Annual Conference 2023: motions

Over the past three years, data – the creation of it, the accuracy of it and the publication of it – have been in the spotlight even more than before covid. There appears to have been some movement on not using data as the beginning, middle and end when judging school effectiveness. Ofsted has managed well enough in the primary sector with no validated data and the inspection system is none the worse for it.

NAHT is committed to the importance of transparency, and supporting parents and students when choosing schools or post-16 institutions, and believes schools should publish clear and reliable data on progress, attainment and attendance for parents. This is where it should end. The value of the comparative data and its insidious use by the press devalues our schools and our profession.

Conference therefore calls on National Executive to lobby government to:

remove the ’all schools and colleges comparison tables’ from the performance data website and avoid the damaging consequences of encouraging the public to compare institutions in league tables,
reduce the data published on the performance data website which has become excessive and complex, to provide only useful and meaningful information for its intended users, and
continue to discourage simplistic comparisons of data being made by any stakeholders.

Proposer: Debra de Muschamp (Sunderland branch)
Seconder: Joanne Beavers (Sunderland branch)

This motion was carried.

Inspection

Motion 2a

Conference recognises the pressure that Ofsted exerts on the well-being, recruitment and retention of school leaders. The high-stakes nature of the inspection process, along with the daily worry of ‘getting the call’, is taking its toll on many school leaders and frequently gets in the way of meaningful strategic work.

Conference calls on National Executive to engage with Ofsted to develop the inspection framework so that it promotes trust between Ofsted and school leaders.

Conference further calls on National Executive to lobby for a dialling down of the high-stakes nature of inspection through exploring options for reducing stress on school leaders.

This may include:

greater transparency over the inspection timetable,
engagement with school leaders over the most appropriate time frame between notification of an inspection and the inspection being carried out, and
exploration of different models for inspection such as ungraded inspection, or separating the inspection of safeguarding from the main inspection process.

Proposer: Hildi Mitchell (South east region)
Seconder: Anne Cox (South east region)

This motion was carried.

Motion 2b

Conference calls on National Executive to demand that Ofsted schedules inspections more sympathetically to the school calendar, to reduce pressures on school leaders at significant times in the year.

Proposer: Alasdair Black (Coventry branch)
Seconder: Mel Collins (Coventry branch)

This motion was carried.

Motion 2c

Conference recognises that schools need mechanisms to ensure they are providing the best education for children and young people. Conference is not recommending the abolition of school evaluation or accountability for leaders, but is proposing a review of the impact and effectiveness of alternative school review models and the introduction of an improved system that does not involve such high-stakes and long-term, unsustainable pressure.

If we want good schools, we need good leaders and teachers to stay in those schools. As a result of existing inspection systems, this is not happening.

Conference calls on National Executive to campaign for reform of school inspection to a system that supports improvement and safeguards leaders’ well-being, rather than one that drives dedicated professionals away. Or worse.

Proposer: Sam Cooper (South central region)
Seconder: Nicola Harvey (South central region)

This motion was carried.

Motion 3

Conference welcomes the approach of the Church of England in removing the grading system in the SIAMS framework.

Conference calls on National Executive to work with Ofsted, government and other parties to abolish the current model of graded outcomes in Ofsted inspections and replace it with a fairer system that highlights strengths, areas of improvement, areas to improve and whether a school meets a statutory safeguarding threshold.

Proposer: Ollie Burcombe (West Sussex branch)
Seconder: John Gadd (West Sussex branch)

This motion was carried.

Anti-trade union legislation

Motion 4

Conference notes the destructive nature of the strikes (minimum service levels) bill currently passing through parliament.

Conference instructs National Executive to work closely with our sister trade unions and the TUC on the campaign to protect our democratic rights and freedoms as workers.

Proposer: Amy Lassman (Birmingham branch)
Seconder: Angela Schofield (Birmingham branch)

This motion was carried.

