In this Bulletin:

AGM Reminder & Link
L-SL Dispute Outcome
Other Dispute Updates
Questions for the Director of Finance
Annual Leave & Duty Weeks
Academic Workload Guidance & Prep Time
Check Your Details
Martin Johnston Tribute

This is a very long Bulletin, but please do read it carefully as there is a lot of important information to share.

AGM Reminder & Link

Members are reminded that Lancashire UCU Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 22 April, from 13.30 – 15.00 on Teams. Remember that BGMs and AGMs are official union meetings and you are legally entitled to time off to attend them. Senior management have promised that no teaching sessions or staff meetings will be scheduled to clash, but some managers do seem to forget this, so please let us know if you encounter any difficulties.

Members for whom we have a Lancashire email address have been sent a calendar appointment. Others please join via the link you were emailed.

AGM Provisional Agenda

Election of the Branch Committee
Branch Secretary’s report
Treasurer’s report
Equality Officer’s report
Membership Secretary’s report
Health and Safety report
Motions
– Local Subscription Rate 26-27(see below for more information)
– Affirming our commitment to defending members’ livelihoods
Any Other Business

Nominations to the branch committee

Nominations for election to the Branch Committee should be submitted by e-mail to the Branch Secretary, And Rosta (and.rosta@gmail.com) by 18.00 on Tuesday 21 April. Each nomination must be supported by separate emails from two members (one nominating, the other seconding) and an email from the nominee accepting the nomination.

Local Subscription Rates

The AGM will be asked to set next year’s subscription rates. Last year, we offered three options (low, medium and high) without any particular recommendation, and the meeting chose the medium option. This year, with a healthy fighting fund already in the bank, we will also offer low, medium and high options, but with a Branch Committee recommendation that people choose the low option. If all three options are rejected, there will be no local subscription next year.

Low Option

Salary £60k+ £1.50 Salary £40k+ £1.00 Salary £30k+ £0.50 Salary £22k+ £0.30 Salary £15k+ £0.20 Salary £ 5k+ £0.10 Salary below £5k, retired members & attached members (not employed by UCLan) £0.00. This option would add approx £7,200 to the fighting fund over the course of the year.

Medium Option (current subscription levels)

Salary £60k+ £10.00 Salary £40k+ £5.00 Salary £30k+ £3.00 Salary £22k+ £1.70 Salary £15k+ £0.80 Salary £ 5k+ £0.20 Salary below £5k, retired members & attached members (not employed by UCLan) £0.00. This option would add approx £36,000 to the fighting fund over the course of the year.

High Option

Salary £60k+ £15.00 Salary £40k+ £10.00 Salary £30k+ £7.50 Salary £22k+ £5.50 Salary £15k+ £3.75 Salary £ 5k+ £1.25 Salary below £5k, retired members & attached members (not employed by UCLan) £0.00. This option would add approx £70,000 to the fighting fund over the course of the year.

L-SL Dispute Outcome

Our survey of members affected (already or in future) by the ongoing suspension of L–SL Progression has now closed. About 25% of branch members are Affected and therefore included in the survey. The response was 83% in favour of ending the formal dispute and 17% in favour of escalating it, on a turnout of 28% of Affected members. UCU have therefore formally ended the collective dispute about the ongoing suspension of L–SL Progression. This means that the University will implement the Compromise that was explained in the briefing UCU sent out and discussed in the Q&A session. For your convenience, the details of the Compromise are repeated in this Bulletin. The Compromise includes a stipulation that there will be an annual review of whether the University can afford to return to the historic model of automatic LSLP with annual increments up the SL scale. It remains the branch goal to return to this model and to have automatic progression made available to the Assistant Lecturers and Lecturers that currently fall outside the scope of the Compromise. It is also a branch aim to have progression extended to Research Fellows (Grade H, progressing to Senior Research Fellow, Grade I), which Management are currently resisting on financial grounds.

Increment dates

Lecturers who are currently on sp38 and reached sp38 by 2023–24 will increment to sp39 from 1 January 2026

[Management expect this to take effect from the April salary payment: the March salary will probably be the sp38 salary; from April onwards the sp39 salary will be paid; and the April salary will include backpay for the difference between sp38 and sp39 for January, February and March (totalling £358 gross for 1.0 fte).]

and to sp40 from 1 September 2026 and then every two years thereafter.

Lecturers who are currently on sp38 and reached sp38 in 2024–25 will increment

to sp39 from 1 September 2026 and

to sp40 from 1 September 2027 and then every two years thereafter.

Lecturers who are currently on sp38 and reached sp38 in 2025–26 will increment

to sp39 from 1 September 2026 and

to sp40 from 1 September 2028 and then every two years thereafter.

Lecturers who are currently on sp37 and will reach sp38 in 2026–27 will increment

to sp39 from 1 September 2027 and

to sp40 from 1 September 2029 and then every two years thereafter.

Lecturers who are currently on sp36 and will reach sp38 in 2027–28 will increment

to sp39 from 1 September 2028 and

to sp40 from 1 September 2030 and then every two years thereafter.

New SLs promoted (rather than progressed) from L, or externally appointed, will increment biennially. Current SLs already on Scale Points 39–43  will continue to increment annually.

Other Dispute Updates

We have officially ended the dispute over the introduction of Block teaching. Senior Management have assured us that course teams do have a choice between short fat blocks and long thin blocks, and that course teams can also choose whether to use the so-called Sprint review process or stick to the established course review timetable. If any course teams feel they have been denied these choices, we can raise that with their School Management.

Our Security of Employment dispute is close to resolution, and we hope to be able to share details of new agreements soon.

The dispute over recording of teaching has been suspended since Management agreed that nobody will be compelled to comply with the policy that is under dispute. This remains the current situation. UCU are currently not calling for a boycott of Recording of Teaching; so if you are happy to comply with the policy then do so; if you’re not happy to comply with the policy then don’t, and call on UCU support if you need it.

