The West Sussex branch has received excellent media coverage in the last few days for its work on surveying our members on the impact of school cuts. This included an appearance on BBC TV South Today on the evening bulletins of Thursday 20th April. This is the fourth time the branch has appeared on South Today in less than 2 years.
The branch’s work also appeared on BBC Radio Sussex and the BBC website.
You can read the full survey results here. There are 56 West Sussex schools making redundancies now or within the next few months, which is a shocking figure. This will have a massive impact on both our members and the education our children receive.
It is vital that the imminent general election is not limited to discussions about Brexit.
Our cherished public services are at breaking point, including most contentiously in schools and the NHS. The branch is doing what it can to ensure that ordinary people are aware of the crisis in schools so they do not vote without that knowledge. It is frightening to think where our key public services will be in another 5 years’ time.
The branch also received coverage in local newspapers across the county. See here and here for examples.
BBC Iplayer is now restricted to 24 hours’ hosting only, so below are some screen grabs to highlight the coverage we received.
Branch Secretary Dan Sartin was interviewed to set the scene.
BBC reporter James Ingham introduced the package.
One of our UNISON members at risk of redundancy spoke movingly about the difference her role makes to vulnerable pupils.
Statistics from our survey were utilised in the report.
Parent Sarah Maynard was interviewed about her concerns that 7FTE support staff redundancies would impact on educational outcomes at her child’s school. Sarah made the point that the Government has just approved 7 new free schools, which are a totally unnecessary expense and part of the Government’s ideological approach to education. All at a time when mainstream comprehensive primary and secondary schools are being decimated.
What should you do? Why not attend this public meeting on 6th May. We’ll be sending more details out to members shortly.