Curriculum

Motion 5a

Conference agrees that under the Equalities Act, all protected characteristics are equal and no one characteristic should be of greater or lesser importance than any other. Conference is therefore dismayed that current guidance to schools covering the teaching of LBGT+ content varies between primary and secondary schools, with this mixed message resulting in many primary schools not teaching LGBT+ content.

Conference instructs National Executive to lobby and campaign for:

the teaching of LGBT+ content to be a mandatory part of both primary and secondary curriculum, and
the establishment of an Equalities Curriculum Committee (or similar) to review, discuss and agree mandatory curriculum requirements for LGBT+ content and all equalities teaching as part of RSHE lessons within the PSHE curriculum.

Proposer: Dave Woods (Greater London region)
Seconder: Clare Rees (Greater London region)

This motion was carried.

Motion 5b

Conference calls on National Executive to campaign for changes to the wording of the relationships, sex and health curriculum guidance, to create a more inclusive approach, particularly for those pupils exploring their gender identity.

Conference suggests the following wording:

We are aware that topics involving gender and biological sex can be complex and sensitive matters to navigate for some schools. Schools should teach children to develop an understanding of stereotypes and the harm they can do. Schools should ensure all children know they are welcome and included, regardless of personality, interests or the clothes they prefer to wear. It is not the role of any adult to question or define a child’s gender identity. Resources used in teaching about this topic must always be age appropriate, and should explore acceptance, non-judgement and inclusion. Schools should take care to consider representation when choosing texts to use across the school, so that all children see themselves in the curriculum. Teachers should always seek to treat individual students with respect and support.

Proposer: Andrew Moffat (Birmingham branch)
Seconder: Angela Schofield (Birmingham branch)

This motion was carried.

Education policy

Motion 6

Given that last year saw three changes of prime minister and five secretaries of state for education, the time has come to recognise the damage this instability causes and to replace the short-termism this engenders with the skill of school leaders who are used to setting a long-term vision for school improvement.
Conference calls on National Executive, together with the officers and officials of the union, to persuade politicians that the surest way to raise standards is to let school leaders lead and to investigate how this might be achieved.

Proposer: Rona Tutt (Eastern region)
Seconder: Graham Frost (Cumbria branch)

This motion was carried.

Recruitment and retention (including workload)

Motion 7

Conference calls on National Executive to:

campaign for all schools, especially those in deprived areas, to receive the funding of equivalent schools in London,
campaign to ensure that London schools, and all schools in other urban areas, receive any future increases in their funding equivalent to the national average,
campaign to ensure that all schools, all over the country, as a minimum, receive funding equivalent to London schools in 2010 as soon as possible,
campaign to ensure that the most deprived areas in the country receive the funding quicker and have accelerated uplifts, and
campaign to celebrate and learn from our success in London so that improvements in social equity can be seen across the country.

Proposer: Patrick Foley (Greater London region)
Seconder: Barry Read (Greater London region)

This motion was carried.

Funding

Motion 8

Conference calls on National Executive to work with the Department for Education (DfE) to bring an end to the use of hypothecated funding streams – such as the National Tutoring Programme – which place limits on head teachers’ abilities to allocate funds effectively, while adding to the administrative burden of school leadership.

Proposer: Michael Tidd (West Sussex branch)
Seconder: Maria Davis (West Sussex branch)

This motion was carried.

Free school meals

Motion 9

Conference instructs National Executive to work with charities and other unions to campaign for:
Conference calls on National Executive to press for:

the expansion of free school meals to all children in primary schools in England, and
an increase to free school meal funding in line with inflation for the 2023–2024 academic year.

Proposer: Elinor Warner (Birmingham branch)
Seconder: Tim Gallagher (Wolverhampton branch)

This motion was withdrawn.

The environment

Motion 10

Conference notes the recent small increase to capital allocations given to schools to enable spending on projects to reduce energy costs and the carbon footprint of school estates. Conference is however disappointed that this appears to be a one-off, short-term increase with no current longer-term strategy in place to improve environmental sustainability.