Questions for the Director of Finance

You may have noticed the latest University Financial Statement has appeared on the website at https://www.lancashire.ac.uk/assets/financial-information/financial-statement-2025.pdf

UCU has asked for a meeting of the joint unions with George Charles (Director of Finance), who will present the figures and answer questions. We do our best in such meetings but none of the Branch Committee are financial experts so, as always, we ask any members with the requisite skills to have a look at the statement and send us any questions you would like us to ask. If anybody is really keen, we could even co-opt you in to the meeting, and you can grill him yourself!

Annual Leave & Duty Weeks

It too often happens that School Managements try to organize summer cover belatedly in a way that conflicts with university policy on annual leave, workload and working times and locations. Some key principles of this policy are listed below. UCU will vigorously defend these principles: if you send UCU clear evidence that your school is flouting the principles, then UCU will address this at school level; and if your school or line manager is flouting the principles to your personal detriment, you can ask UCU to intervene to ensure you are treated in accordance with the principles.

• Your line manager has a duty to respond to your annual leave requests promptly and to try to grant them. It is reasonable to expect that annual leave requests that are compatible with your agreed workload plan will be straightforwardly granted. When an annual leave request entails a change to your agreed workload plan, your line manager will need to weigh your reasons for needing the annual leave and change to the workload plan against the needs of the University and the operational problems for the University that the change might entail.
• Your duties are only those that are itemized in your agreed workload plan.
• Your working times and locations are determined only by the duties itemized in your agreed workload plan. Certain duties, due to their intrinsic nature, will require you to work at specific times and sometimes also in specific places; for all other duties it is at your discretion when and where you carry them out.
• Your non-smrsa (non- Self-Managed Research and Scholarly Activity) duties are distributed over at most 38 weeks; the rest of the working year is reserved for smrsa. Deciding which 38 weeks your non-smrsa work will be distributed over is part of the process of planning workload; you have a right to have your agreed workload plan specify which weeks are among the 38 and which weeks aren’t. If you have performed non-smrsa duties in a given week, that week is by definition among the 38, and can’t retrospectively be redesignated as not among the 38.
• You have a right to take at least six weeks of annual leave consecutively in the normal case. The selection of which six week period this would be would be individually negotiated with you as part of agreeing your workload plan: workload and the 38 non-smrsa weeks should be planned with a view to how many consecutive weeks of annual leave you want to be able to take, and you and your line manager have a shared responsibility to do this.
• You therefore have no duty to provide ‘summer cover’ unless the hours for the duty, and the dates for it, are included in your agreed workload plan.
• In a well-organized school, the process of planning workloads for the following academic year will include planning for the following academic year’s summer cover. Managers should work with academic teams to ensure the team knows what work must be done when and to work out a fair allocation of duties that is consistent with the above principles and that ensures that the necessary work will get done at the necessary times.

Academic Workload Guidance & Prep Time

The University’s Academic Workload Guidance (AWG) constitutes university policy negotiated and agreed with UCU (although at the time it was agreed in 2023, it was agreed to be a temporary interim version in need of further work). The AWG is intended to document a shared understanding between UCU and Management. Evidence has come to UCU’s attention that some school managements appear to have been choosing to interpret the AWG in ways inconsistent with that shared understanding in matters of time for preparation for teaching. The following five principles summarize that shared understanding as regards preparation time. If your line manager is seeking to impose on you a workload that would be inconsistent with these principles, then you should contact UCU for support.

• The default preparation time allocation is one hour of preparation per contact hour.
• When additional preparation time is needed (e.g. because the module is new, or because it is new to the module tutor, or because the learning needs of the students are especially demanding), the appropriate amount of extra preparation time will be allocated.
• When it can be justified that less than one hour of preparation per contact hour is sufficient for a given teaching event, the lesser amount may be allocated, provided that over the full workload the number of preparation hours is not less than the number of contact hours.
• The time allocated to a given task in the workload plan should match the time allocated to the task in actuality, and the time should be within the limits of what is (pedagogically and operationally/economically) reasonable and necessary. If Management propose an allocation that is less than what is reasonable and necessary, it is the professional duty of the academic to declare this to their line manager and for their line manager to work with them to resolve the issue. (It is not okay for the line manager to just say “Suck it up, this is how we do things in this school”.)
• There are no school-specific workload principles. Schools have no licence to deviate from the agreed university policy.

Check Your Details

Every year we are obliged by Head Office to check that our membership lists are accurate. All members will receive an  email in the next month or so, asking you to check that your details on the UCU membership database are accurate. Please do this, as it is extremely important that information such as school name, building name, salary band etc are correct. Errors could, for example, lead to a ballot for industrial action being ruled invalid.

Log on to MyUCU at https://www.ucu.org.uk/myucu, check the “Employment” tab and update as necessary. If your particular school name/building name combination is not available in the drop-down list, email Membership Secretary Cath Sullivan on csullivan@lancashire.ac.uk

Martin Johnston

The Branch Committee were shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden recent death of Martin Johnston. Martin was a well-known and well-respected colleague in the Faculty of Health for many years until his recent retirement, and it is a tragedy that he did not have longer to enjoy retired life. Martin was a key figure in UCU, and we will all remember his passionate contributions to branch meetings and his joyful participation in picket lines, demos and rallies. He was UCU Branch Secretary from 2007-2012, and his calm leadership helped steer the union through some very difficult times. He was also a dedicated caseworker, and a great many members will have benefitted from his support over the years. We will also remember his love of Cuba and all things Cuban: his many trips, his work with the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, his campaigns to collect musical instruments for Cuban children, and more recently his excellent Cuba Ferret club nights at the Ferret pub, playing fantastic Cuban music and enjoying plenty of Cuban rum. RIP Martin.

