School SEND advisors strike over council dispute

Special educational needs advisors to schools in Kent have gone on strike in a dispute over changes to their roles.

Specialist Teaching and Learning Services (STLS) staff at Kent County Council (KCC) walked out earlier and are planning five further days of action by mid-March.

Jill Ansell, the service's district lead for Maidstone, said their jobs had "changed significantly" since the council took control of STLS in September.

The local authority said: "Any alignment of day-to-day practice has been carried out lawfully and transparently."

STLS teachers support staff and pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream schools.

Their responsibilities include advising and training school staff and helping schools increase their SEND capacity.

STLS staff were previously employed by 12 special schools in Kent and commissioned by the local authority to work in its mainstream schools but the council became their direct employer in September.

Ansell said STLS teachers were told their jobs would not change, but they changed "the first day we started back".

"For the first term, none of our staff were allowed to go in to schools," she told the BBC.

"We were told directly you may not call them, you may not email them, so we felt like our schools had been abandoned."

KCC said staff were not working directly in schools because they had to get renewed Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks after transferring, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Ansell said STLS could no longer meet parents of SEND pupils or work with nurseries, and that "parents will have really missed that support".

She said some staff "became so despondent that they started to leave the service" and others "felt not listened to".

The council said a "full and formal staff consultation was undertaken, alongside a previous public consultation" before STLS staff were transferred, and that it had "continued structured engagement with staff and unions since".

The government, which lifted an improvement notice for the county's SEND service provision in 2024, published plans on Monday for reform to the SEND system in England.

KCC said: "Reforming how support is delivered - including STLS - is essential to deliver better outcomes for children and families."

Ansell said: "We're not striking about pay, we're not looking for an increase in our wages. What we're looking for is transparency.

"We just want to be listened to, we want to be able to do the job that we are employed to do, we want to be treated with respect."

Nick Childs, senior industrial organiser at the National Education Union (NEU), said the teachers had "faced unacceptable changes to their working conditions" and felt they had "no alternative but to strike".

The union said it represented more than 60 STLS staff in Kent.

KCC said it "sent further representation to NEU to try to find an amicable solution to remove the need for strike action" on Tuesday.

A spokesperson added: "We will keep services running, minimise disruption where possible and continue to act transparently and responsibly so that children and young people with SEND receive the timely, inclusive support they deserve."

Further walk-outs are scheduled to take place on 4 and 5 March, and between 10 and 12 March.

Additional reporting by the Local Democracy Reporting Service

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