Conference therefore instructs National Executive to:

work with organisations in the UK and overseas – through the European School Heads Association (ESHA) – to draw together evidence of effective longer-term strategies to improve the environmental impact of school buildings and estates,
lobby the DfE and wider government departments for a sustained increase in capital funds to be devolved to all schools over multiple years to be used to reduce the environmental impact of school buildings and estates and to improve energy efficiency in new and existing schools, and
work directly with the climate change and sustainability section of DfE to ensure that all five areas of the April 2022 DfE sustainability and climate change strategy paper are developed, funded and supported across all schools.

Proposer: Dave Woods (International Committee)
Seconder: Chris Hill (International Committee)

This motion was carried.

Capital funding

Motion 11

Against the backdrop of the chronic underfunding of the school estate, Conference believes there are some fundamental issues around the mechanisms for capital funding calculations and allocations, which further exacerbate the funding pressures in schools. In addition, while Conference supports the overarching ambitions of the Condition Data Collection 2 (CDC2), Conference believes that the CDC2 programme does not currently provide the detailed level of information needed to build up a comprehensive understanding of the condition of the school estate, at a national and school level.

Conference calls on National Executive to reflect these concerns as part of its wider campaign for increases to capital funding. Alongside this, Conference calls on National Executive to:

press for changes to the CDC2 reports, so they provide more useful information for schools to support their own estate management and budget planning,
press for greater transparency in any capital funding process that requires schools to ‘bid’ for additional support. This should include the opportunity to appeal a decision and allow the school to submit additional or alternative evidence which demonstrates a different level of condition and/or need than that suggested by departmental surveys, and
explore submitting a freedom of information (FOI) request to the DfE on the costs of the CDC2 programme to the public.

Proposer: Rachel Younger (School Business Leaders’ Sector Council)
Seconder: Vicky Howe (School Business Leaders’ Sector Council)

This motion was carried.

Place planning

Motion 12

Conference notes the impact that the falling number of primary age pupils is having across many parts of London and the negative impact this has on schools’ ability to balance budgets or plan provision into the future.

Conference calls on National Executive to campaign for a long-term sustainable plan to address this issue which is affecting London and other regions.

Proposer: Jo Riley (Hackney branch)
Seconder: Greg Crawford (Islington branch)

This motion was carried.

Motion 13

Conference calls on National Executive to challenge government policy on the building of free schools in areas where there is no demonstrable local need or where places are already available in existing schools and pupil numbers are already in decline.

Proposer: Emily Proffitt (Staffordshire branch)
Seconder: Stephen Breeze (Staffordshire branch)

This motion was carried.

SEND/ALN funding

Motion 14a

Conference deplores the government’s failure over a decade to address the fundamental crisis in SEND provision across the education sector.

Those failings include, but are not limited to:

a notional funding system that penalises inclusive schools and creates underfunded ‘magnet’ schools,
a lack of access to specialist support services and a postcode lottery meaning that swathes of pupils do not have their needs properly identified by specialists at an early stage and cannot access the support they desperately need and are entitled to,
an inadequacy of overall funding from central government meaning that schools, local authorities and trusts do not have the resources to properly meet the needs of all pupils, and
an accountability system that penalises the most inclusive schools.

Conference’s view is that while there are some positive proposals in the government’s recent SEND action plan, overall, the plan does not yet go far or fast enough in addressing a number of the fundamental challenges that the system currently faces.

Conference therefore instructs National Executive to continue lobbying government to go further in addressing these and other fundamental issues relating to SEND provision in all schools – many of which are identified through other motions being proposed to Annual Conference 2023.

Proposer: Marijke Miles (SEND Sector Council)
Seconder: Barry Read (SEND Sector Council)

This motion was carried.

Motion 14b

Conference calls on the Education Authority (EA) in Northern Ireland to immediately fund the operational support required by schools to fully meet the needs of our most vulnerable learners. The operational support must be funded and resourced based on the needs of the pupil and their school and given in a timely, professional and respectful way.

