The National Education Union (NEU) has announced further strike action at a North London school for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), after members rejected a trust offer they described as 'throwing scraps to the dogs'.
Background to the dispute
Woodfield School in Kingsbury, Brent, is a mixed secondary school catering for pupils aged 11 to 19 with a range of special educational needs, including physical disabilities and autism. The school is part of the Compass Learning Partnership academy trust. Previous strikes in December and January forced the school to close on multiple occasions, with nine days of action before Christmas and a further seven days in January after members rejected an offer from the trust.
Latest developments
The NEU has now announced plans for further industrial action across June and July, after members likened the trust's previous offer to 'throwing scraps to the dogs'. During talks last year, the trust proposed cutting teaching assistants' working time by one and a half hours per week, down from an earlier proposal of three and a half hours. Following negotiations, the NEU claims staff were offered 'free school dinners and a few extra hours'.
A spokesperson for Brent NEU said: 'After 13 days of the most fun and lively picket lines, management were forced to agree to go to ACAS. They spent a day there, but the best they could offer was free school dinners and a few extra hours, while sticking to the plan to cut hours across the board. Our members described the offer of school dinners as being like throwing scraps to the dogs. Lead Learning Assistants are responsible for supporting the behaviour of teenagers with very complex needs who can become highly dysregulated and who often live with complex mental health challenges. They are highly skilled workers.'
The spokesperson added: 'After ACAS and the second round of offering voluntary redundancies or flexible working, management announced that they were moving to fire and rehire. We have rebooted and are ready to resume strike action on June 2nd.'
Fire and rehire concerns
The NEU claims the trust no longer wants to negotiate and is looking to reduce the pay of support staff by firing and rehiring, an employment practice where an employer terminates an employee's contract and immediately offers to rehire them on new, often less favourable terms. Compass Learning Partnership has been informed of the plans for a series of strike days, with action set to take place on three days every week in June, starting on June 2, and on four days each week in July.
Compass Learning Partnership were approached for comment but did not respond ahead of publication.
