NEU help and advice pages comprise FAQs and other guidance which address common employment workplace issues and are entirely problem focused. These documents, along with our current top 5 FAQs posed by members, represent the quickest way to get support if you need it.
Other ways to get help
Your first point of contact is your workplace reps - they are best placed to discuss your next steps to dealing with your issue. If you don't know who that is, contact your branch for assistance. Find the contact details here.
You also contact the Employment AdviceLine - however, please be advised that this national service deals with a very high volume of emails and calls and your waiting time for a response may be long.
If you can't find the answer to your question below, speaking to your rep or branch secretary will be the quickest way to answer your query.
The Government continues to promote its academy agenda, encouraging and compelling schools to become academies as part of multi-academy trusts (MATs). This document sets out the circumstances under which this happens, and the legal rights and arguments that can be made to resist academisation.
- A model health and safety policy for academy trusts, where no such policy is in place or where the existing policy is considered to be inadequate.
The most common queries NEU members have on pay for leadership teachers in schools and academies.
- Details of how academies and trusts set pay scales and what pay and conditions arrangements are in place in these workplaces.
Academisation is driving down staff pay, terms and conditions, alienating communities and has caused the fragmentation of the education system.
Despite this, English schools are still being put under pressure to become academies and to join multi-academy trusts (MATs).
Advice on what to do when reporting accidents and injuries which happen in schools.
A guide to what anaphylaxis is, and how to support pupils at risk
NEU guidance on the law and practical advice on electrical safety in schools
Advice on the procedures for dealing with emergencies in schools.
Advice on the requirements for first aid provision in schools
- Advice on the health and safety issues relating to lifting and handling that school staff face while at work
How to reduce the incidence of accidents and injuries in schools due to slips, trips and falls.
What are the Agency Worker Regulations 2010 and what protection do they offer supply teachers?
What may happen and what you should do when allegations of abuse are made against you.
- A summary of the childcare disqualification arrangements operating from 31 August 2018.
- Clarifying the procedures which employers must follow when recording allegations of abuse against teachers.
- Appraisal is particularly important because it affects decisions on your pay. This guidance aims to answer the most common queries NEU members have on appraisal. You should read this guide in conjunction with your school/college appraisal policy.
This checklist should be used alongside the NEU’s model policy on this area to help you negotiate a policy acceptable to the union.
- Guidance on classroom observation protocol in Wales
- Guidance on classroom observation protocol in England
- Model policy covering learning walks and drop ins.
The NEU and National Association of Head Teachers joint model policy for appraising teacher performance
- This is a guide on steering a course through your appraisal and the pay decision process to ensure that you can secure pay progression.
This NEU guidance addresses the need to secure fair and reasonable objectives for teachers at the very start of the appraisal process.
Advice on dealing with asbestos problems in schools, including the law on asbestos removal and management in schools.
This is a guide to using the data which has been made available via the DfE Asbestos Management Assurance Process (AMAP). It aims to assist local officers in extracting information about asbestos in schools in their area, and in seeking to fill in some of the gaps.
- At least 86 per cent of schools contain asbestos, all of it old and much of it deteriorating. Unless your school was wholly built after 1999, it is extremely likely that it contains asbestos.
Our NEU policy and advice on screening and searching pupils for prohibited items in schools in England and Wales.
- Each year across the UK 3 million women experience violence, and there are many more living with the legacies of abuse experienced in the past.
- This model policy sets out how employer will seek to prevent workplace violence in its schools, and the procedures that will be followed if a violent incident occurs.
Advice about violence issues in schools, in particular how this should be tackled by employers.
- The term ALPS is derived from A-Level Performance System. ALPS aims to provide value added scores to colleges and to individual courses.
- Answers to questions about Baseline for organisers and activists
- NEU considers that the DE/CCEA designed assessment process places an unreasonable workload on teachers. The arrangements encroach significantly into the teaching and learning time of pupils and teachers.
The Independent Teacher Workload Review Groups were established by the DfE to report on, and suggest solutions to, unnecessary burdens associated with marking, planning and data management.