Category: Information for Members

The SSTA Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee reluctantly agreed to recommend acceptance of the 4.27% offer to members as the Committee felt this was the best deal that could be achieved at this time. The ballot returned with 91% of SSTA members voting to accept the pay offer for 2024-2025.
 
Paul Cochrane SSTA Salaries and Conditions of Service Convenor said.
 
“The SSTA members have supported the Committee’s recommendation and voted overwhelmingly to accept the pay offer. The Committee will inform the SNCT Teachers’ Side of the outcome of the ballot and should other teacher unions agree we will be expecting the increase to be in teacher salaries as soon as possible”.
 
The SSTA Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee will be considering other findings of the consultative ballot including the drivers of teacher workload. A full report will be issued in the coming weeks.

Email invitations to take part in the Consultative Ballot on the 2 September pay offer have been sent out to members who are employed by a Local Authority at 1.15pm this afternoon.   The Consultative Ballot will close at 12.00pm on Tuesday 10 September 2024. If you have already responded to the consultative ballot, thank you for taking the time to do so.
 
The SSTA Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee reluctantly agreed to recommend acceptance of the 4.27% offer to members. The Committee decided to consult members on the latest employers’ pay offer.
 
Although there were reservations expressed at the meeting, the Committee felt this was the best deal that can be achieved at this time. All members employed by a local authority are invited to participate in the electronic consultative ballot.
 
The employers (COSLA) issued a pay offer on Monday 2 September will give an increase of 4.27% on all SNCT pay grades on 1 August 2024. Please see provisional SNCT pay scale. 
 
If you have not received the email invitation for the ballot, please check the spam/junk folders as sometime the email can be diverted there. 

If the email has been delivered to the junk/spam folder, you may have to mark the email as ‘not spam’ for the link to the ballot to work.  You can see how to do this using the relevant link for your email provider.

• Gmail – Remove an email from Spam
• Yahoo – Mark emails as Not Spam
• iCloud – Indicate that an email is not junk
• Hotmail/Outlook.com – mark an email message as Not junk

The SSTA Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee met and carefully considered the latest pay offer for 2024-2025 from the employers (COSLA) received on 2 September.
 
The Committee reluctantly agreed to recommend acceptance of the 4.27% offer to members. An online consultative ballot will commence on Thursday 5 September to seek members approval.  Although there were reservations expressed at the meeting, due to the current financial climate, accompanied by COSLA stating this was a full and final offer, the Committee felt this was the best deal that could be achieved at this time. Although the pay offer retains some of the progress made in recent pay settlements awards it still falls short of the restoration of salary to historical levels due to years of austerity.
 
The Committee also took the view that the education system needs to change to address the issues teachers face in secondary schools.

• Individual teachers, support staff and parents have shouldered the burden of budget cuts and deteriorating conditions of service.
• Serving teachers are finding workload and poor pupil behaviour are having a major negative impact on their health and well-being.
• The increasing number of pupils with ASN in schools whilst at the same time ASN teachers and other education professionals are being reduced.
• Failings elsewhere in society result in the default response of ‘schools can do it instead’.
• The ability of external agencies to drop massive workload increases on schools without warning must cease.

 
Paul Cochrane, SSTA Salaries and Conditions of Service Convenor said.

“Teachers should be allowed to teach, and pupils be allowed to learn, free from the negative impact of inappropriate pupil behaviour. Schools should have excellent resources, coherent courses, and sensible assessment arrangements. The Management side of the SNCT continues to prevaricate on the Government commitment to reducing teacher class contact by 90 minutes due to an argument of how this time should be used. The SSTA is adamant that this time should be planning, preparation and correction directed by the teacher. Improvements are needed before Scottish Education deteriorates beyond redemption.”
 
The SSTA position was reported to the SNCT Teacher Side meeting held today and each of the unions have agreed to consult their members in the coming days.
 
The consultative ballot will commence on Thursday 5th September and will close on Tuesday 10th September at 12.00pm. The email invitations will be sent out on Thursday afternoon to the ‘preferred’ email address we hold for members.

The June 2024 SSTA Newsletter is now available for members to download. 

