I hope you are safe and well and coping with the shutdown. I also hope your employer is treating you fairly and reasonably during these unprecedented times.
In the last few weeks we have gone from total chaos and
uncertainty to a strange kind of ‘new normal’, but there are big questions
still to be settled and information you need to know. In this update, please
find:
I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well
Best wishes
Kieran Picken
District Secretary, Derby City NEU
Safe working during the shutdown
1.
The NEU
website is being regularly updated with the latest coronavirus and shutdown
related advice here. As a general principle, staff should not be on the
premises unless absolutely necessary to supervise children and children should
not be there unless there is no alternative. More specific advice:
a.
Keeping yourself safe at work: https://neu.org.uk/advice/coronavirus-keeping-yourself-safe
b.
Support services and information for families: https://neu.org.uk/coronavirus-support-services-and-information-families
c.
Mental health and wellbeing:
i.
Staff
ii.
Primary
children
iii.
Secondary
children
2.
The HSE has set up a national reporting system
to report concerns about unsafe working practices relating to Covid-19. Your
rep will have details of this, please report your concerns to them or to the Derby
NEU officers by emailing david.boulter@neu.org.uk
3.
Locally your NEU officers are liaising regularly
with Derby City Council so please raise any issues by emailing kieran.picken@neu.org.uk and we can
hopefully resolve them quickly.
4.
Remember that Public Health England has regular
updates around Covid-19, and their advice can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
5.
If you are asked to work where you have good
grounds to believe it is unsafe, you are protected by law if you refuse to work,
subject to certain conditions. The relevant legislation, Section 44 of the
Employment Rights Act 1996, can be found here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/44
6.
Join the rep team at your school! We always
encourage teams of reps in school, and if you would like to help your
colleagues, please speak to your rep or, if you don’t have one in your school,
sign up here: https://neu.org.uk/become-rep#reps-form
Open schools when it is safe to do so
There has been a lot of speculation in the media about the
reopening of schools. The NEU has written
to the Prime Minister on this question and our position is clear – we
should open schools as soon as it is safe to do so, and not before. If you have
not done so already, we would urge you to join the almost 200,000 people who
have signed our petition to the prime minister to share crucial information so
that any proposal to reopen schools is based on sound scientific evidence and
that both parents and school staff can have confidence that reopening schools
is the safe and correct decision. The petition can be found here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/open-schools-when-it-is-safe
Model letter to send to headteachers, MATs and LAs
There is a model letter calling on heads, MATs and LAs to
adopt the same principles as we are calling on the national government – we
have had some encouraging news from Downing Street since starting the petition,
so we need to keep up the pressure! Please
download, adapt and use the letter, you can find it here.
International Workers Memorial Day Tuesday 28th April 2020
·
IWMD will have a special significance this year
and we are asking our members to join in a minute’s silence at 11.00 for all those who have
died during this crisis. The need to pull together during this time should not
blind us to the fact that testing for coronavirus is woefully inadequate, many
of our colleagues in the NHS have still not been tested and do not have access
to adequate PPE and the UK’s death rate from Coronavirus is the fourth-highest
in the world, higher than the USA. We must do everything we can to support safe
working conditions for key workers and support our colleagues in putting public
safety first at all times. The tragic
death at 52 of Derby Royal consultant Manjeet Singh Riyat last week is a
horrible reminder of this need.
·
Also as part of IWMD, Stand Up To Racism are holding
an online meeting: Covid-19 & Disproportionate BAME deaths – Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn
will be headline speakers. This is a Facebook Live event – just click this link
to attend: https://www.facebook.com/events/2602854389976406/
· NHS
Workers’ Petition: 6 Demands to tackle coronavirus: http://chng.it/GqD4vVR4ZZ
Useful home-learning resources for teachers and parents
Locally we have a shared drive to share resources and links
to help set work during the shutdown, there are lots of ideas, resources and
links so
please take a look! We’re happy to add any new resources, just email them
to kieran.picken@neu.org.uk
Members in hardship
Although we are fortunate that many of our members are on
employment contracts and our income has not been affected by the lockdown,
there are also a lot of members who are more vulnerable in the shutdown, particularly
our supply members. The NEU has been active in lobbying for our supply members,
and our position remains:
·
Schools should carry on employing supply staff
that they were employing before the shutdown, whether directly employed or
agency. Supply members who are experiencing difficulties with this should
contact david.boulter@neu.org.uk
·
Supply staff or other members experiencing financial difficulties
can apply to the NEU Trust Fund here: https://neu.org.uk/trust-fund
·
We have set up a new NEU Hardship Fund specifically
for this crisis. This is currently being finalised and details of the fund and
how to access it can be found here: https://neu.org.uk/neu-hardship-fund
Online CPD
Members are able to access a range of free online CPD and
training from the NEU website here: https://neu.org.uk/national-cpd
So far we have:
·
NASEN webinars – partnering with the National
Association for Special Educational Needs to deliver training about small group
interventions
·
Girls on board – helping girls aged 7-18
to navigate friendship problems
·
We also have training aimed at leadership
members, Leading in Uncertain Times.
Leading
in Uncertainty will help you navigate the many challenges you are facing, step
into uncertainty, make speedy decisions and offer the best possible leadership
to your school community at its time of need.
Leading
Uncertainty in Primary - 3.30pm – 5.30pm, 7th May, 21st May,
4th June– click here
Leading
Uncertainty in Secondary – 11am -1pm 5th May, 19th May,
2nd June - click here
Places
will be allocated on a first come first served basis but if interest is
sufficient, we will look at adding additional dates.
Local NEU activities – including news about the AGM on Friday 15th May
·
On Friday 24th May we held a Derby
District Committee meeting. We decided:
o
To go ahead with an online meeting on 15th
May, and ask our guest speaker Dr Jon Berry, author of Teachers Undefeated and
Putting The Test In Its Place to speak on the topic of how we can put children
back at the centre of education after the coronavirus crisis. Dr Berry has
agreed to speak, which is great news. The meeting will be online and to attend
just RSVP to kieran.picken@neu.org.uk
and a link will be emailed out to you ahead of time. In the meantime, you can
read Dr Berry’s blog on education matters here: https://radicalreadblog.wordpress.com/
o
We decided to make donations to various
organisations that are in need at this time. As Conference has been cancelled
this year we wanted to use funds that would have gone on union democracy to
help in the crisis. The maximum a committee can agree is £500, so we agreed the
following:
§
£500.00 to the NEU Trust Fund
§
£500.00 to the NEU Hardship Fund
§
£500.00 to local food banks
§
£500.00 to local women’s services, helping victims
of domestic abuse
§
£500.00 to Care4Calais, helping homeless
refugees who have been denied entry to the UK
Daily updates from Derby City Council
In the crisis the local authority are sending out daily
updates relating to education. You
can read them on our shared drive here.
TUC and Community Actions
- TUC – no return to work without tough new safety measures.
- TUC demands that all employers produce risk assessments before lockdown is eased
- New measures needed to give workers confidence as polling shows 2 in 5 workers are concerned about returning to work
·
Chesterfield May Day 2020 will go ahead
online this Saturday, 2nd May from 10.30 on Facebook Live. Find out
more and sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/567801564038732/
·
ACORN Community Union is asking people to
submit evidence to the parliamentary Housing Select Committee about the impact
of coronavirus on renting. ACORN are calling for a rent waiver so that anyone
unable to pay rent in the crisis cannot be evicted or end up in debt. Find out
more here: https://acorntheunion.org.uk/coronavirus-campaigns/
and submit
evidence to the Select Committee by 1st May here.
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