While meeting their legal duty under the statutory guidance on mobile phones and connected devices, schools, teachers and leaders need to ensure that inpolicies are fair, workable and negotiated with recognised trade unions

Introduction
Before negotiations begin
Core principles
Key issues for negotiation
Impact on workload
Implementation
Monitoring and review
Steps if an acceptable policy cannot be agreed
Negotiators checklist
 

Introduction

NASUWT has welcomed the commitment from the government that schools will now be backed by mandatory guidance to restrict access to mobile phones and connected devices throughout the school day.

However, we also recognise that the guidance still allows for wide variation in how schools manage these restrictions.

Schools, teachers and leaders need to ensure that in meeting their legal duty under the statutory guidance, policies need to be fair, workable and negotiated with recognised trade unions.

This is especially important given that Ofsted will be inspecting the effectiveness of mobile phone policies in schools through the high-stakes accountability system.

The purpose of this guide is not to prescribe one model policy but to help NASUWT Representatives secure agreements that:

• improve behaviour;

• protect staff;

• reduce workload;

• are consistently applied;

• include appropriate exemptions;

• are regularly reviewed.

Before negotiations begin

Understand the current position

Is there already a mobile phone/connect device policy? If so:

• Was it consulted on and negotiated with recognised trade unions?

• Does it cover matters relating to learners and learning, teachers and teaching and work and working conditions?

• Does it reflect current national guidance?

• Does it allow for new technologies as they develop and arise?

• Who is responsible for it?

• Are there inconsistencies between departments or phases?

• What problems are members reporting that the guidance is not addressing or supporting them with?

• When is it due to be reviewed?

• Does it need to be updated or replaced?

Core principles

These core principles reflect the NASUWT position on the importance of mobile phone and connected device policies that support teachers and leaders to create calm, safe and focused learning environments for every child.

Learning and attention

The policy should minimise unnecessary distraction and maximise pupils' engagement with learning.

Behaviour

The policy should support calm classrooms through consistent expectations rather than leaving individual teachers to negotiate phone use lesson by lesson.

Safeguarding

The policy should reduce opportunities for misuse of devices and significantly lower opportunities for harmful content to be accessed, shared or acted upon while pupils are on school premises.

Consistency

Restrictions should apply consistently across the school and should not depend on the confidence of individual teachers.

Equality

School policies restricting access to devices must not be applied in a way that disadvantages vulnerable or marginalised pupils.

Clear sanctions for non-compliance

The policy must ensure consequences are clear for students who do not comply with the rules and remove the risk of conflict between staff and pupils when devices are removed.

Staff wellbeing

Enforcement arrangements must support and not undermine staff wellbeing.

Recognition of legitimate exceptions

The policy must recognise there are legitimate and necessary exceptions, including for young carers and pupils with medical needs, special educational needs (SEN) or additional support needs (ASN).

Compliance

Schools must comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010 as appropriate, as well as relevant guidance on pupils with medical needs.

Key issues for negotiation

Where possible, depending on the willingness of the employer, the ideal situation would be to address the following areas when you negotiate a collective agreement.

These will ensure compliance with the DfE statutory guidance and ensure a robust policy that supports schools to meet the key principles set out above. They will also ensure that NASUWT members’ working conditions are positively impacted by the policy, rather than it being detrimental or undermining their rights.

Scope

• All smart devices must be covered by the policy including smart watches and smart glasses.

• The policy must allow for emerging technologies with smart capabilities that are yet to be:

  • developed and/or

  • popularised

• The policy must apply throughout the entire school day.

• The policy must cover all pupils up to the age of 16.

Some additional questions to explore:

• What arrangements apply on trips?

• What about sixth form?

Approach

• How will access to devices be restricted and what assessment has been made of different methods before specifying an approach in the policy?

• What funding is required and how will this be organised?

• Who is responsible for lost or damaged devices?

Exemptions

Our position statement is very clear that there should be exemptions where a legitimate and demonstrable case can be made for them.

NASUWT Representatives should seek to negotiate provisions that address:

• medical needs;

• SEND/ASN;

• young carers;

• identified safeguarding exemptions, such as a risk of harm, vulnerability linked to family circumstances, social care involvement, exploitation concerns, emotional crisis or other circumstances where access to a mobile phone forms part of an agreed safety or support plan;

• other agreed exceptional circumstances.

Staff responsibilities

• Are teachers responsible for reminding pupils of the policy?

• What about confiscating devices? Who is responsible for confiscated devices? It is important that this is considered in conjunction with the searching element of the policy which is explored in more detail in the next section entitled Searching.

• Who contacts parents if there is a breach of policy?

• Who will record incidents and how?

• What responsibilities should lie with the senior management rather than classroom teachers?

Searching

For a mobile phones/devices policy to be enforceable and withstand challenge, the ability to search a pupil for a device needs to be identified in the school behaviour policy as an item that may be searched for.

When negotiating the searching element of a policy, NASUWT Representatives should align with the principles set out by the union in our Searching, Screening and Confiscation Advice for Schools.

Where these intersect with mobile phone/connected device policies:

• Teachers should not be involved in searching pupils. This is because it can jeopardise their physical and mental safety, cause damage to teacher/pupil relationships and expose teachers to an increased risk of allegations of assault or inappropriate physical contact.

• Teachers cannot be compelled to use these powers. Schools have the right to utilise the expertise of the police and/or appropriately trained external security personnel to carry out any necessary searches of pupils. This is a far better approach than involving teachers.

• If a school does decide to use the statutory powers granted to them, the Union asserts that only members of the senior management team who have school security as part of their role and/or the headteacher should be authorised to conduct ‘without consent’ searches.

• In circumstances where a member of staff forms a reasonable suspicion that a pupil has a prohibited item, NASUWT would advise that they should immediately notify the headteacher and/or authorised member of senior staff who would then be responsible for commissioning the search.

Enforcement

Areas to cover here include:

• confiscation of devices found to be in breach of the policy;

• consistent sanctions;

• clear escalation procedures;

• support from the senior management team;

• no expectation that staff place themselves at risk;

• no ambiguity over who deals with repeated breaches.

Communication

• How will parents be communicated with about the policy?

• How will it be communicated to staff and pupils?

Parental engagement

• How will the school set expectations about contacting pupils during the day?

• What is the complaints procedure?

Impact on workload

NASUWT Representatives and the employer should undertake a workload impact assessment to consider whether there is a risk that the policy creates additional workload pressures, including:

• recording;

• supervision;

• confiscation procedures;

• meetings with parents;

• lunchtime duties;

• behaviour administration.

If yes, NASUWT Representatives and employers need to agree how any adverse workload impacts will be addressed and mitigated to ensure the policy does not add to any teacher’s workload.

Implementation

There are a number of areas that should be explored to support effective implementation.

• Is there staff training? If so, what form should this training take?

• Is there pupil induction?

• Is there parent communication?

• Is implementation to be phased? If so, over what timeframe?

• Are the right equipment and/or underpinning procedures in place before implementation?

Monitoring and review

It is recommended that the policy should be reviewed jointly by the employer and NASUWT at least annually.

The review should include consideration of the implementation and impact of the policy and address questions including:

• Is the policy working?

• Are incidents reducing?

• Are members experiencing fewer confrontations?

• Are exemptions operating fairly?

• When will the policy be reviewed jointly with unions?

Steps if an acceptable policy cannot be agreed

If you find that you are unable to reach an acceptable collective agreement, the next step is to contact us.

Negotiators checklist

To support NASUWT Representatives, we’ve created a short one-page checklist for use when negotiating mobile phone and connected device policies.

Open printable checklist

 

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