The newsletter includes articles on:

• Presidential Address to Congress 2024
• Report of the General Secretary
• Motions Passed at Congress 2024
• Financial Statement to members
• Health and Safety Reps Training
• Fund education: An urgent appeal to the G7

The SNCT Pay Claim 2024-2025 – No improved offer received

The SNCT Teachers’ Side pay claim for 2024-2025 is 6.5% for all SNCT grades from August 2024 and was made in January 2024.  The SNCT Teachers’ Side unanimously rejected the pay offer made on 5 June on behalf of all the teacher unions. Please follow the link to the COSLA Pay Offer Letter 4 June 2024 to see details of the rejected offer.

The SNCT Extended Joint Chairs (SSTA, EIS, COSLA and Scottish Government)  met on 13 and 19 June seeking an improvement of the rejected offer. Unfortunately, there has been no improved offer as we move towards the end of the school year and close to the settlement date of 1 August 2024.
 

Teacher Workload and Working Time Agreement

At this time of the year many schools are completing their Working Time Agreements (WTA). Since 2006 the pupil contact time for secondary teachers in Scotland has been limited to a maximum of 22.5 hours per week with teachers contracted to work for 35 hours per week.

The SNCT handbook states “An allowance of no less than one third of the teacher’s actual class contact commitment is provided for preparation and correction. The use of remaining time will be subject to agreement at school level within LNCT guidelines, based on the Code of Practice on Working Time Arrangements (see Appendix 2.7).”

The WTA in each school specifies the remaining 5 hours per week as ‘Collegiate Time’. Unfortunately, many schools believe that the WTA is a starting point not a maximum. Excessive teacher workload is a major problem in most schools in Scotland and there is a duty on school leadership teams to ensure that teachers’ time is used efficiently and within the allocated times. Equally, we urge all members to play their part and ensure that allocated time is adhered to and used appropriately. The SSTA is quite clear that not all demands upon teachers can be met and therefore the expectations of parents and others need to be managed.

The SSTA has issued WTA guidance to all school representatives but all members should be aware of the details of how a WTA is developed. A recording of the briefing is available to view on the SSTA website.

Did you Know?

There should be a maximum of 5 (five) parental consultation meetings in a year and teacher preparation time should be included. For example, the SSTA recommends that a 3-hour parental meeting should have a 2-hour preparation period. This equates to 5 hours for each parental consultation meeting.

Part-time teachers should only attend the number of parental consultations in the same proportion of the days worked. For example, a teacher who works for 3 days a week should, through negotiation with the Headteacher, attend only 3 parental consultations.

Teachers who work in schools with an asymmetric timetable are not required to remain in schools on a Friday afternoon. Teachers are only required to be engaged in activities on a Friday afternoon if events have been included in the school calendar and the school’s WTA.

 
Mobile phones in Scottish Schools Petition

The SSTA conducted a national survey on Mobile Phones in Schools earlier this year and the results were published in a press release: Press Releases Archives – Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (ssta.org.uk) The SSTA has shared this survey with the Scottish Government and have engaged in developing a Scottish Government policy document.

We have been contacted by a group of teachers in Moray to publicise a petition that has been published, calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to update guidance on mobile phones in schools to require all schools to prohibit the use of mobile phones during the school day, including at interval and lunchtime.

The petition is here: https://petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2106
 

SSTA Membership – Recruit a Colleague

All members are encouraged to recruit a colleague to join the SSTA. SSTA membership is unique in that it offers direct access to a senior official for advice and support. No other teacher union provides this service. The SSTA is the only trade union that offers this access to all members and remember the SSTA is the only teacher union that speaks only for Scottish Secondary Teachers.

• NQTs – Free until January 2026 (qualified 2024)
• New members – 50% for 12 months
• Part-Time – 50% for all part-timers (£9.00 per month)

Any new members can join view the website at www.ssta.org.uk/join 

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The SNCT Pay Claim 2024-2025 – Pay Offer Rejected

The SNCT Teachers’ Side pay claim for 2024-2025 is 6.5% for all SNCT grades from August 2024 was made in January 2024.  The SNCT Extended Joint Chairs (SSTA, EIS, COSLA and Scottish Government)  met on 4 June and a pay offer was issued by the employers.
 
The pay offer was to cover the SNCT Pay Year 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025 and consists of:

• A 2% undifferentiated increase on all SNCT pay points effective from 1 August 2024.
• A further undifferentiated 1% increase on all SNCT pay points effective from 1 May 2025.

