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Covid: Is the government finally beginning to listen to professionals?

Government policy Trade unions Coronavirus
Earlier this term, as tensions over school re-opening mounted, UNISON and the NEU advised their members that they had the right to refuse to go into work on safety grounds. Jon Richards looks back at a chaotic few days and is hopeful of better collaboration with government in the months to come


Like most of you my Christmas break was screwed up by the government’s breath-taking last-minute policy swings. This is a time of crisis and we should expect some errors, but even Pavlov’s dog would have learned to stop making the same mistakes by now.

In December, we could all see cases increasing in schools and the community. So UNISON was far from alone when we suggested that schools should break-up early. Indeed, a fair few councils and multi-academy trusts (MATs) tried to do so, but were slapped down with legal threats from the government. As a result, hundreds of staff and pupils across the country ended up isolating on Christmas Day.

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