Special educational provision in Northern Ireland must be planned in an open, transparent and collaborative way so that schools and their communities can work together to support SEND pupils with an inclusive approach. The Department of Education (DoE) and EA must better collaborate with the school community to ensure capacity issues are addressed, appropriately funded and supported.

Proposer: Jonathan Gray (Northern Ireland)
Seconder: Geri Cameron (Northern Ireland)

This motion was carried.

Motion 14c

Conference calls on National Executive to campaign for a consistent and uniform basic level of per pupil resource to be provided to mainstream schools, alongside a pooled procurement system for purchasing SEND equipment, to be used to provide support to children with SEND.

This is felt more so in London due to the constraints and inequity of SEND funding, compounded by the close borough boundaries and movement of children between them but Conference feels this makes the area a suitable pilot for more joined up, cross-borough management of SEND funds.

Conference also strongly condemns the government’s cynical reliance on the notional £6,000 of funding which rarely ever covers the real cost of supporting children with SEND in mainstream education.

Proposer: James Lacey (Greater London region)
Seconder: Paul McDowell (Stockport branch)

This motion was carried.

Motion 15a

Conference directs National Executive to mandate those negotiating on behalf of NAHT with the DfE to lobby for increased and protected new funding for children with special needs.

Such increased and protected new funding should be for a minimum of three years, to maximise meaningful support.

Proposer: Claire Evans (Sandwell branch)
Seconder: Phil Jones (Sandwell branch)

This motion was carried.

Motion 15b

The current system for education, health and care plan (EHCP) funding is broken. Too often, after schools have used elements 1 and 2, the statutory top-up funding (also known as element 3) by local authorities is not enough. It does not ensure that SEND needs – as expected by the Children and Families Act 2014, section 42, (2) – are provided.

Conference requests that funding for element 3 is:

not as banding or partial payments to cover pupils’ costed provision needs,
costed based on current inflation-linked costs, and
back-dated when schools have requested an uplift but have been forced to cover the cost while waiting for the local authority to respond (where the uplift is agreed by the SEND panel).

Or that the system is redrafted to fit the needs of our most vulnerable children. Conference calls on National Executive to:

lobby for consistent funding across local authorities, removing the postcode lottery,
make it clear on a national level that element 3 (top-up funding) is the required amount the local authority must pay under the statutory requirements of the Children and Families Act 2014, and
consider taking legal action to ensure this is happening.

Proposer: Adam Smith (South west region)
Seconder: Sue Brewer (South west region)

This motion was carried.

Motion 16

The introduction of the ALN Act 2018 in Welsh schools has highlighted the need for open and transparent funding that meets the needs of the children admitted to schools, particularly those with complex needs. The workload for ALNCos has also become significantly more demanding and time consuming.

Conference calls on National Executive to lobby the Welsh government to provide schools with sufficient funding to ensure needs are met and that ALNCos have dedicated, fully-funded release time that allows them to fulfil their roles.

Proposer: Kerina Hanson (Swansea branch)
Seconder: Ruth Davies (Swansea branch)

This motion was carried.

Pay

Motion 17

Conference calls on National Executive to campaign for the abolishment of the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body used to recommend pay and to move to a process of collective bargaining with the employer.

Proposer: Owen Rogers (Conwy branch)
Seconder: Gwynne Vaughan (Conwy branch)

This motion was carried.

Motion 18

Conference notes the huge cost of living for those living and working in London. It believes that the cost of living in London is much higher than the vast majority of other parts of the country. Monthly average rents in London now regularly exceed £1,600 and are even higher than £2,000 in some boroughs. In addition, travel costs for bus, rail and tube have also continued to rise, creating a barrier for teachers to be able to afford a decent standard of living and remain in the capital.

Conference therefore instructs National Executive to:

include a demand for a single and enhanced London weighting payment for all London boroughs based on the current inner London rate plus CPI in the next NAHT submission to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB),
include a call for subsidised travel for education staff to and from their place of work in the next NAHT submission to the STRB, and
survey London members to establish what other benefits or payments they would like to see which are specific to London and aimed at improving retention of teachers in the city.

