Pay awards are not enough
Sean McCauley, Worcestershire NEU district secretary, personal capacity
Rachel Reeves felt the pressure of potential further strike action from the National Education Union (NEU) over school funding when she announced a £4.7 billion increase in school funding over the next four years. Any new money will clearly be welcome to cash-strapped schools and colleges but it is not enough.
School costs will increase by 4.1% for 2025-26 and school funding was previously slated to leave a £630 million gap in funding.
The ringfenced £410 million previously announced for the expansion of free school meals and the £760 million for ‘reform of the SEND system’ (far from enough) are both included in the announcement.
The threat of action pushed the pay offer to teachers to 4% – higher than the 2.8% Labour originally planned – but it remains partially unfunded to the tune of £600 million, to be funded through efficiencies. And it is not enough – the real value of our pay has fallen by a fifth since 2010. 4% is below April’s RPI inflation rate of 4.5%. We should reject the government offer and fight for a pay award that starts to return pay to 2010 levels.
Support staff have been offered only 3.2%, an insult to mainly very low-paid workers, and which is totally unfunded.
Over £2.4 billion, therefore, of a £4.7 billion increase meant to take us to April 2029, has already been spent this year! This is far from the NEU’s stated aim of fighting to increase overall spending on school to 5% of GDP.
The threat of a potential fight has forced the government’s hand. The pressure needs to be maintained. We cannot let Starmer’s Labour off the hook now.
150,000 teachers voted in the indicative ballot to strike: demanding an above-inflation pay offer that would be fully funded. The NEU national conference in April voted to move to a formal ballot.
The NEU National Executive has launched a consultation to ask members if they agree with the following strategy:
“Your executive believes that any pay award that is not fully funded is unacceptable and will lead to cuts in schools. Your executive wishes to register a dispute with the secretary of state and launch and pursue a political campaign into the autumn term, to secure additional funding.
“Your executive further recommends that all members, local, regional and national structures of the union prioritise this political campaign, including building the union and engaging with the public, as well as the organising work to get ‘ballot ready’ with the aim of being in a position to be able to call such a national ballot in the autumn term.”
Members should vote ‘agree’ to keep the option of action on the table, but continue to press the leadership to seriously prepare for national action. We say reject the government offer! Prepare for national strike action, and include support staff in the fight. Let’s keep up the pressure on the executive for a ballot!
We support a political campaign, and propose that that should include calling pro-worker MPs – including Jeremy Corbyn, independents and suspended Labour MPs – to a meeting of the executive, so that we can establish a group of MPs who will champion our demands in parliament.
