Trade unions have been assured they will have a seat at the table as a review of Isle of Wight primary school places moves forward, after questions over job losses and possible school closures.
At the Children’s Services, Education and Skills Committee on Thursday (15th October 2026), Mark Chiverton of UNISON asked if councillors are prepared to engage in discussions with union representatives to discuss school place planning and its implications for education and staffing.
At the meeting, Liberal Democrat, Conservative, independent and Reform UK councillors agreed the school places review should consider issues including demand, educational quality, SEND and community impact.
Call to limit closures to one at a time
Mr Chiverton said,
“Committee members will recall the place planning exercise undertaken by the Isle of Wight Council in 2024/25 which included proposals involving the possible closure of up to six primary schools across the whole Isle of Wight and which inevitably led to a very large number of teaching and support staff jobs all being at risk at one time.
“A consequence of this approach was a very widely contested set of proposals which caused huge stress on Isle of Wight Council staff engaged in co-ordinating the extremely complicated consultation process.
“Councillors will also be aware of the longstanding view of all trade unions with members in Island schools that, if closures are contemplated, to ensure school staff have the maximum possible chance of redeployment, the number of proposed closures at any one time should be minimised, ideally to a maximum of one at any one time, to minimise redundancies.”
Councillors pledge to engage
Councillor Andrew Garratt, Liberal Democrat vice-chair of the Children’s Services, Education and Skills Committee, said councillors wished to engage constructively with the unions. He said,
“It is very important that your interests and the interests you safeguard for your members are properly addressed by us as the decision makers.”
Can job losses be avoided?
The council also faced a question from the National Education Union’s (NEU) Duncan Morrison.
He asked what measures the local authority is prepared to take before any possible school closure proposals to ensure all headteachers and their schools fully engage with voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures put in place to ensure job losses are kept to a minimum.
Councillor Garratt responded by reading out a council officer response.
It said that while the council will work proactively with schools, employees and trade unions to maximise redeployment opportunities and explore reasonable alternatives to redundancy, it is not always possible to avoid all redundancies arising from school organisation changes.
The answer also said County Hall is keen to minimise the number of staff that could be made redundant and strongly encourages schools to offer redeployment opportunities to staff at risk of redundancy.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
