Ahead of the NASUWT's annual conference, ePolitix.com talks to Chris Keates about working in social partnership with the government.

Question: What is social partnership?

Chris Keates: Social partnership is a unique working arrangement involving government, employers and unions, in which NASUWT and other school workforce unions representing the overwhelming majority of teachers, headteachers and support staff are involved.

What makes social partnership unique and different from collective bargaining arrangements, or consultation is that at its heart is shared decision-making.

Every organisation round around the table is an equal partner.

All the outcomes of the social partnership process are not only agreed and owned but also promoted and supported.

Question: How successful has social partnership been?

Chris Keats: Social partnership has been very successful. The benchmark I use for success is whether it has produced tangible benefits for members.

Since it first began in 2003, we have secured significant changes have been secured to teacher's contracts to tackle excessive workload and free them to focus on teaching and learning.

Increases in salaries have been achieved together with progress towards a pay system which recognises and rewards teachers and headteachers as highly skilled professionals. For the first time in almost 20 years we have two national forums in which we can discuss and negotiate pay and working conditions.

We have secured improvements on a range of other issues and the union is seeing longstanding policies now being implemented.

A case in point is the new guidance recently issued on false allegations. The new fast track process was a direct result of the NASUWT involvement in social partnership.

The government took seriously our campaign and the fast track guidance has been produced recognises the vulnerability of teachers and others who work with children to false allegations and introduces procedures designed to alleviate the trauma and stress.

We have secured commitments on a whole range of critical issues such as ensuring extended schools don’t mean extended hours for teachers and headteachers. Progress has been made on reducing the risks for staff accompanying educational visits.

Question: What are the processes of social partnership?

Chris Keates: The process of social partnership is focused around the government's agenda for reform. The government sets a framework and social partnership works within that.

We have monthly meetings of what we call the main group which takes a strategic view of the issues.

There are weekly meetings of one or more of three sub-groups to address the detail work-up and agree guidance and dissemination strategies which may be, for example, joint conferences around the country.

That’s been a unique feature, before social partnership it was rare to find ministers, unions and employers on the same platform, supporting and promoting agreed processes.

Now it is a regular occurrence.

To do it properly everyone has to commit a lot of time, patience and effort. It can be difficult at times.

Hard decisions have to be made, everybody has to be prepared to compromise and it does take a great deal of leadership from the unions that are involved.

The NASUWT national executive has shown great leadership and commitment and has made some hard decisions on some issues, but they have done so on the basis that on balance it brings clear benefits for members.

Clearly a union isn't going to be involved in something which isn't bringing benefits to its members.

NASUWT is noted for its pragmatism. Policies are clearly important. However, they serve no purpose to members if they are gathering dust on shelves as far from implementation as they ever were.

Question: What would you say is the single biggest success of social partnership?

Chris Keates: The single biggest success for teachers has been the changes to the teachers' contract which have introduced major change and enhanced the professional status of teachers and headteachers, stripping out those tasks which do not require their skills and expertise to perform them, freeing teachers to teach and giving them guaranteed time within timetabled teaching time to plan, prepare and assess to support high quality teaching.

This remodelling has led to the long overdue recognition that support staff are qualified professionals in their own right and has brought together teachers and support staff into an education team focused on raising standards.

Question: We are entering a time of significant educational reform, how central do you see social partnership being in that reform?

Chris Keates: It is absolutely central - I don't believe that the government can take forward its reform or modernisation programme without having a strong social partnership.

Sustainable change cannot be delivered without the school workforce being at the heart of the development. Having all the key players in social partnership working together is what makes the difference.

The government is so committed to social partnership because they have recognised that the school workforce and raising standards are inextricably linked.

They have also compared what has happened in the last three or four years with what went on previously when they announced strategies and initiatives and at best implementation was patchy.

They also faced a teacher recruitment and retention crisis because the needs of teachers had been ignored for far too long.

Teacher morale was rock bottom and bouts of national industrial action were a regular occurrence. No one gained in that scenario.

By working in partnership positive trends are evident. There is still a lot to do and there is no room for complacency. The work is by no means completed but good progress has been made.

There are positive trends in teacher recruitment, the annual job satisfaction survey is showing that teachers are starting to feel better about their jobs. The trends are all in the right direction.

The government can now see a tangible link between a policy and its impact in schools. Agreed policy goes forward partners support it and that gives schools confidence.

Question: How would you respond to criticisms that social partnership "will always fail to deliver for teachers because it is founded on the flawed concept that employers and employees are equal partners with common identity of interest"?

Chris Keates: I think that the idea that it is a flawed concept because people are not equal partners actually epitomises what's been wrong with relationships previously.

The one thing that unites everybody round the table is that they have shared objectives to get the best education service, and what has also united everybody in this social partnership is the long overdue recognition that no employer, no government can actually deliver anything of high quality if they don’t recognise that those who do the delivery, the workforce, have to be properly rewarded, recognised, supported and valued.

That is what unites us, the knowledge that nothing can be done in schools without the school workforce.

Question: Would you recommend the social partnership model for use by the government in other contexts?

Chris Keates: I would recommend the social partnership model. It is not an easy road, that it poses a whole series of difficulties for organisations that do get involved it requires a lot of self discipline of organisations.

We have in fact highlighted this model to the TUC. The general secretary of the TUC has looked at some of the details.

If your goal as a union is to secure benefits to your members then this model of working can demonstrably be shown to do that. Unions need to examine the process and see how it might fit into their own workplace.

Essentially, about valuing and rewarding the workforce and that is applicable to the public or private sector.