Lancashire UCU Branch Committee

Colleagues,

In this Bulletin:

Open Member Meeting Reminder
L-SL Progression
Recording of Teaching
NEC Ballot
TPS Service Errors
Lecturers Doing CL Role

Open Member Meeting Reminder

The third Open Member Meeting of the academic year will take place on Wednesday, 4 March, at 1.00-2.00pm. This will be a hybrid meeting, either on campus in Eden Building ER105 or on Teams at the link in your email reminder.

These are informal, no-agenda meetings for members to bring any concerns or ideas to the Branch Committee. Come and tell us what is happening in your schools/services.

L-SL Progression

We are close to completing negotiations on a potential compromise resolution to the suspension of L–SL Progression. By the start of March, we hope to send out information about it, survey all members about their views on it, and schedule a Q&A session about it, which Management have already confirmed members will have the right to attend. The subsequent steps for UCU will be informed by the results of the survey. If the members affected by it are overwhelmingly in favour of accepting the compromise, then it could be implemented very rapidly. The issue of (the lack of) progression for Research Fellows is outside the scope of these negotiations, but is under negotiation separately.

Recording of Teaching

As explained at the October BGM and in previous bulletins, at the start of this academic year Management attempted to introduce a new Recording of Teaching policy that had not been negotiated with UCU and that they knew would be incompatible with UCU’s stated principles on the matter. In response, UCU declared a Collective Dispute, but then suspended this dispute when Management agreed to negotiate the policy with UCU and agreed that nobody will be compelled to comply with the policy that is under dispute. This remains the current situation. UCU are currently not calling for a boycott of Recording of Teaching; so if you are happy to comply with the policy then do so; but if you’re not happy to comply with the policy then don’t, and call on UCU support if you need it.

NEC Ballot

You should all by now have received your ballot papers for the current round of elections to the National Executive Committee. These elections are extremely important to the future of the union, but turnouts are often small and every vote is crucial. So please use your vote! Members often ask the Branch Committee if we can suggest which candidates to vote for, and this year we recommend members vote for the UCU Commons slate that you can see here: Who should I vote for?

TPS Service Errors

Thank you to the eagle-eyed members in Maths & Physics who alerted us to a widespread problem with TPS records showing a “break in service” for June 2025 when no such break had occurred. We queried this with payroll and were told that there had been a corrupt data file, and that they were correcting errors as fast as possible when notified of them. So please all do check your Service History information on the TPS website https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/public/login and email PayrollandPensions@lancashire.ac.uk if it is incorrect.

On a related matter, you may have noticed that your January salary appears on your bank statement as having come from “MM Salary Payroll”, which is obviously misleading and might suggest we have a different employer. We queried this with payroll too and they said it was also an error, and that future statements will read “University of Lancashire”.

Lecturers Doing CL Role

UCU casework quite frequently brings to light instances of Lecturers being allocated Course Leadership duties improperly. The impropriety tends to be due to a breach of one or both of the following principles.

1. A Lecturer can be allocated Course Leadership only if it is part of a L–SL Progression Plan and the duty lasts for no more than 12 months.
2. Course Leadership, or at least the version of it that is compatible with being part of a L–SL Progression Plan, does not involve coordinating the course team in the delivery of the course. It only involves coordinating the course team in the design and documentation of the course and typically also taking lead responsibility for marketing and recruitment and for the cohorts of students on the course.

If either of these principles is being breached in your case, contact UCU for support.

Lancashire UCU Branch Committee

Happy New Year! In this Bulletin:

BGM Reminder

Teaching Observation & Peer Observation

BYOD

Climate, Coffee & Conversation

Solidarity With Sheffield UCU

BGM Reminder

The second Branch General Meeting of the academic year will be held via Teams on 21 January, 1.30-3.00.

Agenda Items

1. L-SL Progression
2. Other Ongoing Disputes
   – Redundancy Prevention
   – Block Delivery & Sprints
   – Recording of Teaching
   – Grade G Teaching Roles
3. Teaching Obs & Peer Obs
4. Appraisal
5. AOB

Remember that BGMs and AGMs are official union meetings and you are legally entitled to time off to attend them. Senior mgmt have promised that no teaching sessions or other staff meetings will be scheduled to clash, but some managers do seem to forget this, so please let us know if you encounter any difficulties.

Members for whom we have a Lancashire email address have been sent a calendar appointment. Others please join via the link you have been emailed.

Teaching Observation & Peer Observation

Management have confirmed the following:

• The version of the Teaching Observation scheme now in use is the version previously agreed with UCU and will remain so until any revisions are agreed with UCU.
• The Peer Dialogue scheme is a new initiative and is not intended to replace any existing scheme. Participation in it is entirely voluntary.
• The Peer Observation Scheme has not changed from the version agreed with UCU. The CCL website has been amended to show that the Peer Observation and Peer Dialogue schemes are separate from each other and there are no plans to change or phase out the agreed scheme.

BYOD

LIS would welcome hearing from UCU members on the  User Owned Device policy (aka Bring Your Own Device or BYOD). LIS are aware that there have been some issues around staff using their own devices for doing university work and would like feedback on the policy, particularly if either use of one’s own device or the necessity of using a university-provided device has caused issues or prevented innovation.

Please send your use cases to Paul Colling in LIS with the Subject line “UX-UseCase”: PSColling@lancashire.ac.uk

Climate, Coffee & Conversation

Members interested in campaigning on environmental issues at the university are encouraged to join the Climate, Coffee & Conversation Teams space – created to connect with colleagues across the university and share ideas on how to embed sustainability on campus.

Throughout the year the Climate, Coffee & Conversation team also organises informal gatherings that are advertised on the Teams space and Sharepoint, aimed at all colleagues interested in environmental sustainability – in a similar spirit to the Green Network set up by UCU Green Reps in the past.

