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.
- This advice explains the circumstances in which schools may disclose capability information to prospective employers.
Guidance on maximum class and room sizes
- Overcrowding is a common problem in classrooms. Unfortunately, there are no legal minimum space requirements specifying classroom dimensions. There are, however, a number of legal provisions and sources of guidance that can be drawn upon in challenging cramped teaching areas
Providing cover for absent colleagues is not a good use of teachers’ time - and the inappropriate use of support staff to provide that cover is a major and growing problem in schools.
- 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.
- NEU position remains that the coming together of large groups of adults in schools, for example staff meetings, parent meetings, open days, should be suspended.
- Staff in independent schools should be consulted on any proposed significant changes to working conditions during the coronavirus outbreak.
- Our major priority, during this awful crisis, is the health and safety of our members who are continuing to go to work to care for vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers.
- The NEU is committed to helping you ensure safety in the workplace for all staff and students in schools and colleges during this very challenging time.
- NEU advice regarding the completion of initial teacher training courses and inducation of newly qualified teachers during the coronavirus crisis.
- We know that supply educators have experienced real difficulties since lockdown began. Those difficulties continue even with schools and colleges open.
- NEU advice on Covid-19 for members working in boarding schools during the coronavirus crisis.
- This National Education Union (NEU) checklist for supply members gives advice on working via supply agencies or directly with schools and colleges following wider opening from 8 March 2021 onwards in England and 22 February in Wales.
- Frequently asked questions for Black educators during the coronavirus crisis.
- Our advice on ventilation in Covid-19 schools and workplaces.
- Staff who are at greater risk of severe illness from coronavirus must be protected.
- During the current period of lockdown and partial school/college opening many members will be working wholly or partly from home.
- Covid-19 and pregnancy: Dos and Don’ts
- Relevant extracts from the Burgundy Book and Green Book sick pay schemes
- Risk assessments should be reviewed and revised for current circumstances, and NEU reps and members should be fully involved.
- 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
- This advice has been issued by the joint unions (GMB, NEU, UNISON and UNITE) for use in schools and colleges and will remain in place at least until the end of the 2020-21 academic year.
- Interim guidance for detailed submissions made to OFQUAL, DE, CCEA and others on awarding for qualifications Summer 2020.
- The following checklist will help you to assess, in discussion with the member, whether it is safe for a physical meeting to go ahead, and if not, whether a remote, digital, meeting is appropriate.
- Frequently asked questions on childcare during the coronavirus crisis.
- Covid-19 safety in schools. These are minimum standards for keeping everyone safe and ensuring reasonable working conditions.
- Leaders of schools that are being asked to join larger hubs should carefully evaluate the risks.
- Ten points on circumstances where medical masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) may be appropriate.
- Every child who can be safely cared for at home should be, to limit the chance of the virus spreading.
- Inspection briefing and checklist for NEU health and safety reps to use during the coronavirus crisis.
- Leadership, Workload and Covid-19
As schools face the challenges of the pandemic, teachers will be engaged in both face-to-face teaching and supporting remote learning.
- This is supplementary advice for peripatetic staff who work across a number of schools and/or undertake home visits.
- Advice on medically vulnerable and higher risk groups. - whether clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) or clinically vulnerable (CV).
- Guidance on workload and the Ofsted autumn interim visits
- Coronavirus FAQs for all members who are pregnant or on maternity leave
- What you need to know about supporting child mental health and wellbeing
- Adopting rota systems in secondary schools and colleges can provide continuous education while helping to suppress the virus.
- What to look out for in your school/college risk assessment
- Guidance for school leaders and health & safety reps including NEU advice on good practice and on privacy requirements.
- The impact of the COVID-19 crisis means that, for all schools and academies, PRP is completely unworkable and should be suspended.
- The union supports the concept of regular mass testing for staff and students as one of the measures to help prevent schools and colleges becoming Covid-19 hot spots. This is an important control measure following the return to full opening in March.
- Ventilating indoor work areas is a key control measure in reducing Covid-19 transmission.
- Ten points on how to protect staff mental health during the Covid-19 crisis.
- Knowledge about the greater risks of Covid-19 to specific individuals and groups has grown during the current crisis.
- This guidance applies to all staff - including substitute teachers and temporary non-teaching staff in response to absences because of Covid-19.
- NEU continues to meet with DENI, the Education Authority, and the PHA and to raise a wide range of concerns for staff and pupils on substantive matters of health and safety.
- Not all home learning environments are equal. Put together Create Boxes for children in your school.
- 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.
- Joint statement on behalf of NAHT, ASCL, NEU, NASUWT, AOC, NGA, The Church of England Education Office
- NEU NI issue January guidance for NEU members in educational settings in Northern Ireland
- A guide for reps on equality in schools, including a checklist to ensure that all eligible members receive pay progression.
- Advice on safety in schools during lockdown.
- Department of Education NI publishes supplementary guidance to the DE Coronavirus guidance for education settings (December 2020) previously issued to all schools.
- Long covid advice for reps and local officers in England and Wales
- Advice for reps and members in Northern Ireland.
- The guidance is based around ‘Things you need to Do’ and ‘Things you need to Know’.
- This guidance for Northern Ireland provides the latest advice on absence, pay arrangements and staffing matters linked to COVID-19.
- The NEU strongly urges all members who are able to receive the COVID vaccine to take it. Here are frequently asked questions on vaccination for education staff.
- Advice on ways NEU members can argue for, and develop, adequate CPD for teaching and educational professionals.