Can Managers Affect Risk Of Heart Attack?

Members may be interested in this report from the Workplace Law Network concerning research linking the risk of heart attack to the competency of the line manager.

Education and Skills Act 2008

The Educations and Skills Act 2008 received Royal Assent this week. The Act will require 16 and 17 year olds who leave education without achieving a certain level of qualification to participate in accredited training.  For employers, it contains a new obligation to allow 16 and 17 year old employees the equivalent of one day a week off to undertake training (which may be accredited training provided by the employer) and a new duty not to employ such individuals if they have not made appropriate training arrangements.

The new duty to participate post 16 will not start to come into force until 2013 and there are many details still to be specified in regulations and guidance.

The new rights and obligations contained within the Education and Skills Act 2008 are in addition to the Government’s proposal to give employees in England the right to request time off for skills training once they have worked for their employer for 26 weeks and for the employer to consider such requests seriously.

SENCO Regulations Before Parliament

The Education (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators) (England) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/2945) were laid before Parliament on 21 November. The Regulations introduce a new requirement for SENCOs to be qualified teachers, fulfilling earlier commitments made to Parliament. This requirement will ensure that the SENCO has the standing to influence differentiated teaching and learning matched to pupils’ individual needs.

The Regulations are due to come into effect on 1 September 2009, but allow for a two-year transitional period, for SENCOs who are not currently teachers, but who have been in post for at least six months as at 31 August 2009, to gain Qualified Teacher Status by September 2011. This period will allow schools that may be affected to make any necessary staffing adjustments.

Some of the SENCO functions will continue to be undertaken by other staff, including teaching assistants, and they will continue to make a significant and important contribution to improving the achievement and well-being of pupils with SEN and disabilities. However, the person designated by the school governing body as responsible for co-ordinating overall provision for pupils with SEN and disabilities i.e. the person with the lead responsibility, will need to be a qualified teacher. The Regulations also allow for headteachers or acting headteachers to carry out the role.

(Source: TeacherNet)

Anti-Bullying Guidance For Schools

In case members are not aware, the National Healthy Schools Programme (NHSP) has produced new Anti-Bullying Guidance. Although aimed at schools it is likley to be of interest to a wider audience. A copy of the guidance can be downloaded from the NHSP wesite.

Boost For Disability Equality in Colleges

An initiative designed to promote equality for disabled people in post-compulsory education was kick-started yesterday with its first official pledge from a further education college.

The Disability Equality Commitment, facilitated by Lifelong Learning UK, is a framework to help organisations in further education recruit, retain, and train disabled employees so that they are equally represented in the sector. Liverpool Community College became the first institution to sign up and commit to disability equality in this way.

Maureen Mellor MBE, Principal of Liverpool Community College, signed the pledge at this week’s Association of Colleges conference, in the company of Paul Mackney, the Chair of the Disability Equality Implementation Group which launched the initiative. The College has a proven record in striving for equality and diversity. 15 per cent of its learners class themselves as having a disability, alongside seven per cent of staff.

Maureen Mellor, said: “Liverpool Community College has a distinct action plan on disability equality – we have a disability staff group; we have undertaken a major training project with 1,000 staff taking part in sessions on equality awareness; and each year we hold a diversity event to celebrate and raise awareness of the different talents, skills and needs of our learners and staff.

“We are delighted to be the first further education college to sign up to the Disability Equality Commitment. We recognise our duty to all our staff and learners and strive to provide the best service for them. In turn we hope that individuals benefit from the opportunities that are created”.

Disabled people make up one fifth of the UK’s working age population, but face significant
disadvantages in the world of work. They are 50 per cent less likely to have a degree than nondisabled people, and twice as likely to have no qualifications at all. They are also 25 per cent less likely to be employed than the population as a whole.* The Disability Equality Commitment aims to positively address those inequalities in further education.

