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.
- Some schools plan to continue with academy conversion during the COVID-19 crisis. This is despite the current lockdown meaning schools are closed to most pupils.
Know your rights, so you can act collectively to safeguard them.
NEU Guidance for Reps and Local Officers
- A checklist for reps before transferring to a new employer
- The most common queries NEU members have on health and safety policy in academy trusts.
- TUPE information and consultation process and the key issues to be aware of
- 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.
- Details of how academies and trusts set pay scales and what pay and conditions arrangements are in place in these workplaces.
The process of transferring staff from one employer to another (eg an academy) is governed by the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 ( TUPE).
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).- Know your contractual rights so that you can ensure they transfer to any new employer.
NEU Guidance for Reps and Local Officers
- TUPE is shorthand for the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection and Employment) Regulations 2006, a legal framework around which you can involve and engage members to act collectively to protect and advance their rights as they transfer to a new employer.
A guide to what anaphylaxis is, and how to support pupils at risk
- This advice sets out how to spot hazards in low/“child” height working environments, and includes simple practical measures to prevent and reduce, pain, strain and injury.
The issues around ergonomics in classrooms and good practices for school staff.
NEU guidance on the law and practical advice on electrical safety in schools
Advice on the procedures for dealing with emergencies in schools.
This NEU briefing provides guidance to safety representatives and members on taking action to reduce the incidence of accidents and injuries due to falls from height, including the legal requirements on employers, practical steps which can be taken and sources of further advice and information.
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.
- You may one day be unfortunate enough to find yourself accused of criminal activity. Being the subject of an allegation can be hugely stressful, but it may help if you are aware of how police investigations work.
- The purpose of this guidance is to explain the functions of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) in relation to alleged professional misconduct.
- 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 will help you negotiate a policy acceptable to the union.
- The most common queries NEU members have on preparing for a teacher appraisal review meeting.
Joint NEU and NAHT model policy Model policy for appraising teacher performance.
- The impact of the COVID-19 crisis means that, for all schools and academies, PRP is completely unworkable and should be suspended.
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.
- Investment in school building needs to be a priority for the 2020s
- 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.
- A model letter which can be sent by parents to the head teacher of their child’s school to request information about asbestos in the school
Our NEU policy and advice on screening and searching pupils for prohibited items in schools in England and Wales.
- 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
- Twelve points on exam cancellation for GCSEs, AS, A-levels and International Baccalaureate
- Ten points on exam cancellation for GCSEs, AS-levels, A-levels and the Skills Challenge Certificate
- Interim guidance for detailed submissions made to OFQUAL, DE, CCEA and others on awarding for qualifications Summer 2020.
- In any normal year there can be great anxiety for students, parents, carers and education staff in and around results day. This year will be no different but will have the added complexity of the extraordinary situation for awarding grades, appeals and entries into the autumn series.
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.