It was announced yesterday that the general election will be held on 4 July with parliament set to dissolve next week on 30 May.
The election itself will inevitably disrupt some schools as they close to be used as polling stations on election day.
In addition to this from 30 May public bodies will be subject to ‘purdah rules’ – meaning they cannot do anything that could have a bearing on matters relevant to the election.
The period of 'purdah' will affect several education policies.
The publication of the 2024/5 School Teacher's Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) will likely be delayed. The government usually responds to the recommendations of the teacher pay review body in mid or late July. The National Education Union, NASUWT teaching union, and NAHT and ASCL school leaders’ union submitted a joint letter to education secretary Gillian Keegan on 22 May calling for the publication of the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations and government’s response before parliament closes on 30 May.
Delays to the pay cycle are not unusual, nevertheless they are frustrating and this additional delay affords school leaders less time to plan for pay progression in the Autumn term.
Other education policies delayed due to the upcoming election include:
- The Workload Reduction Taskforce’s final set of recommendations that were due to be published this Spring. A rapid review of current guidance on appraisal and performance management was underway, encompassing the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) and non-statutory guidance on implementing pay approaches. The review was expected to lead to the publication of an interim early draft of the STPCD 2024 and guidance on a replacement for the current system of PRP to be implemented 2024/5.
- Updates to the Department for Education's Recruitment and Retention Strategy (2019)
- The ongoing consultation on Minimum Service levels in Education
What could a change of government mean for Education policy?
The Labour party has announced a number of proposed policies that impact the schools workforce including:
- £347 million teacher recruitment fund to fill ‘over 6,500 vacancies and skills gaps’, including by improving career pathways and addressing workload issues
- £210 million to give teachers a ‘right’ to continuing professional development and time out to do it
- £47 million ‘excellence in leadership’ programme for new heads
- Reinstate the requirement for all teachers to have or be working towards qualified teacher status (removed for academies in 2012)
- £2,400 retention payments for teachers who complete the two-year early career framework
- Simplification of the ‘complex current network of teacher retention incentive payment funds into one single framework’
What could a change in government mean for Employment law?
The Labour Party have committed to make a large number of changes within 100 days of taking office in 60 key areas of employment law so if there is a change in government after the election the second half of 2024 looks to be an incredibly busy time for HR practitioners.
The main areas of proposed change include:
- Day one rights – removing the qualifying periods for basic rights such as unfair dismissal, sick pay, and parental leave, so they would become day one rights
- Establishing a single status of ‘worker’, removing the current distinction between employees and workers - all workers would be afforded the same basic rights and protections around sick pay, holiday pay, parental leave, protection against unfair dismissal
- Strengthening existing rights and protections, including for pregnant workers, whistleblowers, workers made redundant and those subject to TUPE processes.
- Raising wages for workers – various commitments including continuing to raise the National Living Wage, immediately increasing minimum wage to at least £10 per hour for all workers who are not already at that rate, reforming the role of the Low Pay Commission, ensuring travel time is paid in sectors with multiple working sites, acting on ‘sleep over’ hours in sectors such as social care, banning certain unpaid internships, and creating Fair Pay Agreements
- Increasing Statutory Sick Pay and making it available for all workers, including those currently excluded because of low wages
- Acting to close gender, disability and ethnicity pay gaps, permitting equal pay comparisons across employers where comparable work is carried out, and introducing mandatory publication of ethnicity pay gap for all firms with more than 250 staff
- Requiring employers to create and maintain workplaces and working conditions free from harassment, including by third parties
- Making flexible working a default right from day one, with employers required to accommodate this as far as is reasonable
- Family friendly protections – extending statutory maternity and paternity leave, introducing a right to bereavement leave, making it unlawful to dismiss pregnant employees for six months after their return from maternity leave except in specific circumstances, and reviewing the shared parental leave system
- Strengthening the rights of workers to respond to family emergencies with paid family and carer’s leave, flexible working, and a greater ability for workers to enforce their rights
- Zero hours contracts – banning ‘one-sided’ flexibility, ensuring anyone working regular hours for 12 weeks or more gets the right to a regular contract that reflects the hours they work, a requirement for all workers to get reasonable notice of any change in their shifts or working time, and recompense for cancelled shifts
- Fire and rehire – improving the information and consultation procedures, and adapting unfair dismissal and redundancy legislation to prevent workers being dismissed for not agreeing to less favourable contract terms
- Raising awareness of neurodiversity and reviewing workplace provisions for stress, mental health and long Covid
- Introducing a new right to disconnect and protection for workers from remote surveillance
- Strengthening the trade union right of entry to workplaces, simplifying the process of union recognition, strengthening the protections for trade union reps, and introducing a new duty on employers to inform the workforce of their right to join a union
- Extending the time limit for bringing employment tribunal claims and removing the compensation caps
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