No Clarity on Local Schools Set to Be Hit By Strikes
Ealing Council officer says requests for information not answered
Teachers plan to resume industrial action in July
June 30, 2023
Ealing Council has said that it is ‘unsure’ which schools will close after teachers announced fresh strike dates for the start of July. In a meeting of the council’s Education Joint Committee NEU representatives said they were confident that strike action would move ahead on July 5 and 7 seeing staff walk out of schools across the country.
However, Ealing Council admitted that calls for information about whether the schools in the borough would be closed, open or have restricted attendance was unclear, with council officer Mark Nelson saying the number of responses had been “a trickle not a flood”. He added that compared to the first round of strikes where the council had upwards of 65 school responses that number had dropped to just 12 so the council was unable to tell parents with plenty of warning that their child’s school would be shut.
This will not affect information that is passed to parents from schools, but it means Ealing Council is restricted in what guidance it can give to specific parental groups. Stefan Simms from the NEU’s Ealing branch which represents many school staff in the borough expressed the collective frustration that many teachers have found themselves in.
He told the committee that news that Rishi Sunak was going to ignore recommendations for pay increases had infuriated members in Ealing. “Rishi Sunak is going to ignore the independent pay review body,” he said.
“This has caused an immense amount of anger amongst our members.” Mr Simms also added he believed the government had acted with hypocrisy with Secretary of State for Education Gillian Keegan saying one thing and the Prime Minister saying another. “We were told by Gillian Keegan in August that we couldn’t have a pay rise because inflation was rising, now we are being told by Rishi Sunak we can’t have a pay rise because inflation is falling.”
In February, 2,000 teachers and support staff went on strike from Ealing schools with reports saying that the most recent strike in May caused even more disruption. School staff do not need to inform the school or parents in advance if they are going to strike, although some do, which can make it difficult to predict which places may be shut or have restricted access.
Further strike action is currently being balloted for the Autumn term once schools return from summer holidays. The Department for Education has said that further strike action would cause “real damage” to pupil learning.
Rory Bennett - Local Democracy Reporter
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