Refreshing principal support and involvement

One of the major decisions of the QTU State Conference in June this year was a new look at the representation of principals and other education leaders by the QTU.

There was no change in direction. The belief remains that the interests of all in the teaching profession and the students in schools are best served by one union covering all teachers in state schools. The defeat of the Newman government’s policy of short-term performance-based contracts for principals and DPs is a prime example.

How the Union best supports and involves principals was the focus of a review in the lead-up to Conference. The QTU Principal Support and Involvement Strategy is the result

Five policy areas

The strategy document highlights five current issues of significance:

• the Promotion Positions Classification Review (PPCR)
• principal workload and wellbeing
• student protection reporting
• the promotion and relocation system
• teaching principals.

The PPCR is one of the Union’s major priorities – a once in a generation review of the classification structure designed to produce a fairer system and higher rates of pay.

The QTU has adopted the first five recommendations of and information from the Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey 2016 as the basis for action on principal workload and wellbeing. This is a distinct element of the QTU’s overall workload campaign.

The area of student protection reporting was raised by members in a workshop at the QTU Conference. It is an issue of increasing jeopardy for members and contradictory advice from various stakeholders.

A number of issues with the current promotion and relocation system are evident. Most worrying are small applicant pools, apparently reflecting concerns with the operation of the current system. A thorough and systematic review is required.

Within these issues, the specific circumstances of teaching principals need to be recognised and accommodated.

New QTU processes and services

Many of the improvements to QTU service and involvement proposed in the strategy build on existing QTU structures and processes:

• the Education Leaders Committee, which makes recommendations to Executive and Council
• a specific role within the secretariat for education leader issues
• Principal Union Reps (PURs), as well as the involvement of principals and others in promotional positions in the key Union decision-making bodies - the Council and the Executive.

A new “Principal and the Law” publication will address legal questions and provide generic advice on matters of particular significance to education leaders. Issues relating to mandatory reporting will be just one element of the advice that Union solicitors Holding Redlich are preparing for inclusion. This publication is well underway and will be available by the end of the year.

The QTU is also developing publications and training courses (including online training) to assist education leaders in their roles. The QTU has successfully trialled online training around managing unsatisfactory performance, as well as a number of seminars around the state about unpacking the current enterprise bargaining agreement.

Principal Union Representatives, at their instigation, will take on a greater role in providing industrial and professional advice to their colleagues. This will involve better and more regular briefings with PURs and members of the Education Leaders Committee.

The QTU conducted a survey at the DET Principals Conference earlier this year. The information was valuable in formulating the strategy, but the return was limited. The survey will be adjusted and distributed more widely to get a better view of members’ priority issues and the ways in which the QTU can provide better support.

Involvement

The refreshed strategy owes much to the existing levels of involvement of principals and education leaders in the Union. Their contributions at Education Leader Committee meetings, the contributions of PURs and the comments of members in a number of workshops have greatly contributed to the strategy endorsed by Conference.

The strategy is intended as an evolving document, one amended to address new challenges and opportunities as they arise.

One key to its successful evolution will be the ongoing input of members. As I have said many times before, unionism, beyond perhaps its simplest level, is not a spectator sport. The strength of a union and its success is the product of its membership and their engagement. That is critical in the Promotion Position Classification Review and each of the other policy issues above.

Graham Moloney                                                                                                                 General Secretary

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 122 No 6, 25 August 2017, p13