The Elliot Foundation is a charitable multi-academy trust focusing on primary Academies. 

Statement from their website

‘The Elliot Foundation is a charitable multi-academy trust specialising in primary academies. We are building a thriving community of schools including converter and sponsored primary academies that succeed on behalf of their children.

We bring an understanding of the unique role of successful primary education as a pre- requisite for even greater success at secondary level.

We will maintain a family of schools that is uncompromising in its search for excellence and in its commitment to searching for and sharing emerging next practice across its academies.’

Pay and Conditions in Elliot Foundation Academies

The Elliot Foundation Trust has agreed to maintain STPCD and Burgundy Book arrangements and has undertaken that it will not move away from those arrangements without prior consultation and negotiation with the trade unions.

Protection of your pay and conditions under TUPE

Staff who transferred when the school became an academy transferred under TUPE and therefore benefit from the protections of TUPE.

One of those protections is that changes to the transferred contract of employment cannot be made. Regulation 4(4) TUPE sets that out - any purported variation to the contract will be void. Therefore requiring staff that transferred under TUPE to sign new contracts is not permitted.  The protection from TUPE does not apply only to certain terms and conditions.

TUPE applies to the whole contract. The employer cannot pick and choose which bits of the contract are protected by TUPE - it is all protected by TUPE and so there should not be any move to introduce new contracts.

Employees therefore have the legal right to transfer to the new employer on their existing terms and conditions of employment and with all their existing employment rights and liabilities intact. Effectively, the new employer steps into the shoes of the old employer and it is as though the employee's contract of employment was always made with the new employer.

NB: Where an independent trade union had been recognised by the outgoing employer in respect of transferring employees, recognition will transfer to the incoming employer.

National Recognition Agreement

The NASUWT with the other school workforce trade unions have negotiated a trade union recognition agreement with The Elliot Foundation Academy Trust for consultation and collective bargaining purposes. This provides the necessary structures for the NASUWT to meet with Elliot Academies at both academy and national level in Joint Committees.

The National Joint Committee is where the trade unions meet with Elliot Foundation Academies to negotiate on pay, conditions of service issues and on policies and procedures for teachers and other Elliot Academies staff. This was agreed September 2012.

The agreement provides for national discussions which will determine arrangements for pay, conditions of service and working time across Elliot Trust Academies.  It also provides for collective consultation at individual Academy level as well as time off with pay and facility time for trade union representatives.

Employment Policies and Procedures

The trade unions will now be entering into discussions with the Trust in respect of a range of employment policies and procedures.

The NASUWT nationally has agreed regular meeting dates with the employer.

Pay and Performance Management/Appraisal

Throughout the negotiations, the NASUWT has worked constructively with the employer to seek to secure acceptable policies on pay and performance management/appraisal. TEFAT has worked with the unions and has moved some way to address our concerns in the wording of both policies.

The NASUWT advised there were a number of aspects set out in the PM Policy that we would not sign up to including: that it was not in line with the annual limit of 3 hours / 3 observations; the status of learning walks as observations; the classroom observation protocol.

The NASUWT has not agreed the PM or Pay policies. The policies are not yet compliant with the NASUWT pay and performance management/appraisal requirements. They are under review.