Please follow the link to the COSLA Pay Offer Letter 4 June 2024 

The SNCT Teachers’ Side met on Wednesday 5 June to consider the employers pay offer and it was unanimously rejected by all the teacher unions. The Teachers’ Side is now seeking further negotiations to improve the pay for Scottish Teachers.

Please follow the link to the Teacher’ Side response to the pay offer 
 
Paul Cochrane, SSTA Salaries and Conditions of Service Convenor said.
 
“Unfortunately, despite moving the pay date from April to August and engaging with employers since January, we find that COSLA sees all of these concessions as an opportunity to double down on their delaying tactics. At a time when teachers donate an extra day per week for no pay to hold up a broken system, it is particularly galling that our employers still view us as a political pawn in the local government finance negotiating farce”.
 
“The SSTA looks forward to negotiations taking place quickly so as to reach a settlement that is a step towards the restoration of teachers pay and will encourage the retention of secondary teachers”.

The SSTA is entering its 80th year having been established in 1944. The focus of the SSTA was and still is, secondary teachers and secondary education. Over the years the SSTA has dealt with many challenges but throughout its journey it remained true to the position of its members. The SSTA is a very principled union but also a pragmatic one.

The SSTA Has never accepted that things cannot be changed but has worked to find solutions to problems, impasses, or stubbornness of others. The SSTA is a teachers’ union that identifies a problem or can foresee a problem and attempts not only to highlight the problem but is prepared to open discussion with new or different ways to find a solution. The ability to think ‘outside the box’ or question the ‘way things are done’ shows a union that is confident and understands the bigger more important picture. The SSTA must be prepared to stand up to the challenges and be the solution not the problem and it was this way of working and thinking that brought about the SSTA in 1944.

The education landscape in Scotland is in a period of change, some will say that has always been the case, changes that will impact on secondary teachers not only in the short term but for a generation. The changes to assessment and examinations, the future role of the SQA, the future role of Education Scotland, the future of school inspections, the future of the curriculum for excellence, the future of the senior phase in secondary schools, just to name but a few.

All this in a climate of austerity when teachers only know of cuts and further cuts, a plethora of new initiatives all reliant on the ‘goodwill of the teacher’ when graduates are turning their backs to teaching. All this leads for more workload for teachers who are left behind is schools trying to teach pupils with an ever-increasing complex learning needs. Hence, the importance of the SSTA in giving a voice to the thousands of secondary teachers who are isolated from decision making and are always left to ‘pick-up the pieces’ and make things work.

The SSTA is adamant that whatever changes that are to come in the education system must have teachers at the centre and must be a support to teachers in the classroom and not a hinderance. The SSTA will ensure that the teachers are at the centre of the new SQA, Education Scotland will be there to help and support teachers in the classroom.

A new inspection system that supports schools and not focus on the individual teachers and the very different challenges they face. No two schools are the same so why waste time trying to compare and measure things that are different. The fear of inspection is rife in our schools. The fear of inspection is often used as a control mechanism to squash innovation and enthusiasm. It stifles teachers and learning as the focus is about getting higher exam results at the expense of everything else.

If we are to have an inspection system lets inspect those who have the control. Those who control the money, the staffing, and the curriculum. It is a nice notion to believe that schools are autonomous body but that is far from the truth. Everything in schools is prescribed by those above. All that schools do is try to manage to do more with less. Therefore, I say if we are to have inspections then let them inspect those who have the control – the local authorities. This would take pressure off schools and teachers and allow teachers to focus on teaching and learning.

The SSTA challenged the SQA’s plan to revert to the national qualification pre-pandemic requirements in 2024 on two fundamental grounds. The pupils are not ready and most importantly the teachers are not ready. Schools are still addressing education recovery; pupils moving into the senior phase are not in the place they need to be if they are to meet their true potential. However, we do know that both teachers and pupils have struggled this year and I fear that many pupils will either under-perform or fall away from education. The SSTA was the only voice against the return to pre-covid arrangements, but I hope we were wrong, but I fear not.

Poor pupil behaviour remains a major issue for SSTA members and my thanks to members who responded in their thousands to our surveys on pupil behaviour. These surveys helped in pushing the issue to the top of the agenda and not just swept under the carpet. Together with the mobile phone survey that gave real evidence of the disturbance caused by the misuse of mobile phones in schools.

