The NASUWT, with the other school workforce trade unions, has negotiated a trade union recognition agreement with Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT) for consultation and collective bargaining purposes.

This provides the necessary structures for the NASUWT to meet with OAT Academies at a national level and on a regular basis in the OAT Academies Joint Consultative Committee (JCC). The JCC is where the trade unions meet with OAT Academies to negotiate on pay, conditions of service issues and on policies and procedures for teachers and other OAT Academies staff.

A copy of the trade union recognition agreement is available on the right-hand side of the page.

Teachers' Pay in Ormiston Academies

The NASUWT seeks to ensure that members in academy schools have, at least, the equivalent pay award to teachers in other maintained schools.

Teachers working in an Ormiston academy should continue to receive the same pay increase and benefits as teachers in the maintained sector. In the recognition agreement between Ormiston and the trade unions it has been established that OAT will employ all teaching staff on national terms and conditions for school teachers (the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) and Burgundy Book).

HR Policies in Ormiston Academies

The NASUWT has agreed the following HR policies and procedures with OAT Academies Schools and the other recognised trade unions:

  • OAT Supporting Attendance Policy;
  • OAT Disciplinary Policy and Procedure;
  • OAT Grievance Policy and Procedure;
  • OAT Stress at Work Policy;
  • OAT Whistleblowing Policy;
  • OAT Social Media Policy.

The NASUWT has not agreed the following policies with OAT:

  • OAT Pay Policy for Teachers;
  • OAT Managing Teacher Performance - Appraisal Policy for Teachers;
  • OAT Managing Teacher Performance - Capability Policy for Teachers;
  • OAT Redundancy and Reorganisation Policy.

The Pay and Appraisal policies do not conform to the NASUWT checklists and model policies. The Capability and Redundancy policies were also unacceptable to the NASUWT. The Union is aware that these policies have been imposed in Ormiston Academy Trust schools.

Pay Policy

Although the Trust has continued with pay ranges and has increased most of the pay points by 1%, the new policy has introduced an additional point (M6a) at the top of the Main Pay Range (MPR). Teachers at the top of the range may only get a 1% uplift and would only get the 2% based on performance if they had not requested a move to the upper pay range. The NASUWT has expected that the 2% increase would be applied automatically as a cost-of-living increase as is required by the provisions of the STPCD.

The Union made a number of detailed arguments as to why the 2% should be applied, including competitiveness with other trusts paying the 2%, but OAT remained unchanged.

The Trust has also removed the requirement to honour pay portability which was in their 2014 policy and as such Ormiston Academies may no longer be an ‘employer of choice’ for many teachers.

The NASUWT is considering the next steps in opposing this policy and will keep members informed. In the meantime, members must reject this policy in any local negotiations at academy level.

Appraisal Policy

The Trust has made no significant improvements to the previously rejected Appraisal Policy (Managing Teachers’ Performance).

The NASUWT impressed upon the Trust that the situation was not acceptable and provided an amended version of the policy to bring it in line with the Union’s Appraisal Checklist. These changes were rejected by the Trust.

The Policy is inadequate in a number of key respects, including:

  • no limit on objectives;
  • no limit on observations;
  • no right of appeal;
  • no clear statement that assessment against the Teachers’ Standards will start from the premise that all teachers are meeting the Teachers’ Standards and they will be assessed as meeting the standards unless clear, compelling written evidence to the contrary is provided;
  • no commitment to performance management activities taking place within the teacher’s directed time, but not within a teacher’s PPA time;
  • no workload impact assessment of the policy to ensure that it does not add to the workload of anyone involved.

Members are reminded that they should follow the NASUWT advice on Performance Management.

On no account should the OAT policy be agreed at local level.

Status of OAT HR Policies

The recognition agreement between the unions and OAT states that each OAT academy will be bound by the provisions, policies and procedures agreed by the National JCC.

However, despite this, the NASUWT and the other unions have now agreed with OAT that when the Trust publishes these policies to academies, they are advised as follows:

  • OAT advises academies that they should adopt them; and
  • OAT advises that while the decision of whether or not to adopt the OAT policies is a matter for each academy local governing body, there should be appropriate consultation with trade union representatives and staff within each academy on the policy to be adopted.

NASUWT Representatives are advised to ensure that this consultation takes place.

Members and Representative should also check whether each individual academy is using the policies agreed nationally with OAT or whether they continue to use the predecessor policy.