect of funds being withheld, especially the improvement element of budgets, and the possibility of yearly Ofsted visits. The Secretary of State will also have new Take the new Ofsted inspection arrangements, powers to order local authorities to issue warning notices of ‘further intervention’. which came into effect last September. The irony of this ‘get tough’ approach is Schools deemed to be ‘satisfactory’ will be that it comes at a time when the number visited more frequently, despite the grade of schools where behaviour is a significant descriptor showing that: ‘The school has concern is at the lowest level ever recorded – focused on improving areas of weakness in from 8% in 1997/8 down to 2% in 2007/8. teaching, other provision and outcomes and there is a trend of improvement in key areas This is not to say, however, that the highest despite a few remaining weaknesses.’ Being aspiration of any school leader should be satisfactory is simply not good enough. for a ‘satisfactory’ school. But context and
Indeed, early indications of the new regime, with its emphasis on raw results and attainment, show that most of those inspected so far have been rated ‘satisfactory’. Under the old inspection regime, 15% of schools were deemed outstanding, 49% good, 32% satisfactory and five inadequate between September 2007 and July 2008. Under the new regime, just three schools out of 34 (none of them secondary), or about 8%, have been given the top grade. This means there has been a doubling in the percentage of schools ranked as satisfactory, with the attendant consequences of yet more frequent scrutiny. This is particularly frustrating for schools serving challenging communities which in all other respects, apart from raw scores, are achieving excellent outcomes and are raising aspirations. The same applies to poor pupil behaviour. Coinciding with his speech at the Labour Party Conference last September, Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children,
circumstance impact on final results. A school coming out of challenging circumstances might have achieved a great deal to rise from ‘inadequate’ to ‘satisfactory’ and needs encouragement and support to move further up the scale to ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. Threats of loss of funding and further inspections do not help in the fight against low aspirations and a sense of failure. Nor do they improve morale, which is always a key first step in improving a school’s performance. Colleagues are incensed by the centralised, bureaucratic approach to accountability, which emphasises ticking a set of boxes designed by those with little or no up-to-date experience of daily life in schools. Isn’t it time to reopen the debate on standards and accountability and to celebrate the many successes and achievements of our schools and pupils, rather than always emphasising the negatives? With the right support, funding and resources, all our schools can become outstanding.
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Union matters
Introducing the AMiE Regional Officers
Northern
Eastern
Midlands
Pauline Rodmell Tel 01204 660 440 or 07711 929 037 paulinerodmell@ amie.uk.com
Liz Salisbury Tel 01572 720 467 or 07595 099 617 lizsalisbury@ amie.uk.com
Dennis Cummings Tel 01332 835 134 or 07711 929 056 denniscummings@ amie.uk.com
All counties and unitary authorities in the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria and Greater Manchester
Rutland, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk (including all unitary authorities within these county boundaries)
Derbyshire, West Midlands, Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire (including all unitary authorities within these county boundaries)
Derek Addison retires One of our most popular regional officers, Derek Addison, retired from the Association at the end of 2009. Derek will be remembered by members throughout the Association, but particularly by those in the Midlands, and in central and southern England, where he completed his time with us as an officer. Derek started his professional union career with the Greater London Staff Association, before they transferred membership into the GMB. He continued as a GMB officer for a number of years, representing workers in further and higher education, local government, and at Heathrow Airport, among many others. Derek took early retirement from the GMB in December 2003, but with the call of trade unionism in his blood, he applied successfully to become an ACM regional officer in 2005. Looking forward to his retirement, Derek said: ‘I have truly enjoyed my time at ACM, and it has been a pleasure to work for a good outfit and alongside colleagues who are equally committed. I assume I will miss it, but as I stroll around the golf course, I will try to bear the burden.’ We wish Derek a happy, peaceful and fulfilling retirement. He will be missed.
Central and Southern England Vacancy Warwickshire, Solihull, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Isle of Wight (including all unitary authorities within these county boundaries)
Do we have your up-to-date contact details? Help us to serve you well, by ensurin g that we have your up-to-date contact details. In par ticular, let us know your correct home address, if you suspect that the details we have may be out of date. It is essential that we have this for the forthcoming ballot regarding ACM’s relationship with ATL. Please email your contact details to membership@acm.uk.com or ring Charlie Martin on 01858 411 541 .
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South East
London
South West
Wales
Michael Gavan Tel 0208 471 1622 or 07595 099 618 michaelgavan@ amie.uk.com
Kalbinder Herr Tel 01865 765 454 or 07711 929 038 kalbinderherr@ amie.uk.com
Rachel Jennings Tel 01752 839 643 or 07738 641 689 racheljennings@ amie.uk.com
All counties and unitary authorities in Wales
Suffolk, and all areas outside the M25 within Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey (including all unitary authorities within these county/ M25 boundaries)
All county areas and unitary authorities within the M25
Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Avon, City of Bristol and Dorset (and all unitary authorities within these counties)
Brian Thornton Tel 01639 897 317 or 07595 099 619 brianthornton@ amie.uk.com
ACM/AMiE’s second annual seminar Venue: Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS : Keynote speaker (to be confirmed) Professor Frank Cof field, at Emeritus Professor of Education sity ver Uni ion, cat Edu the Institute of at of London, and Visiting Professor land der the University of Sun cy The programme will include a poli . AGM forum and the Association’s AMiE members: £25 + VAT Non-members: £55 + VAT m Book online at ww w.amie.uk.co om k.c ie.u or email events@am to request a booking form.