Teachers are employed to teach, and pupils are in school are there to learn and develop into the citizens of the future, but teachers and pupils are not equal. Teachers must be allowed and supported to establish an environment of learning and respect for all. In that environment there must be a level of responsibility expected by pupils to maintain the learning environment and there must be consequences if they do not.

The SSTA survey showed that 88% of members said half their lessons in the week were interrupted by mobile phones. We were also told that 72% of schools had mobile phone policies but only 9% were effective. Teachers are then left in the untenable position of enforcing a policy without the certainty that they would be supported should it become necessary.

I highlight this issue because this is not just happening with mobile phone policies, but I suspect, is also happening to many other school policies. I visited a school where poor pupil behaviour was an issue and met the Headteacher and asked about the ‘on-call’ system. The system that is there for when teachers are having difficulties in the classroom and was informed that 75% of ‘on-call’ requests are not responded to as other more important issues needed to be dealt with. This scenario can be seen in many schools as they do not have sufficient staff to support teachers in the classroom. The result is a demoralised teacher who has lost confidence in the system and respect from their pupils. There is nothing more important that supporting teachers in the classroom and that must be the focus in the future. A policy is a policy if all make it work if not it is just a piece of paper.

The SSTA is deeply concerned about the lack of progress in our negotiations with employers regarding the pay claim for 2024-2025. It’s frustrating that despite submitting our claim in January and reiterating our request for a 6.5% pay increase for all SNCT grades, we have not received any pay offer from the employers.

Our recent meeting with COSLA on 1 May revealed that they are “not ready” to make a pay offer yet, citing ongoing discussions with the Scottish Government. They appear to be determined to break the Scottish Government’s policy of maintaining teacher numbers, when not only should they be maintained but increased at a time when the need is at its highest shows a lack of respect to the teacher workforce and their commitment to the pupils in their schools.

While I understand the economic pressures at Scottish Government and at local council level the reluctance to move forward and make a pay offer and entering meaningful negotiation is leaving teachers feeling undervalued and unappreciated.

The Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) is a tripartite committee, the teacher unions, the employers, and Scottish Government all sitting down together as equals to negotiate teachers’ pay and conditions for improvements to the education service. However, when the teacher unions are used as a political football between local and national government there must be a change in attitudes of the parties involved to reach pay agreements and improve the conditions of the teacher workforce. This ‘bickering’ not only undermines the SNCT but feeds a political agenda that is far removed from the needs of the children in our schools.  

This delay is unacceptable, especially considering the upcoming academic year starting in August 2024. It’s crucial that all parties work together to achieve fair treatment and recognition for the hard work and dedication of teachers across Scotland.

Furthermore, COSLA’s role in the delay of implementing the reduced teacher contact time policy is concerning. The recent Education Workforce Modelling and Research Report, falls short in understanding the complexities of teacher allocation and workload. The report’s failure to acknowledge differences between primary and secondary teachers or those in special schools weakens its findings and hampers any effective policy implementation.

The figures do not include the registered number of teachers in Scotland and the scope for encouraging teachers back into the profession. The employer’s reluctance to have all its teachers on permanent contracts. Measures encouraging teachers not to retire early, objecting to job-share and phased retirements all reduce the number of teachers available to introduce the government commitment sooner rather than later. The SSTA does not hold the document as definitive, and it should not be seen as an excuse not to implement the 90 mins sooner rather than later.

The way forward

The SNCT must be made to work where all sides come to the table with good intentions to improve our education system by working to retain and recruit teachers. This goes hand in hand with managing teacher workloads and focussing on teaching and learning. The SNCT must not be the block to improvements and if employers cannot meet the challenge, then they should get out of the way.

The situation would be helped if all the money allocated by the Scottish Government was used for education at local council level. That means ‘ringfence’ education funding and ensure it is spent on education. In addition, Scottish government must ensure not only maintaining but increasing teacher numbers and ensure these are fully funded. This would hopefully, stop some of the wrangling that takes place between COSLA and the Scottish Government and let teachers teach.

As the SSTA, we must continue advocating strongly for our members’ interests. We need to push for meaningful negotiations that address not only the pay claim but also workload issues and working conditions. Collaborating with other teacher unions and stakeholders will strengthen our position and ensure that our voices are heard.

[ENDS]

Friday 10 May 2024