Solidarity With Sheffield UCU

A message from comrades in Sheffield. Please attend if you can.

Calling all UCU members — Staff at the University of Sheffield are under attack by their management, and we need your support as individuals and branches. Much like many institutions across the sector, University of Sheffield management are trying to make unprecedented cuts to staffing levels, despite the University’s finances being in healthy shape. In response, Sheffield UCU has taken 16 days of strike action and are poised to take more. However, now University management are threatening a lockout of any staff members who take part in Action Short of a Strike and refuse to reschedule teaching that would have occurred during strike action. Sheffield UCU are standing strong in the face of this threat, and through constant work and negotiations have held off a lockout for the first week of January, but this is one of the most punitive responses to ASOS that UKHE has seen, and we need the support of all UCU members to fight it! Pivotal negotiations are occurring this week, but SUCU members face potential indefinite lockout starting on 12 January. Please join us on 12 January 3:30pm to hear about the dispute and discuss what it might mean for other UCU branches. Register here to attend. Solidarity, Sheffield UCU Branch Committee”

Lancashire UCU Branch Committee

In this Bulletin:

Open Member Meeting Reminder

Appraisal Update

Teaching Observation, Peer Observation and Peer Dialogue Schemes

Open Member Meeting Reminder

The second Open Member Meeting of the year will take place next Wednesday, 26 November, at 1.00-2.00pm. For logistical reasons, this one will be on Teams only, at the link you have been emailed.

These are informal, no-agenda meetings for members to bring any concerns or ideas to the Branch Committee. Come and tell us what is happening in your schools/services.

Appraisal Update

In the last bulletin we advised members not to use the appraisal form that management recently tried to introduce without appropriate consultation. We have also told Management that objectives that stem from that appraisal form are not viewed by UCU as legitimate objectives. Management have confirmed that, until the situation is resolved, managers will not insist the new form is used, that there will no penalty for refusing to use the form, and that appraisal objectives can simply be recorded in a Word document. While discussions with management on this are ongoing, management should continue to carry out appraisals. The current situation with the form should not mean that appraisals are postponed. A form is not necessarily needed for an appraisal to be carried out effectively but a good form can provide a useful guide for members about what to expect. In the absence of a suitable form, here’s our advice on what you should expect in your appraisal:

1. Achieving or maintaining shared understanding about the scope, purpose and nature of your role. This should include agreeing your written workload, which should be consistent with the University’s policies (as described in the Lancashire UCU guidance). Appraisal is a year-round process, which involves not only agreeing the workload plan for the academic year before it begins but also modifying it and keeping it up to date as the academic year progresses. The workload plan should consist of time allocations that allow specified objectives to be met, and appraisal involves not only agreeing that plan but reviewing it. The feasibility of objectives must be assessed, for example in relation to their appropriateness for your role, whether adequate resources have been provided (which will include time but also potentially other things) and any other potential or actual barriers to achieving the objectives.

2. When appropriate, setting a development/progression plan and monitoring your progress with it. If you are Assistant Lecturer or Lecturer at Points 36—38, then you should have a three-year progression plan whose successful completion will allow you to progress to, respectively, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer (unless you have chosen not to undertake a progression plan). If you’re in any other Grade G teaching role or Grade H role, we suggest that you contact UCU for personalised advice. For any member who aspires to be promoted to a higher grade, a development plan that will enable you to demonstrate your ability to perform a higher-graded role can form part of the appraisal.

3. Your needs in relation to training and development should be discussed, including a discussion of what the employer can provide to support this.

4. There should be a discussion of any links between your health and well-being and your work. This could include identifying action the employer needs to take to prevent work from having a negative impact on your well-being or considering how existing health issues are affecting your experience at work or ability to carry out your work.

Teaching Observation, Peer Observation and Peer Dialogue Schemes

The UCU bulletin for October reported that Management had surreptitiously replaced the version of the Teaching Observation scheme that was negotiated and agreed with UCU by a significantly different version not discussed, negotiated or agreed with UCU. It now seems that this fate has also befallen the Peer Observation Scheme, which was negotiated and agreed with UCU, but has been surreptitiously replaced by an unnegotiated new version called Peer Dialogue Scheme. Therefore, for the time being, if you are asked to participate in Teaching Observation or in the Peer Observation/Dialogue scheme, UCU advise you to decline. If your line manager attempts to instruct you to participate then UCU advise you to seek UCU support. Once the versioning issues have been resolved and UCU are sure that only a negotiated and agreed version is in use, we will send updated advice in a branch bulletin.

Lancashire UCU Branch Committee

In this Bulletin

Branch General Meeting Report

Academic Appraisals

Health & Safety

Recruitment Drive

Branch General Meeting Report

Thank you to all who came to the first BGM of the academic year last week. Over 100 members attended, which is great but also a sign that so many people are unhappy with the way things are at the university at the moment.

First, the Branch Secretary And Rosta and Vice-Chair Tamsyn Mahoney-Steele updated the meeting regarding the progress of our various current disputes with management. On redundancy prevention, we are still hoping to have a binding agreement before Easter but progress has been slow, despite great effort, and we still may need to escalate to a ballot for strike action to keep the pressure on. On L-SL progression, progress has also been limited and a strike ballot may be needed on this issue too. (Addendum. Since the BGM, we have had some productive meetings on both these disputes and are now more optimistic that agreements can be reached soon. We hope to have some concrete proposals to discuss at the next BGM.)  On block delivery & the sprints, we are almost at a conclusion. As reported in the last Bulletin, senior management have agreed that the choice between the short fat model and the long thin model should be taken by course teams, that teams also have a choice between sprint validation and the normal course review process, and that teams still have some flexibility within the new framework to vary contact hours according to the needs of the subject. If any teams are being told otherwise, the problem lies with their own school managers: we would recommend that such teams should collectively push back, with UCU support if necessary. Similarly, any teams who were forced into block/sprints/reduced contact etc before senior management made these concessions, and who are unhappy with the result, should collectively push back, with UCU support if necessary. On recording of teaching sessions, discussions are ongoing and management have agreed not to force academics to comply with their disputed policy, pending resolution. Similarly, on grade G roles, progress is again being made and we are hopeful of agreement soon.