Members should contact the national helpline for advice, support and representation. Tel 01858 464 171 helpline@ amie.uk.com
talking points
A date for your diary
Date: Wednesday 12 May 2010
Scotland, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man
It’s very important with new technolo gy to know where the off button is. Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure. Colin Powell The time is always right to do what is right. Martin Luther King Jr Minds are like parachutes – they only function when open. Thomas Dewar
Employment matters
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How AMiE saved our jobs David Green, Director of Employment Services, AMiE
When Maureen Stephens and her colleague Sandra Tyrrell were told that their jobs were at risk, it came as quite a shock. Seemingly there was no alternative to redundancy. David Green, AMiE Director of Employment Services, reports on how AMiE was able to help. Fortunately, both Maureen and Sandra were members of AMiE, and it was to AMiE that they turned for help. After phoning the national helpline (see contact details below), a meeting was soon arranged with our Regional Officer, Brian Thornton. Maureen recalls the first meeting: ‘Brian was clearly familiar with cases similar to the one we found ourselves in. He was able to absorb the information quickly and offer sound advice.’ Like all AMiE officers, Brian took up our members’ case with the college. Maureen says: ‘Brian was always very measured in his response to the college – assertive without being confrontational or aggressive. He kept in touch on a regular basis and always responded quickly to emails and phone messages.’ Fortunately, Brian’s intervention saved both members’ jobs. The experience was not one that Maureen or Sandra would wish to repeat, but both recognised the benefit of AMiE membership at such a difficult time.
I could not have asked for better help, advice and support.
Referring directly to AMiE support, Maureen says: ‘Without a doubt, if we had not been members of AMiE, we would have been dismissed and it would have been impossible to fight our case without the support of a trade union. I am so very grateful for the support I received.
Maureen Stephens (left) and Sandra Tyrrell: grateful for the support they received from AMiE ‘I never thought I would find myself in a position where I would need a trade union to defend me. I could not have asked for better help, advice and support. It is unbelievably frightening to find your job under threat, but being able to turn to AMiE was extremely reassuring at such a ghastly time in my life.’
You’re not alone Sandra is equally positive about the importance of union membership: ‘One lesson which any manager in FE should learn from our experience is that by being a member of the appropriate union, you can have the reassurance that you don’t have to deal with the situation on your own. You have access to expert legal advice and, most importantly, cannot be bounced into making decisions in situations which are at worse illegal and at best unprofessional. ‘If you have colleagues who are not currently members of AMiE, I would strongly recommend that they join. We have both been members for many years and had no cause to seek help before. You never know when you will find yourself in a situation like Maureen and I found ourselves in. Brian took the personal element out of the proceedings and was able to deal with things which were causing us distress.’
We’re here to help You can contact AMiE whenever you need to on our national helpline: tel 01858 464 171, email helpline@acm.uk.com or helpline@amie.uk.com
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20
The last word
Nadine Cartner, Director of Policy, AMiE
While vocational education and training (in the sense of a learning programme directed towards a specific job area) is a primary function and responsibility of the college sector, I believe that most managers and teachers in colleges want colleges to continue to offer education for a variety of other purposes too.
Learning, as we all know, is nourishing, pleasing, stimulating, rejuvenating and health giving.
As individuals we seek learning for a wide range of reasons, including important desires to do our job better, gain promotion, find a new job, achieve a licence to practise. But we also enjoy learning because, for example (and the list is infinite here): we love literature and want to extend our knowledge, understanding and pleasure; we want or need to learn a language that is not our mother tongue;
we are curious about the perennial questions about human existence; we have always yearned to learn to paint and draw; we are determined to get on board the technological revolution; having just retired, we feel it’s a splendid opportunity to indulge that long-held interest in … all kinds of things. Learning, as we all know, is nourishing, pleasing, stimulating, rejuvenating and health giving. So why, in this wealthy and generally enlightened country, is education increasingly viewed by policymakers as the handmaiden of the economy? This is a view that is gathering still more momentum in the context of the economic downturn. On this account, learning is valued only in so far as it contributes to our material prosperity. What a narrow, impoverished and short-sighted view! The contribution of education to our economic success is highly valid; but to limit education to that function is to overlook the profound value of learning to our very humanity in all its complexity.
Edited and designed by thingswedo (www.thingswedo.com) Photographs courtesy of Coleg Menai (page 9); Basingstoke College (pages 10–11) Illustrations (pages 1 and 20) by Keith Sparrow Printed by Blackmore Ltd, Shaftesbury. © ACM 2010. All rights reserved.