Sheila Caffrey, NEU Exec member, personal capacity
The National Education Union’s (NEU) National Executive met in May to discuss its plans in the run-up to what was expected to be an autumn general election. This included balloting at the end of September if the Tory government didn’t make an acceptable pay offer, and ensure it was fully funded so that schools, colleges and nurseries didn’t have to decide whether to pay their staff or make cuts.
The announcement four days later of a general election means we need a fuller discussion on how best to put pressure on the new Starmer-led government that’s likely to be in power from the start of July.
The Labour Party has promised another 6,500 teachers, which would certainly assist with cutting class sizes, and could help reduce the crippling workload that education workers face. But where are these teachers going to come from? With below-inflation pay offers for well over a decade, with thousands of spaces left unfilled each year on teacher-training courses, as well as 60% of teachers leaving in the first few years after qualifying, teaching is certainly not seen as an attractive career!
Support staff have also just been offered a derisory pay rise of £1,290. The Tory government tries to claim that this means the lowest paid have been offered just under 30% in pay rises since 2021. Yet education support staff are paid term-time only and many are on minimum wage. An increase of 30% of poverty pay, still leaves you on poverty pay. Added to that, many are encouraged to work far above their pay grades, with some actually planning and teaching full classes due to the teacher retention crisis.
There are not many jobs in education that offer those who are dedicated to education, and to trying to improve the lives of our children and young people, the incentive to stay.
Make our demands
The early election gives the NEU a chance to fight now! We need to revisit our balloting timeline and think how best to put the pressure on Starmer and Labour. Will they reverse the cuts to funding, to local authority nurseries, and to support for children with special educational needs? Will they pay education workers in line with or above inflation?
Well, the answers are no – unless education workers stand up and apply the pressure. We should make our demands now: a pay rise above inflation for teachers and support staff, with central funding to cover it; and the need for a national contract to tackle workload, that protects education workers from attacks on pay and conditions that have been encouraged since academisation and the fragmentation of the education system seen since Tony Blair. If the NEU prepares to ballot our members as soon as the teachers’ pay award is offered in July, this would show a Labour-led government we mean business and we’re not going to let them off the hook.
Local NEU branches will be holding ‘Question Time’ hustings. Members will be asking candidates where they stand on a myriad of issues facing education and education workers. So how best to back this up but with pressure nationally, not just of press releases and a roadshow calling for free school meals for all, but with balloting for national action that will be taken in the first 100 days of a Starmer-led government if he doesn’t fulfil the NEU’s demands?
The NEU can win for its members, but it means the members need to push the leadership to stand up and fight for what is needed.