Proposer: Sue Ward (Greater London region)
Seconder: John Ridgley (Greater London region)

This motion was not carried.

Motion 19a

Conference notes the most recent proposal of the secretary of state for education to award teachers yet another real-term pay cut in 2024–25. Conference also recognises the lack of any meaningful engagement from the government over the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, as well as the ever-worsening funding crisis. Conference acknowledges the need for all education unions to work together to protect pay, funding and education.

Conference instructs National Executive to call a re-ballot of all members in England for industrial action.

Proposer: Amy Lassman (Birmingham branch)
Seconder: Paul Wyllie (Warwickshire branch)

This motion was carried.

Motion 19b

Conference is extremely disappointed that the cumulative pay erosion for school leaders has not been addressed.

Conference calls on NAHT to deliver on the mandate secured in the formal ballot, by employing all necessary industrial levers to bring about the conditions in which a fair pay settlement can be secured.

Proposer: Suzanne Hamer (Cymru)
Seconder: Liam McGuckin (Northern Ireland)

This motion was carried.

Motion 20a

Everybody recognises the importance of pre-school and early years foundation stage (EYFS) education. Due to the nature and funding systems of maintained nursery schools, leadership are paid at the lowest end of pay scales but with additional roles associated with any small school.

Conference directs National Executive to lobby the government to urgently review and improve the funding structures to bring the determination of nursery school head teachers’ groups in line with that for small schools.

Proposer: Elinor Warner (Birmingham branch)
Seconder: Tim Gallagher (Wolverhampton branch)

This motion was withdrawn.

Motion 20b

Conference recognises the invaluable contribution that support staff make to the education and well- being of children and young people.

However, Conference deplores the fact that the system and resources do not reflect this, making it harder for schools to recruit and driving out experienced and valued members of staff.

Conference calls on National Executive to consider this issue as part of NAHT’s wider funding campaign. In addition, Conference urges National Executive to work with sister unions representing support staff to support their campaigning on behalf of support staff, with a particular focus on pay and professional development.

Proposer: George Samios (Bath and north east Somerset branch)
Seconder: Jane Gascoigne (Bath and north east Somerset branch)

This motion was carried.

Motion 20c

No one becomes a school leader expecting their salary to decrease while in post.

Conference directs National Executive to recognise the enormous impact of falling birth rates on school leaders’ salaries, pensions and retention. Conference calls on National Executive to work with STRB to increase protection from three to five years, at least in line with school teachers’ pay and conditions document (STPCD) guidance on assigning a salary to a head of a new school.

Proposer: Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson (West Midlands region)
Seconder: Nigel Attwood (Birmingham branch)

This motion was carried.

Professional

Motion 21

Conference calls on National Executive to campaign to ensure the Teaching Regulation Agency’s (TRA) investigations into the conduct of a teacher are conducted and completed within the target time frames for the benefit and well-being of the teacher and school communities.

Proposer: Shaun Miles (Staffordshire branch)
Seconder: Stephen Breeze (Staffordshire branch)

This motion was carried.

SEND

Motion 22a

School leaders are increasingly under pressure to do more with less and it is SEND that repeatedly takes the brunt of the squeeze. In Brighton and Hove, as in many areas, school leaders struggle to get the help they need for their pupils with SEND.

There are two clear barriers:

Arbitrary and under-resourced pathways for assessments for EHCP
Inadequate places and funding for places so that many children, particularly those with social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH) or communication needs, fall between mainstream and special education and are at risk of exclusion.

In Brighton and Hove, educational psychology time is at such a premium that there is barely capacity for educational psychologists (EPs) to complete the statutory work associated with EHCP needs assessments. There is none left for any work supporting other children, despite the fact that we buy into the service. The local authority repeatedly tells us it cannot recruit, as if this is an acceptable answer to a failure to provide a service and discharge its duty. Further, the pathway for assessment is not consistent with that in neighbouring authorities.

