NASUWT PLEDGES SUPPORT FOR SUZY LAMPLUGH WORKPLACE SAFETY CHARTER
The NASUWT has today, on National Personal Safety Day, pledged its support for the Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s ‘Suzy’s Charter for Workplace Safety’. The charter is to help employers and employees to make workplaces safer for everyone.
Commenting on the charter and its importance for the teaching profession, Ms Chris Keates, Acting General Secretary of the NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said:
“The evidence laid out by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust on violence in the workplace very much reflects the experiences of teachers, shown through extensive research carried out by the NASUWT.
“Too many people, including teachers and headteachers, are going to work each day with an expectation that they will be verbally or physically abused.
“All workers are entitled to a safe working environment, free from violence and abuse. Verbal and physical abuse is unacceptable and must be faced with zero tolerance.
“The NASUWT fully supports the new charter from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, especially as it complements the NASUWT’s campaign on verbal and physical abuse in the workplace.”
NASUWT research from earlier this year has found that 57% of teachers have been subject to verbal abuse by a pupil in the last 12 months. Over a quarter (27%) said they have been verbally abused by a parent or carer.
18% had received threats of physical assault by a pupil in the preceding 12 months and 14% had actually been physically assaulted. 2% had been threatened with physical assault by a parent or carer.
The NASUWT is running its own campaign to eliminate violence in the workplace. As part of this, the Union has produced a series of hard-hitting posters for schools, designed to make a public statement on the expectation of how staff should be treated by pupils, parents and visitors to school sites.
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