P-05-727 Funding for the Education Workforce Council Registration (EWC) Fee for Learning Support Workers in Schools
P-05-727 Funding for the Education Workforce Council Registration (EWC) Fee for Learning Support Workers in Schools
This petition was submitted by UNISON Cymru Wales,
which is collected 752 signatures.
Text
of the Petition
Since April 2016, Learning Support Workers in
schools and colleges in Wales have been required to register with the Education
Workforce Council (EWC) - the same body that regulates Teachers and Further
Education Lecturers.
This year the actual fee for Learning Support
Workers to register was £15. It was £45 for teaching and lecturing staff. The
fee from April 2017 is not yet clear. UNISON lobbying secured an agreement from
12 Local Authorities to pay, in whole or in part, the 2016 fee on behalf of
Learning Support Workers in Schools – therefore recognising that these workers
are amongst the lowest paid in the public sector, largely due to their term
time worker status.
The remit of the EWC has so far been concerned with
Teachers and Lecturers who are on significantly better wages than Learning
Support Workers.
Learning Support Workers are predominantly women,
the vast majority are paid term time only,
unlike teachers and lecturers; their contracts are more likely to be
fixed term and at the mercy of school budget cuts. Many work more than one job already.
Those Local Authorities who committed to pay the fee
last year should be acknowledged. But, at a time of ever squeezed budgets,
there are no guarantees for April 2017.
Additional money must be ring fenced in the Local Government settlement
to ensure that Learning Support Workers are not expected to bear the burden of
the cost of registration next April.
For these reasons we the undersigned call upon the
National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Government to ring fence monies
in the Local Government settlement to fund the EWC fee for Learning Support
Workers in Schools in April 2017.
Status
This
petition was considered completed by the Petitions Committee at its meeting on
21/03/2017.
The
Committee considered correspondence on the petition and agreed to close the
petition given that the primary subject of the original petition, which was the
subsidy level for 2017/18, has been resolved.
Full
details of the consideration of this petitions by the committee and related
documents can be seen on the Meetings tab above
Assembly
Constituency and Region
- Cardiff
Central
- South Wales
Central
Further information
Business type: Petition
Reason considered: Senedd Business;
Status: Complete
First published: 05/12/2016