Once pupils have an EHCP we face further hurdles in meeting their needs. The local authority banding of support means that what is paid to a mainstream school rarely provides for the staffing that is needed. Special schools receive considerably higher funding per pupil than mainstream schools, and yet we often have pupils in our mainstream schools for years while they wait for a special school place to become available. In annual reviews, it has been agreed that a particular school is not an appropriate placement, but that school is asked to keep them as there is nowhere else for them to go.

Mainstream head teachers in the city describe the system as broken. Often, the head teacher’s office is the only place left for these children, other than an exclusion. The toll on all our children, their parents and our members is immense, and this is not inclusion.

Conference calls on National Executive to campaign for all local authorities to:

provide a streamlined and consistent pathway for referrals,
ensure that all requirements for referrals are available to schools, and
provide schools with equitable funding as received by special schools when a child attends a mainstream setting when this has not been identified as an appropriate placement.

Proposer: Hildi Mitchell (Brighton and Hove branch)
Seconder: Zoe McGuigan (Brighton and Hove branch)

This motion was carried.

Motion 22b

In Sunderland and across the country, colleagues have endured the challenges and the vagaries of applying for EHCPs on behalf of pupils in their schools. Too often, pupils are being allocated a placement at a local specialist provision, to then be informed there is no place available.

Frequently, professionals agree that a mainstream placement is not suitable for a pupil with SEND. However, despite this agreement, the pupil remains in the mainstream setting often with no suitable support – there is also a lack of specialist expertise, guidance and little, if any, of the additional funding they require. This results in an unacceptable state of limbo for pupils and families.

The government’s recently announced SEND and alternative provision improvement plan acknowledges the need for more specialist provision, but the current lack of capacity needs addressing as a matter of urgency.

Conference calls on National Executive to challenge the current process of identification, allocation and placement of pupils with additional needs and demand an overhaul of a dysfunctional system that perpetuates the unsuitable placement of pupils in mainstream, whose progress and life is on hold because of a lack of specialist placement capacity.

Proposer: Debra de Muschamp (Sunderland branch)
Seconder: Melanie Davies (Sunderland branch)

This motion was carried.

Safeguarding

Motion 23

Conference understands the poor perceptions and negative interactions that many young people have in relation to police forces and the impact this can have on youth crime and levels of engagement with minority groups and communities.

Conference also notes the very many positive relationships that schools around the country may have at a local level with the police and it also recognises that a school leader’s first duty is to ensure the safety of pupils.

In addition, Conference notes the continued enormous pressure on budgets and the corresponding diminishment of support staff within schools over recent years. This is coupled with regular calls from senior police officers for more resources to be dedicated to front line policing.

Conference calls on National Executive to:

lobby government to undertake a review of the direct impact of police engagement within schools to assess the positive benefits to schools and to the wider community. Where schemes of engagement have little positive impact, funding should be redeployed to support initiatives in education, including youth services, that are more effective in supporting young people to become good citizens, avoid exclusion and to steer clear of criminal activity, and
work with and encourage relevant organisations to provide clear guidance and practical resources on good practice for positive engagement between police and young people in schools.

Proposer: Dave Woods (Greater London region)
Seconder: Alicia Pennant (Kensington and Chelsea branch)

This motion was carried.

Motion 24

NAHT has consistently lobbied for a statutory register of children not in school. Conference was pleased to note that last year government announced plans to go ahead with the creation of local authority administered registers for children not in school, but we are concerned at the delays in implementing those proposals. The fact there is currently no official source of data on the number of home-educated children is a clear indication that the current arrangements are unsatisfactory. Without an officially maintained register, there is a potential risk of children becoming lost in the system.

Conference calls on National Executive to pressure government to act with more urgency and to put in place the register of children not in school.

Proposer: Debra de Muschamp (North east region)
Seconder: Andrew Ramanandi (North east region)

This motion was carried.

Motion 25

When managing allegations and concerns about staff, keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) describes the need for schools and colleges to apply common sense and judgement, and deal with allegations quickly, fairly and consistently.

