Agenda item

Gary Upton introduced the report (Agenda Item 9), which aimed to inform members of the Schools’ Forum of the activities of the teacher trade unions.

Gary Upton reported that teacher trade union’s time over the past three to four months had been dominated by Covid-19 however, a lot of positives had come out of this and Gary Upton stated that this was reflected within the report. Time had been spent building positive relationships with employers. A sensible and pragmatic approach would be taken to working together when reopening schools and he felt that members of the trade unions were very appreciative of this.

Gary Upton reported that there were pieces of casework taking place however he had tried to highlight in the report that casework and consultation was not the only thing that that was carried out by the unions and a lot of focus was given to building relationships to the point where consultation and casework was reduced. He believed that this was the position with many employers and it was an approach that was well received.

Gary Upton reported that through his consultation with members it was apparent that tools such as Zoom were being used to increase engagement with colleagues across West Berkshire. There was a lot of appreciation for the work taking place by the trade union with SLTs and headteacher representative unions.

Gary Upton stressed that the last few months had been incredibly busy with lots of questions being raised however, the transparent approach taken by schools and the LA had been hugely appreciated by the trade unions and its members.

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the report.