Next, the Branch Sec spoke about the national strike ballot currently being conducted over pay. This ballot is extremely badly timed for us, as we know from experience that running two ballots at once is virtually impossible, so if we do need to ballot locally on the disputes mentioned above, we will be forced to wait until January at the earliest, when the national ballot is over. Furthermore, the aim of the campaign – increased pay, in a nutshell – could be extremely damaging to universities like ours, who are teetering on the edge of financial crisis and already threatening redundancies regularly. Lastly, the ballot seems tactically stupid too, coming after a poor turnout in the indicative e-ballot, which suggests there is little appetite for industrial action among the membership. Therefore, the Branch Committee does not propose to make any GTVO efforts at this time. Several members also addressed the meeting on this topic: all expressed exasperation with the union’s tactics, saying (inter alia) that it would be better for UCU to be working with UCEA to influence the government, rather than painting them as the enemy. Only an improved funding model will improve the pay crisis in HE.

Next, our Recruitment Lead Andrew Baron appealed to the meeting for volunteers to come forward to help with a recruitment drive, to improve membership numbers generally and build density in areas we do not currently have many members. He noted that over 60 valued and loyal members have left the university in the last redundancy exercises, so we need to keep recruiting new colleagues to maintain our strength.

Finally, under AOB, members spoke about anticipatory adjustments, particularly with reference to students being told they can make their own recordings of teaching sessions if they like. Members expressed concern that other students were not consenting to being recorded, and it is not clear how students are being told what uses of the recordings are permissible, how long they can be kept for, and what might happen if they breach the rules. The Branch Committee undertook to look into this, and we will report back in a future Bulletin.

Academic Appraisals

Management have been attempting to replace the old Academic Appraisal form, which had been agreed with UCU, with a new, radically different Academic Appraisal form, which until last week UCU had not been consulted on and which is in many respects highly problematic. UCU are currently in negotiations with Management to rectify these problems. In the meantime, we advise members to decline to use the Academic Appraisal form and not to accept the form’s redefinitions of standard academic roles. Do continue to engage with the appraisal process as usual; just do so without acquiescing in the use of the appraisal form, for the time being. If you get pushback from your line manager, contact UCU for support. If you have a non-line manager Delegated Appraiser, you should not get pushback from them, because it is their duty to step out of the appraisal process on any contentious matter and refer it to the line manager; but if you do get pushback from the Delegated Appraiser, then they are failing to properly execute their Delegated Appraiser role, and UCU advice in such a situation is to communicate about appraisal only with your line manager.

Health & Safety

Members are reminded that the Branch has three Health & Safety Reps, Cath Sullivan, Danila Datti, and Dougie Martin. If you have any concerns about health, safety, wellbeing or sustainability in your workplace, please let us know by writing to ucu@lancashire.ac.uk

Recruitment Drive – Help Needed

The new academic year brings many challenges, as the Bulletin above amply demonstrates. UCU can fight these challenges only when we are strong, with large numbers of members and good density of membership in all departments. Unfortunately, many valued colleagues left the University this summer after the latest round of redundancies, so we need a recruitment drive to build membership back up. We need as many members as possible to speak to the non-members in their schools and services. If you would be willing to help with this, please email us or contact Andrew Baron, our recruitment lead, on abaron@lancashire.ac.uk. We will give you a short list of names, and some hints and tips about what to say!

Lancashire UCU Branch Committee

In this Bulletin:

Branch General Meeting – Reminder

Teaching Observations

Recording of Teaching Sessions

Management Misinformation About Working Times and Locations

Location of Learning Support

Research Staff

Far-Right March

Flu Jabs

Recruitment Drive – Help Needed

Branch General Meeting – Reminder

The first Branch General Meeting of the new academic year will be held via Teams on 15 October, 1.30-3.00.

Agenda Items:

1. Ongoing Disputes
   – Redundancy Prevention
   – Block Delivery
   – Recording of Teaching
   – L-SL Progression
   – Grade G Teaching Roles
2. Strike Ballot
3. Recruitment Drive
4. AOB

Remember that BGMs and AGMs are official union meetings and you are legally entitled to time off to attend them. Senior mgmt have promised that no teaching sessions or other staff meetings will be scheduled to clash, but some managers do seem to forget this, so please let us know if you encounter any difficulties.

Members for whom we have a Lancashire email address have been sent a calendar appointment. Others please join via the link in your email.

Teaching Observations

The university had a Teaching Observation scheme (distinct from the Peer Observation of Teaching scheme) that was negotiated and agreed with UCU. Management appear to have surreptitiously replaced this with a significantly different version not discussed, negotiated or agreed with UCU. Therefore, for the time being, if you are asked to participate in Teaching Observation, UCU advise you to decline. If your line manager attempts to instruct you to participate then UCU advise you to seek UCU support. Once the versioning issues have been resolved and UCU are sure that only a negotiated and agreed version is in use, we will send updated advice in a branch bulletin.

Recording of Teaching Sessions

At the start of this academic year, Management published a Recording of Teaching policy that had not been negotiated and agreed with UCU and that UCU had several significant objections to; UCU declared a dispute over this, as announced in the September UCU bulletin. We now have an interim agreement with Management that until the dispute is resolved, academic staff may be encouraged to comply with the policy but will not be instructed or otherwise compelled to. If you are happy to comply with the policy, then do so, albeit at your own risk. If you are not happy to comply with it, then don’t. This should not cause you to come under pressure from your line manager, but if it does then contact UCU for support.

