LAY members will take over responsibility for a shake-up of internal processes in which women are underrepresented, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) decided yesterday.

Women make up 76 per cent of NUT members but only 30 per cent of the executive and two years ago a working group was set up to propose action.

A shake-up would also address the imbalance of the number of members allocated to each region, which has left some committee members representing twice as many as others.

Executive member Gawain Little said his committee was “not best placed to reform itself” and had “failed in its democratic duty.”

He spoke of his frustration as a member of the original working group, saying: “Whenever we came close to any practical solutions, the inertia kicked in.”