Strike threat from 'apoplectic' support staff over proposed Highland Council cuts
Pupil support assistants have been described as “apoplectic” after demanding strike action over planned cuts by Highland Council.
According to a union representative PSAs are saying “enough is enough” with some even calling for an unofficial walkout over the potential job losses and a funding reduction.
The situation is unprecedented according to Paul Macpherson, the GMB Highland Council branch which represents around a third of the 1100 to 1200 assistants working in the region.
He said it is staff who are pushing for a walkout because “goodwill has eroded” with the council amid threats to at least 63 positions this year and more than that in each subsequent year.
“They have all been in touch because I have been out doing school visits and every school that I have gone to the first question I get is what are we going to do about strike action,” he said.
“So the ballot has actually come from them, this is at the front of their mind – we actually had to encourage them not to take unofficial action, a lot of them were going to do a protest themselves.
“I have never seen anything like this from the PSAs before, PSAs will always look at children first and say the children have to come to school so we will not take any action.
“Even if you go back to the general strike in 2012 PSAs didn’t go out and take action then but for this now they are coming out – the message is enough is enough.”
That anger has been sparked in large part by what will happen to pupils with more vulnerable placed in mainstream education and potentially consuming more attention from the teacher.
“For the PSAs apoplectic is an appropriate word. They are the ones day to day looking after these children, they can see what is going to happen.
“Goodwill has eroded and all the schools rely on goodwill, because every year the PSAs get their hours cut, you have a PSA on 15 hours a week who is told we have to save money in this school.”
Mr Macpherson said the cuts of 63 posts this year – largely through the option of redeployment – are only the tip of the iceberg, with higher proportions expected in years two and three of the planned roll out steams in to the PSA numbers.
“What has not been reported yet is that this is only the first year, next year it is just over a million pound cut and the following year it is just over a million pound cut.
“The £700,000 cut is 63 PSAs, so next year it is 63-plus, and the following year too. So you can say it is only 10 per cent this year but next year it is 15 per cent, the year after another 15 per cent – from an ever decreasing number of PSAs.”
Speaking earlier this month Highland Council chief executive Donna Manson defended the move saying the service was proving too expensive to be maintained and needed reforms.
“Resource has been stuck in certain schools and it has not been moving around enough and there is a lot of scaremongering going on. We would put the staffing levels according to need and we have not been doing that in PSAs,” she said.
“With the amount of resource we have got there should be absolutely no need for our children who require the level of resource to get it – we are still talking about a significant level of resource.”
Mrs Manson also said there would be issues with the budget if action is not taken because the funding for the ASNs service rose 20 per cent to around £38 million – including the over-spend – when £125 million was cut elsewhere.
“This is about us getting an equitable and balanced system that the statistics tell us is imbalanced right now. What we cannot actually agree is that not only have we got about £36 million to £38 million in additional support needs, which is a huge percentage of the council budget, but we have been over-spending in that area," she said.
“With the amount of resource we have got there should be absolutely no need for our children who require the level of resource to get it – we are still talking about a significant level of resource.
“Everyone is asking about level one and two, in a teacher’s contract it states they should provide support for those children in those early levels of support needs."
