News / Strike
Teachers strike over ‘historic non-payment’ of special needs allowance
Around a dozen teachers formed a picket line in Montpelier on Wednesday morning proclaiming the message: ‘Education is a right, not a privilege’.
Outside the bustling school playground on Falkland Road, they were handing our flyers explaining their cause, with several passersby, including parents of students, stopping to talk.
The industrial action is part of a one-day strike by National Education Union (NEU) members at Bristol Hospital Education Service (BHES) over claims that Bristol City Council has “failed to properly compensate teachers for the historic non-payment of a special educational needs (SEN) allowance”.
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“This injustice needs fixing, and colleagues at BHES need to be properly valued and respected for their vital work and skill,” said NEU joint district and branch secretary for Bristol, Tom Bolton.
The council did not respond to a request for comment.
Assistant branch and district secretary for Bristol NEU William Brown said teachers are “not even getting the basics that you are entitled to”
BHES provides education for children while they are too ill or vulnerable to attend mainstream school, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Those who work in a special school, work in a post that requires a SEN qualification or teach pupils in designated special classes are entitled to an allowance called a teaching and learning responsibility payment on top of their regular salary. It ranges from £2,384 to £4,703 annually.
BHES teachers are striking as they seek for compensation over the allowance’s “historic non-payment”. The union said the council is now insisting the back payments, which are statutorily limited to two years, come from the school’s own budget rather than central funds.
Rob Chominicki, from Redfield, is a maths teacher at BHES. He said he was worried that taking back payments from the school’s own budget would compromise the its services.
The 34-year-old told Bristol24/7: “Everyone feels really strongly that we provide a really good service, we have been called outstanding by Ofsted and no one wants money to come out of the school because why would we want to put the kids in jeopardy in the future?”
Explaining why she was striking, a female teacher, who did not wish to give her name, said: “It’s a case of feeling valued for the extra we give in the job and the skills that are required.”
Assistant branch and district secretary for Bristol NEU William Brown said: “We know from data that recruitment and retention is one of the biggest problems in education at the moment.”
“Here in Bristol we have a disproportionately high cost of living so when you are working in a profession that has standardised salaries across most of the country it hits extra hard when you live somewhere like this and you are not even getting the basics that you are entitled to.”
All photos: Maelo Manning
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