Paul Mackney, Chair of the Disability Equality Implementation Group, said “Our learners deserve to engage with the very best staff, irrespective of their age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief or sexual orientation. We know from Lifelong Learning UK’s Annual Workforce Diversity Profile that the level of staff disclosure about disability has fallen this year, which is why it’s more important than ever that colleges and other lifelong learning providers demonstrate a commitment to promoting disability equality. We’re delighted that Liverpool Community College is forging the way by signing up to the Disability Equality Commitment in Lifelong Learning, and, for the sake of all learners and staff, we would encourage others to do the same.”

TUC Calls For Tax Cuts

The TUC has called on the Chancellor to use the Pre-Budget Report (PBR) next week to make tax cuts for low and middle income earners to stimulate the economy.

In a letter to Alistair Darling, the TUC says that putting extra money into the pockets of low paid workers and the unemployed is the most effective economic stimulus because they are likely to spend their money quickly.

The TUC has also urged the Government to help the victims of recession through suspending housing repossessions, higher benefits and better redundancy pay.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber praises the Government’s reaction to the financial crisis but says the PBR must be: “As bold in heading off unemployment, as it has been in resolving the banking crisis. Policy must be designed with three objectives in mind: to prevent job loss; to get the unemployed back to work; and to prevent those in unemployment facing hardship.”

Measures backed by the TUC include:

• Tax cuts targeted at those on middle incomes and below to stimulate the economy. This should form part of a permanent rebalancing of the tax system that makes the super-rich pay more and those on low incomes less.
• The Government to press lenders for a moratorium on repossessions and take action to help consumers with excessive debt.
• An increase in unemployment benefits, statutory redundancy pay (in line with the 2005 manifesto commitment) and the amount of redundancy pay that can be taken tax free.
• An extra £10,000 tax free allowance for redundancy pay spent on training.
• Bring forward planned infrastructure spending, increasing funds into social housing and investment to make the UK a leading low carbon economy.
• An industrial strategy which supports sectors that are already outperforming the rest of economy and have the potential to do better.
• More investment in skills.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “The Government has shown the rest of the world the way in how to rescue the financial system. Now it must show the same commitment to making the recession as short and as shallow as possible.

“This requires not just a big boost to the economy, but a smart one. It should give extra resources to medium and low paid workers and the unemployed who are most likely to spend extra cash. And it should boost public spending in ways that will both produce immediate economic benefits but also make the UK a fairer and greener place.

“We are going to have a grim time, but at least at the end of it we should aim to emerge as a better balanced and more sustainable country that has decisively narrowed the gap between the super-rich and the rest of us.”

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New Acas Code On Discipline and Grievances Is Approved

Acas’s revised Code of Practice has been approved by the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. It will now be put before Parliament for its final ratification until which time it will remain a draft.

The Code is due to come into effect on 6 April 2009.

The revised Code provides broad principles on discipline and grievance handling in the workplace. It will be complemented by a non-statutory Acas Guide providing more detailed good practice advice.

A final version of this Guide will be placed on the Acas website as soon as possible but in the meantime, you can download a copy of the draft document.

Commenting on the new Code, AMiE Director of Employment Services, David Green, said, “This revised version is clearly better than the first draft, and has met some of the concerns raised by ACM and ATL. For example, there is a little more clarity on how to investigate a problem and how to deal with hearings. Overall though it remains a little disappointing and unless the promised guidance is sufficiently detailed and helpful, then many employers will continue to get away with bad practices.”

The Employment Bill, which will abolish the current statutory dispute procedures, and which paved the way for the new Code, has received royal assent and is now the Employment Act 2008.

LLUK Launches Database of Vocational Experts

A database of vocational experts who want to ‘pass on their skills’ as a further education teacher, tutor or trainer has been launched by Lifelong Learning UK to help colleges and independent learning providers fill key learning delivery roles.

The Pass on Your Skills vocational practitioner database allows providers to search, free of charge, for professionals with technical or vocational backgrounds who want to start a new career in teaching. It links providers with individuals who have expertise in specific areas where corresponding skills shortages exist in the learning and skills sector.