Management Misinformation About Working Times and Locations

Last academic year, the Dean of Medicine & Dentistry stated in a school newsletter that academic staff must be on campus at least four days per week. This information was incorrect and at odds with the university policy on academic working times and locations. Management acknowledged the error and undertook to send out a correction to staff in the school. However, more than half a year has passed without the correction getting sent out, so we’re including it in this bulletin (while still insisting that Management send out the promised correction).

For all academic staff, the times and places where you do your work are determined by the requirements of the particular duties itemized in your workload plan. Some duties, such as teaching in a classroom, must be done at a particular time in a particular place; other duties, such as marking, needn’t be done at any particular time or in any particular place. Therefore for no academic is it the case that, regardless of the specific duties itemized in your workload plan, you must work on campus for a certain number of days per week.

Location of Learning Support

Students should have the options of receiving Learning Support both online (Teams) and face-to-face. Therefore staff who offer Learning Support should offer both options. In at least one school (Psychology & Humanities), Management orally briefed staff that only face to face Learning Support should be proactively offered, with online LS provided only if the student proactively requests it. Management have confirmed that this oral briefing was incorrect, and was not given in all schools, but have declined to circulate a correction.

Research Staff

Academic staff in Research-Only roles often find that the concerns peculiar to staff in these roles tend to get neglected. If you are in such a role (Senior Research Assistant, Post-Doctoral Research Assistant, Research Associate, Research Fellow, Senior Research Fellow), then we encourage you to contact UCU individually to articulate your concerns. Currently UCU are in very slow-moving discussions with Management about (i) creating better career pathways for Research-Only staff, (ii) creating better possibilities for progression from Research Fellow to Senior Research Fellow, (iii) rectifying the anomaly of the local Research Assistant role, whose title is universally understood to designate an academic role but which is locally defined as a wholly non-academic clerical role.

Far-Right March

As some of you may have heard, it is possible that a so-called “Hope and Glory” march will take place on 12th October that will come close to the Preston campus. If this March goes ahead there is likely to be an elevated risk to members of our community being subjected to physical or verbal racist attack in areas that the march passes through. The University’s Emergency Planning Team are aware of this event and have measures in place to safeguard staff and students. If you are interested in the planned counter-protest by anti-racist groups you can contact Tamsyn privately on tamsynmahoneysteel@gmail.com.

Flu Jabs

Members are reminded that the University is offering free flu vaccine vouchers for staff who are not eligible for an NHS flu vaccine. The following link gives more information and a link to the form to apply for your voucher: https://msuclanac.sharepoint.com.mcas.ms/SitePages/Book-your-free-flu-jab.aspx

Recruitment Drive – Help Needed

The new academic year brings many challenges, as the Bulletin above amply demonstrates. UCU can fight these challenges only when we are strong, with large numbers of members and good density of membership in all departments. Unfortunately, many valued colleagues left the University this summer after the latest round of redundancies, so we need a recruitment drive to build membership back up. We need as many members as possible to speak to the non-members in their schools and services. If you would be willing to help with this, please email us or contact Andrew Baron, our recruitment lead, on abaron@lancashire.ac.uk. We will give you a short list of names, and some hints and tips about what to say!

Lancashire UCU Branch Committee

In this Bulletin:

Reminder – Open Member Meeting Next Week
Learning Support Hours
New & Ongoing Local Disputes:

1. Security of Employment
2. L-SL Progression
3. Recording of Teaching
4. Grade G Teaching Roles
5. Block Teaching & Sprints

New Lanyard Policy
Please Check Your Details & Update Your Email Address

Reminder – Open Member Meeting Next Week

The first Open Member Meeting of the year will take place next Wednesday, 10 September, at 1.00-2.00pm. For logistical reasons, this one will be on Teams only. Please check your email for the link.

These are informal, no-agenda meetings for members to bring any concerns or ideas to the Branch Committee. Come and tell us what is happening in your schools/services.

Learning Support Hours

 Learning support hours should be undertaken if and only if they are itemized in your workload plan. This is in accordance with the university’s new Learning Support Hours policy, which has been negotiated with UCU but the University’s Academic Workload Guidance has not yet been updated to reflect the change.

New & Ongoing Local Disputes:

UCU are about to declare three new local collective disputes to go alongside two ongoing local collective disputes. These disputes are as follows.

1. Security of Employment (New)

UCU demands:

• Academic teams and UCU must be fully involved in decision making about potential course/subject closures.
• Emergency cost saving measures must ensure UCU members have livelihood-preserving options.

We are hopeful of securing binding agreements that achieve these demands. The dispute is not because any impasse has been reached but because the issue is urgent and may require escalation if not resolved swiftly. 

2. L-SL Progression (New)

UCU demands:

• L–SL progression must be unsuspended and backdated to 1 September 2025.
• Any future Management proposals for reducing costs by suspending L–SL progression must be accompanied by alternative cost-reduction proposals and negotiated with UCU.

3. Recording of Teaching (New)

UCU demand:

Any Recording of Teaching policy must be negotiated, not merely consulted upon, with UCU.

Management have published online an alleged ‘Recording of Teaching’ policy that impudently & disingenuously is labelled ‘consulted with UCU’, without acknowledging that it has not been negotiated with UCU, and UCU strongly oppose the policy as it stands. For UCU, the main issues are:

• Management’s failure to negotiate.
• Duties for academic staff must be determined by what is itemized on their workload plans, not by documents that Managers happen to publish on the Intranet. Workload plans must be informed by the University’s Academic Workload Guidance, and UCU are open to negotiating updates to the Academic Workload Guidance in the light of new properly negotiated policies.
• Academics must have the right to separate a performance for live audience from a performance for recording.
• Ultimate responsibility for ensuring intellectual property law is followed rests with Management. So does ultimate responsibility for ensuring the various deadlines are met. Academic staff cooperate with Management, but Management cannot offload their proper responsibilities onto academic staff.
• The gratuitous mention of potential disciplinary ramifications for noncompliance is merely intended to bully and intimidate. A so-called ‘policy’ in which Managers seek to manage through bullying and intimidation of academic staff has no place in a university.

