A UNION leader today accused Inverclyde Council of failing to protect its staff from 'daily assaults' by primary school pupils in a local unit.

Earlier this week the Tele revealed that a support teacher at the language and communications base within All Saints Primary was kicked unconscious and taken to hospital following an incident involving a nine-year-old.

Another pupil was hit with a chair, and now the local Unison official Robin Taggart has stepped in to demand action from education bosses.

Unison says 'serious concerns' have been raised about the specialist unit for children with additional support needs.

Branch secretary Mr Taggart said: "Serious concerns have been raised and there is a massive problem there.

"Children are routinely assaulting staff on a daily basis.

"The bottom line is staff are not safe at work and the council is failing to do anything about it.

"That is very, very serious.

"A member of staff had to be taken to hospital - these are serious incidents.

"If there was a window in your building that was about to fall in, you wouldn't keep coming to work until you were hit on the head.

"People shouldn't get hurt at work in this way."

Following a meeting with staff a list of all incidents has been collated by Unison and they are now seeking crisis talks with education bosses.

Mr Taggart added: "The council has known about these problems for some time and they have done nothing about it.

"There is no evidence of any measures being taken to deal with this.

"Maybe now that it has been highlighted in this way something will be done about it."

Unison say that workers who have been attacked have not had the proper support from their employer.

He said: "There are procedures that should be in place.

"After an incident staff should get some time away, but this is not happening.

"They should not be put back in the same classroom with the pupil straight away.

"There should also be a debriefing with management but that is not happening either.

"The council has a duty of care for its employees."

The Telegraph asked Inverclyde Council to respond to the serious concerns outlined by Unison.

They indicated that they are now reviewing procedures.

A council spokesman added: "We have a system where all ‘critical incidents’ are reported so that we are aware of any violent incidents in any educational establishment.

"We work closely with staff and our partner agencies to ensure that every effort is made to support our employees who have to deal with these incidents.

"We endeavour to provide appropriate support for pupils who have complex and challenging needs.

"We have a number of establishments across Inverclyde which offer specialist services.

"The All Saints Communication & Language Base is one of them.

"It supports pupils who face a range of social, emotional and behavioural challenges, often coupled with being on the autistic spectrum.

"Sometimes the needs of these pupils can lead to behaviour which requires specialist intervention.

"Our educational psychological services team also works with schools to ensure that the wellbeing of our staff is being properly looked after.

"We are also currently reviewing our procedures to make sure that staff get all the support they need if they have been involved in an incident involving challenging behaviour."