Councillor Henry thanked officers and the Teacher’s Side for their contribution to the work of the JNC for Teaching Staff and for their assistance to her during her period as Convener.

In accordance with the terms of the local recognition and procedure agreement, which stated that the Chair of the Committee should alternate between the two sides comprising the Renfrewshire Council Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff, it was agreed that Councillor Henry would chair this meeting of the Renfrewshire Council Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff.

There was submitted the Minute of meeting held on 21 March 2017.

There was submitted a report by the Head of Early Years & Inclusion relative to the issue of violence and aggression in schools.

The report intimated that staff in Renfrewshire’s Children’s Services were covered by the Council’s Violence and Aggression Policy.  It was highlighted that during the period October 2016 to March 2017 there had been 311 violence and aggression incidents reported in education establishments.  During the same period 73 Challenging Behaviour Risk Assessments (CBRA) were prepared.  There were no common themes arising from the violence or aggression incident reports or from the CBRAs.

The report highlighted that at the last meeting of the JNC for Teaching Staff, the Teacher’s Side had highlighted a concern that there was an inconsistent approach to recording violence and aggression in schools and it was requested that management remind Head Teachers that all violent incidents should be recorded and reported separately even when the incidents were related to the same pupil.  A copy of the Violence and Aggression policy had been provided to all Head Teachers with a reminder that staff should be supported to report violent and aggressive incidents.  Children’s Services were also reviewing the management and response to Challenging Behaviours and had formed a short life working group to take this forward.  The Teacher’s Side were invited to nominate a representative to the working group.  The first meeting of the group would be held in early May 2017 and would include a review of the operation of the Promoting Positive Relationships Policy, the operation of the Violence and Aggression Policy and the challenging behaviour risk assessment.

DECIDED:

(a) That the report be noted; and

There was submitted a report by the Joint Secretary (Teacher’s Side) relative to the publication of an EIS manifesto, a copy of which was tabled at the meeting.

The report intimated that the EIS had no party political links and would never endorse one party over another, however, they were not neutral in recognising the importance of education to pupils, parents and local communities.  The EIS believed in standing up for education in Scotland and as such had published a manifesto which highlighted those areas which they believed needed to be targeted to support the improvement agenda.  Those areas included investing in our children’s future, promoting our primary schools, supporting our secondary schools, meeting additional support needs and promoting social justice.