4. Grade G Teaching Roles (Ongoing)

The crux of this very long-running dispute concerns the conditions under which academics in Grade G teaching roles may be denied progression to Grade H. After many years of Management inaction, we managed to make some headway late last academic year, and we hope to bring it to a conclusion this academic year. (If this issue affects you, we encourage you to write to us about it.)

5. Block Teaching & Sprints (Ongoing)

As you will know from previous Bulletins, UCU have lodged a formal Resolution Request over the failure of management to consult course teams over whether block delivery is right for their courses, and we have had several meetings as a result. These discussions resumed this week, following the summer hiatus, and management appear to be making significant concessions. Firstly, they say they have made the process of opting out easier: courses will still all be expected to move to a 30-credit structure, but teams should be able to choose the “short fat” model (seven-week blocks, running sequentially) or the “long thin” model (fourteen-week blocks, running two at a time), through a fairly straightforward approval process. This has already happened for many courses, including all of Humanities. Secondly, they say that the Sprint process to develop the new courses is also optional: teams can choose to follow the normal course review process and timetable if they prefer.

Our discussions with management have not concluded, and we are still far from persuaded that the move to block is a good idea, but it is beginning to look as if those teams who feel railroaded into block and/or sprints should complain to their local managers. UCU will be happy to support any teams that wish to do this. We will update further after our next meeting with management.

Thank you to all the members who completed our survey about attitudes to block teaching & the sprints, and thank you especially to the members who came to the meeting with management this week. UCU’s response to management’s proposals (including details of the survey results, interviews with staff from other universities, and an analysis of the relevant literature) can be seen on our website here: https://lancashire.web.ucu.org.uk/2025/09/04/ucu-response-to-block-teaching-proposal/

New Lanyard Policy

We are aware that many members are upset by management’s recent announcement that blue lanyards are mandatory and rainbow lanyards will no longer be provided. We would like to assure members that UCU was not consulted or even informed about this policy. We encourage you to contact the Branch Committee if you would like further support on this issue.

Please Check Your Details & Update Your Email Address

Following the university name change, we need every member to log in to MyUCU (www.ucu.org.uk/myucu) and update your email details as soon as your new “Lancashire” address goes live. While you are in MyUCU, please also check that the details in the “Employment” tab are correct, particularly the name of your school/service and the building you are primarily based in. If your particular school/building combo is not in the drop-down list, please email membership secretary Cath Sullivan (csullivan@uclan.ac.uk) so it can be added.

UCU Lancashire Branch Committee

Thank you to all the members who completed our survey about attitudes to block teaching & the sprints, and thank you especially to the members who came to the meeting with management this week. UCU’s response to management’s proposals (including details of the survey results, interviews with staff from other universities, and an analysis of the relevant literature) can be downloaded here:

Block Delivery UCU Response

Lancashire UCU Branch Committee

In this Bulletin:

EGM Report & Industrial Action Vote

Block Teaching Survey

University Name Change

Summer Casework Support

EGM Report & Industrial Action Vote

Thank you to everyone who came to the Emergency Branch General Meeting on Wednesday 25 June. Attendance was much higher than usual (especially bearing in mind the time of year) which is a sure sign that members are extremely angry over Management’s recent behaviour in threatening compulsory redundancies, suspending L-SL progression, and imposing block teaching and the recording of teaching sessions. After a lively discussion, the following motion was proposed by the Branch Committee:

• This Branch condemns the failure of UCLan Management to negotiate meaningfully and in good faith with UCU over compulsory redundancies, L-SL progression, block teaching and the recording of teaching.
• This Branch affirms its willingness to take serious and sustained industrial action if necessary to protect its members’ livelihoods and terms & conditions of employment.
• This Branch empowers the Branch Committee to begin the legally-required processes for a postal ballot for industrial action unless UCLan Management make a binding commitment to negotiating satisfactory solutions to all these issues.

132 votes were recorded in the meeting, and every single one was in favour of the motion! This is an excellent result that gives our negotiating team a very strong hand. We will be discussing options for industrial action with UCU Regional Office and will keep you informed of our progress with Management. Thank you again to everyone who came and voted.

Block Teaching Survey

We are still waiting for Management’s promised resolution meeting over failure to consult with course teams on block delivery. That means it is not too late to have your say in our survey! Please follow the link below if you have not already contributed, and please also let us know if you would be willing to come to a meeting with Andrew Ireland & Janice Allen to express your concerns in person.

https://forms.gle/xCYAbE3zaaK9uGwY7

Results so far show that very few academics believe block delivery to be a good idea.

University Name Change

As you know, we will all be getting new email addresses in the next few weeks, with the “@uclan.ac.uk” replaced by “@lancashire.ac.uk”. We have asked UCU HQ whether they could change all our membership records in one go, but sadly no, they would have to do each one manually, which they really don’t have time to do. So we need EVERY MEMBER to log in to MyUCU (www.ucu.org.uk/myucu) and update your email details as soon as the new addresses go live.

While you are in MyUCU, please also check that the details in the “Employment” tab are correct, particularly the name of your school/service and the building you are primarily based in. If your particular school/building combo is not in the drop-down list, please email membership secretary Cath Sullivan (csullivan@uclan.ac.uk) so it can be added.

