'A workforce guarantee is the inevitable consequence of pupil and parent guarantees.'

18 November 2009

Commenting on the Queen's Speech laying out the agenda for the next session of Parliament, Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers' union, said:

"The government appears to take the view that, like handbags, you can never have too many education bills.

"It's a tight parliamentary timescale for a Bill that contains some important provisions. Despite this, there can be no compromise on getting the details right.

"Enshrining in law guarantees for pupils and parents quite rightly reaffirms the role of the state in the provision of the nation's education.

"These guarantees should simply underline what teachers and schools have been providing for the last decade. They should not therefore be an additional burden on either school leaders or teachers. They will, however, need to give added confidence to parents that state education is not the default for those who cannot afford private schools.

"It will be critical to ensure that the wording of the guarantees in the Bill does not open the floodgates to the vexatious, litigious and disaffected.

"The lesson learned from the last decade is that world-class education depends on the workforce being valued. The commitment to the workforce should be enshrined in a workforce guarantee and the NASUWT will be lobbying for this.

"Teachers work in a highly regulated profession. As parliamentary time is tight, time could be saved by dropping the proposals on the licence to practise.

"The provision to tighten up the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that all pupils receive full-time education when they are educated outside mainstream schools is welcome.

"I welcome the fact that all the provisions of the Bill will apply to academies. These are state schools and their exemption in the past from certain regulatory provisions has amounted to short-changing parents.

"The NASUWT will study all of the other provisions in detail."