The pilot database launched on 14 November and contains details of over 500 individually assessed individuals from engineering and health and social care backgrounds. It was developed following a national Pass on Your Skills recruitment drive by Lifelong Learning UK, to encourage industry professionals to consider a career in further education and help learing providers strengthen vocational expertise in their workforce.

Further Pass on Your Skills recruitment campaigns in 2009 will lead to a wider roll out of the database, extending the range of vocational expertise offered by candidates in the database to cover additional ‘in-demand’ skill sets including STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and construction and the built environment-related expertise.

Learning providers can access the Pass on Your Skills vocational practitioner database at www.lluk.org/poys-database.htm. Registration takes five minutes, following which providers can search for and request further details about candidates who match their recruitment needs.

Credit Crunch Hitting Independent Sector

Some independent schools are showing early signs of being affected by the credit crunch according to a survey by our AMiE partner, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

In an ATL survey of over 2,000 staff working in independent schools around the UK in October 2008, a fifth said their school has fewer pupils than last year.

Fifty-four per cent of teachers fear there may be cuts in their school’s spending this year, and only 27 per cent don’t expect any cuts.  Fourteen per cent said their school had fewer teachers this September than in 2007, and 16 per cent think there may be redundancies in their school during this academic year.

However, the survey also shows that many independent schools are managing to ride out the economic turmoil so far.  Around 45 per cent of teachers and support staff said their school has more pupils this academic year, a third of teachers said there are more teachers this year and a quarter of support staff said they have more non-teaching staff in their school.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said:  “The survey backs up what we are hearing anecdotally – that some smaller private schools are feeling the pinch and already beginning to find the going tough in the current economic climate.

“From experience we know there tends to be a lag between parents suffering a fall in income, while they try to re-juggle their finances or find another job, and taking their children out of private education.  If the recession continues for long we fear more independent schools will begin to struggle and there will be further redundancies.

“But it would be wrong for schools to use the economic climate as an excuse to mistreat staff.  We urge schools to act responsibly as good employers and ensure staff do not suffer unnecessarily, that salary cuts and redundancies are a last resort and are handled with care.”

Nearly two-thirds of teachers working in independent schools said they work more than 48 hours a week, rising to 75 per cent of full-timers, and a third work more than five days a week during term time.  Among support staff nearly a fifth work over 48 hours and 13 per cent work more than five days a week.

However, 24 per cent of teachers said their pay was lower than in state schools, 24 per cent said their pay was comparable to that of state school colleagues, and 29 per cent said their pay was better.

The survey reveals the basic salary of nearly half of full-time teachers is less than £35,000 a year, and or a fifth under £30,000.  Among part-timers 42 per cent are on a basic salary of less than £30,000.

Over 40 per cent of supply staff receive a basic salary of under £18,000 a year, and nearly a quarter earn less than £15,000.

When the average full-time basic teaching salary is divided by the average number of hours worked a week during term time the survey suggests independent teachers are being paid on average £15.50 an hour for each hour they work.

Dr Mary Bousted said:  “Too many private schools are exploiting their staff, expecting them to work excessive hours for mediocre pay.

“We recognise times are tough for some independent schools in the current credit crunch, but this does not justify the way they treat their staff.  Schools which treat their staff badly cannot reasonably expect to retain the brightest staff and thus attract and keep pupils, and so are likely to suffer particularly hard in the economic downturn.”

TUC Welcomes Move Towards Scrapping 48 Hour Opt-Out

Responding to today’s decision by the employment social affairs committee of the European Parliament to scrap the Working Time Directive opt-out by 35 votes to 13, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

“Workers across the UK will be heartened by the committee’s vote to end the opt-out from the 48 hour week.

“Our long hours culture, which has been shored up by the opt-out, has risked the health of many workers. Regularly working more than 48 hours increases the chance of suffering from heart disease and stress related illness, as well as diabetes and other ailments.

“The vast majority of long hours workers want to move to a better work-life balance and are hungry for change. Today’s vote is a welcome step towards ending the opt-out and the pressure will now be on the European Parliament to ratify the decision next month.”