Wales POLICY UPDATE

to muddle through. There are huge numbers of parental complaints across our system now concerning SEN provision, vast numbers of tribunals and enormous disharmony between the parents and the lead professionals delivering education on the front line. With the totally justifiable agenda to ensure that all children receive a place in schools, there has been an overt move just to place children but little regard for the appropriateness of the setting. For example, children with complex additional needs have been placed in mainstream settings with minimal support. And schools must now rely unsustainably heavily on the goodwill of many individuals who are not adequately trained, resourced or paid.

What is the reason for this drive to place children in this way? Simply speaking, the special sector is gravely overcrowded – short of a staggering 1,100 places.

This overloading has meant that every special school has lost specialist rooms to convert them into classroom spaces. Therapy rooms are gone. Sensory rooms are gone. Libraries are gone. Even the staffrooms are gone. This is a shameful decline that we must urgently right. Workload has increased substantially, and the profession in Northern Ireland is now facing clear evidence of recruitment and retention problems. And, of course, all the education unions are in industrial action, with a half day of strike action already undertaken by the teaching unions. However, facing such a dismal landscape has not distracted NAHT from continuing to lobby politicians from all parties, the employing authorities and the Department of Education on many different issues to bring about improvements at a system level. To this end, NAHT has been actively involved in the nine reviews agreed on in the teachers’ pay and workload agreement 2017/19, ratified by the Teachers’ Negotiating Committee (TNC) on 28 April 2020. The reviews have now been completed and have progressed to the TNC. An enormous amount of work remains, but NAHT is committed to ensuring that, outside of the pay dispute, the effective and meaningful delivery of the recommendations within the nine reviews will be expedited.

Court rules on relationship and sex education

The High Court ruled in favour of the rollout of Wales’s new relationship and sex education (RSE) curriculum following a legal battle with a group of parents.

Members of the Public Child Protection Wales group claimed children as young as three would be taught “sensitive and arguably inappropriate topics”, including gender ideology, and that parents were being disenfranchised by being denied the right to remove their child from sex education. The Welsh Government said these claims were incorrect and that all lessons would be age-appropriate.

On 22 December 2022, the High Court ruled in favour of the Welsh Government on all grounds. In its ruling, the court found that the guidance on the curriculum would “ensure RSE teaching is conveyed in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner and does not breach the prohibition on indoctrination.”

Mrs Justice Steyn, presiding over the case, said: “There was a disjunct between the actual contents of the code and guidance and the claimants’ allegations. On analysis of those texts, the court concluded that the contention that they fall foul of the rule against indoctrination was misconceived.”

The campaigners argued that the new curriculum’s mandatory element breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Article two, protocol one of the

ECHR reads: “No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and teaching, the state shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.” However, the court found that it could not be claimed that the absence of a parental right of excusal breaches the first sentence of this, and there was nothing in the code or guidance in breach of the second sentence of the ECHR’s protocol. This issue has been a source of concern for our members, many of whom were targeted by the campaign group and received dozens of emails and letters about it. Since the start of the spring term, the number of calls NAHT has received on this has reduced dramatically.

Consortia

School day/ year reform

The Welsh Government has refused to pause its reform agenda, despite huge objections from all education unions and no evidence to suggest that changing the school year or extending the school day will positively impact learners. Plans for a formal consultation on changing the school year will go ahead as scheduled this term.

Following the publication of three damning reports into the education consortia, specifically around inconsistent support for school leaders and the performance of the consortia themselves, there has been no movement from the Welsh Government in the way of a response. Despite our repeated calls for action, there has been no movement from the government’s letter to us at the time, which stated that steps would be taken to improve the performance of the consortia. However, this has become a focal point for discussions with the Welsh Government as part of our dispute talks.

PAUL WHITEMAN: NAHT general secretary