In practice, however, more and more local authority designated officers (LADOs) are advising governors/trustees to go straight to a formal process which, if the allegation is substantiated, can remain on an individual’s record for 10 years.

Conference calls on National Executive to lobby the DfE safeguarding team to establish a model shared framework for managing low level concerns which clearly lays out an informal process prior to the escalation of concerns to a formal level, unless there is a very clear need for going straight to a formal process. The criteria for this should be consistent and transparent.

Proposer: Gail Larkin (South east region)
Seconder: Anne Cox (South east region)

This motion was carried.

Motion 26

Conference notes and deplores the findings of the Institute of Health Visiting’s recent report: State of Health Visiting in England.

Conference calls on this, or any future, government to rebuild and invest across the nations in the health visitor workforce as well as children’s centres so that children’s needs are identified and addressed as early as possible.

Proposer: Judy Shaw (Early Years Sector Council)
Seconder: Simon Kidwell (Early Years Sector Council)

This motion was carried.

Workload

Motion 27

Conference is deeply concerned that the Teachers’ Negotiations Committee’s (TNC) review of workload impact on school leaders has not yet delivered any tangible or meaningful change to school leader workload, some two years after the TNC 2020 pay and workload agreement.

Conference calls on National Executive to urge all stakeholder groups to expedite the delivery of the recommendations as soon as possible to urgently ease the workload of school leaders.

Proposer: Jackie Bartley (Northern Ireland)
Seconder: Liam McGuckin (Northern Ireland)

This motion was carried.

Recruitment and retention

Motion 28

Conference believes all those who have direct responsibility for leading pedagogy in a single school/ academy/college – or group of schools/academies/colleges – should have qualified teacher status (QTS).

Proposer: Chris Kirkham-Knowles (Professional Committee)
Seconder: Andy Mellor (Professional Committee)

This motion was withdrawn.

Structures

Motion 29

The recent action short of strike in Wales has further highlighted the irrelevance and impact of aspects of the middle tier on the day-to-day running of schools.

Conference asks that the role of the middle tier is evaluated for impact on standards and value for money, to ensure the remit for each organisation is clear, avoiding unnecessary duplication for schools.

Conference calls on National Executive to place further pressure on Welsh government to review the impact of the middle tier and make a commitment to act to change.

Proposer: Suzanne Hamer (Cymru)
Seconder: Dean Taylor (Cymru)

This motion was carried.

Motion 30

Nursery schools are increasingly under more pressure due to the higher numbers and more complex special educational needs of children coming into nursery without prior support or diagnosis.

In order to properly support these children and their families, Conference calls on National Executive to campaign for an urgent review of staffing in nursery schools to:

provide an appropriate level of support without the need to wait for the lengthy statementing process to provide additional staffing,
enable school leaders to build an effective and permanent staff team who are effectively trained and able to address the needs of the children year on year, and
ensure that all pre-school children have their learning and development requirements met, by having the appropriate number of staff to give them the support they need and deserve.

Proposer: Clare Majury (Northern Ireland)
Seconder: Ralph Magee (Northern Ireland)

This motion was carried.

Motion 31

Last year, Conference called on National Executive to continue the campaign for sustainable funding for all small and rural schools. However, while small and rural schools continue to be the lifeblood of many communities across all nations, the complexities of leading them remains. They are subject to the same demands as larger schools, however, school leaders and teachers have to fulfil multiple roles. The impact of this on well-being continues to be alarming and, we feel, unsustainable.

Conference calls on National Executive to campaign for recognition of the unique context of small and rural schools when considering mechanisms for school inspection, appropriate funding and the well- being of staff and communities.

Proposer: Julie Kelly (South central region)
Seconder: Paul Brown (South central region)

This motion was carried.

Emergency motions

Emergency motion 1

Conference calls on National Executive to communicate to members who are inspectors a request to consider refraining from carrying out inspections until the trade dispute is resolved.

This motion was carried.