Summer Casework Support

During the summer break, UCU is not collectively available for negotiations with management, but we will still be offering individual support to members in need. Just write to ucu@uclan.ac.uk (or indeed ucu@lancashire.ac.uk) in the normal way, but please be patient as there will be fewer caseworkers on duty. We will endeavour to reply to everyone within five working days.

Have a good summer!

UCU UCLan Branch Committee

In this Bulletin:

AGM Reminder

AGM Provisional Agenda

Nominations to the Branch Committee

Local Subscriptions 2025-26

University of the Future

L-SL Progression

Harmful Gambling Training

Check Your Details

Branch AGM Reminder

Members are notified that the UCLan UCU Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 23 April, from 13.30 – 15.00 on Teams. Members for whom we have a UCLan email address have already been sent a calendar appointment. Anyone else will need to join via the link we have emailed.

AGM Provisional Agenda

 Election of the Branch Committee (see below for details of the nomination process)

Branch Secretary’s report

Treasurer’s report

Equality Officer’s report

Membership Secretary’s report

Health and Safety report

Motions

• Local Subscriptions 2025-26 (see below for further information)

Any Other Business (AOB)

Nominations to the Branch Committee

 Nominations for election to the Branch Committee should be submitted by e-mail to the Branch Secretary, And Rosta (and.rosta@gmail.com) by 18.00 on Tuesday 15 April. Each nomination must be supported by separate emails from two members (one nominating, the other seconding) and an email from the nominee accepting the nomination.

Local Subscriptions 2025-26

The AGM will be asked to set the Local Subscription levels for the next academic year. Last year’s rates were set at a deliberately high level, in order to quickly build up a significant fighting fund. This has been successful, and we are on track to raise £60k in the current academic year. Assuming hardship payments of approx £60 per day of salary lost (eg due to strike action or pay docking during an assessment boycott) this could represent 1,000 person-days of industrial action. An extremely potent weapon! The Branch can therefore now consider reducing the local subs. The AGM will be offered three choices: low, medium and high. If all three options are rejected, there will be no local subscription next year.

Low Option

Salary £60k+ £1.50 Salary £40k+ £1.00 Salary £30k+ £0.50 Salary £22k+ £0.30 Salary £15k+ £0.20 Salary £ 5k+ £0.10 Salary below £5k, retired members & attached members (not employed by UCLan) £0.00. This option would add approx £7,200 to the fighting fund over the course of the year.

Medium Option

Salary £60k+ £10.00 Salary £40k+ £5.00 Salary £30k+ £3.00 Salary £22k+ £1.70 Salary £15k+ £0.80 Salary £ 5k+ £0.20 Salary below £5k, retired members & attached members (not employed by UCLan) £0.00. This option would add approx £36,000 to the fighting fund over the course of the year.

High Option (current subscription levels)

Salary £60k+ £15.00 Salary £40k+ £10.00 Salary £30k+ £7.50 Salary £22k+ £5.50 Salary £15k+ £3.755 Salary £ 5k+ £1.25 Salary below £5k, retired members & attached members (not employed by UCLan) £0.00. This option would add approx £70,000 to the fighting fund over the course of the year.

University of the Future

As you will know from previous discussion of this topic, management have agreed with UCU that for each course where a move to block teaching is being considered, there will be direct unmediated discussion between management and the course team to determine whether the move to block delivery is suitable for the course. Members across the University report that this has not been happening: instead, course teams are being told there is no choice, and block delivery is being steamrollered through without discussion. Accordingly, UCU have requested resolution via the new Resolution Procedure, and met with senior management representatives on 19 March to present examples from Psychology & Humanities, Sport, Business, and Arts & Media. We were hoping to provide an update in this Bulletin, but, regrettably, management have still not responded to this request. We will update further at the AGM and discuss next steps.

L-SL Progression

Similarly, we were hoping to be able to report on our attempts to get management to confirm that L-SL progression will resume this year. Unfortunately, management have still not confirmed this, and we are still waiting to hear. Meanwhile, we are pressing managers to confirm, at least, that eligible members have met the criteria to progress, so that they are not suddenly presented with extra hurdles when it does resume. If you were held up last year, or are due to progress this year, and have not already given UCU your details, please email us on ucu@uclan.ac.uk

Harmful Gambling Training

You may remember in 2023, UCLan was the first University in the country to sign up to the Harmful Gambling Charter which offers practical ways in which employers and trade unions can commit to promoting the health and wellbeing of colleagues and students who may be at risk due to gambling related harms. We continue to work with Beacon Counselling Trust,  who specialise in supporting individuals experiencing Gambling Related Harms as well as offering support to organisations to raise awareness on gambling related harms in the workplace.

People Team have arranged 2 webinars in 2025 with Beacon Counselling Trust, titled ‘Harmful Gambling Awareness – Bet you can help now!’. The key learning outcomes for participants attending the course are highlighted below:

• Learners will develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes concerning gambling related harms (GRH).
• Learners will explore and better understand the nature of gambling and gambling related harms and their impact on health and wellbeing.
• Learners will develop confidence in providing help and support to an individual at risk of, or experiencing, gambling related harms and how to signpost to specialist support services.

Dates, booking links and further information for booking can be found below:

Harmful Gambling Awareness – Bet you can help now! Monday 28 April from 14:00 – 15:30

Harmful Gambling Awareness – Bet you can help now! Thursday 12 June from 10:00 – 11:30

Check Your Details

All members should have received an  email in the last month or so, asking you to check that your details on the UCU membership database are accurate. Please do this, as it is extremely important that information such as school name, building name, salary band etc are correct. Errors could, for example, lead to a ballot for industrial action being ruled invalid.

Please log on to MyUCU at https://www.ucu.org.uk/myucu, check the “Employment” tab and update as necessary. If your particular school name/building name combination is not available in the drop-down list, email Membership Secretary Cath Sullivan on csullivan@uclan.ac.uk

UCLan UCU Branch Committee