Introduction

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) is the UK's foremost education association for professionals in the primary, secondary and further education sectors.

It exists to protect and improve the status of teachers, lecturers and support staff who are directly involved in the delivery of education, and to promote the cause of education generally.

ATL represents members' interests through determined and realistic negotiations on contracts, salaries, and conditions of service and is the only teachers' union with negotiating rights in primary, secondary and further education sectors.

The organisation is affiliated to the TUC but not to any political party. It maintains contacts across the political spectrum and lobbies hard for initiatives and policies that its members believe in. ATL never instructs its members how to act, nor pressures them to follow a particular course of action. Women and men are fully and equally represented at every level, and members are encouraged to play an active part in the life of the union.