This is the text of a leaflet given out to NEU members on Friday 18 September

In the face of the threat of strike action the government has promised £500 million extra to fund teachers’ pay – but where is the money coming from?

  • No smoke and mirrors about whether this is new money
  • No robbing Peter to pay Paul – support staff will still feel the brunt of school cuts
  • The government should provide central funding to cover the pay award, not cover it in such a way that will differ area by area and potentially still lead to cuts
  • Any money saved from pension scheme revaluations should be spent on public services and pay
  • Members voted to ballot for more pay and for more funding. We can’t let Burnham off the hook. We say keep the ballot on to win what members demanded: more in pay and more in funding

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede announced that the NEU has secured £500 million extra to ensure the 2026-27 teacher pay award will now be fully funded. Heads have been expected to find £460 million out of existing school budgets, which would have resulted in further cuts and job losses.

In the way it has been presented, reps and members will see this as a significant win – just through the threat of balloting for action. But where is this money is coming from?

The money is proposed to come from the revaluation of the Local Government Pension Scheme.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates as much as £24.5bn could be ‘saved’ through the revaluations of public service pension schemes across the board, because employers need to pay in less than previously to maintain the schemes.

But the LGPS is a separate pot held by each council or employer. The amounts in the pot and the amounts that employers pay in vary. If the amount the employer needs to pay in goes down, the council or the school would normally expect that they have more to spend on something else.

Now, Heads are saying that what they thought was going to be new money to fund the pay rise turns out not to be. They have already budgeted for this money.

And as the pots vary, some schools will have enough to fund the pay rise fully, others won’t, and there will still be cuts. In many areas, support staff will feel that they are paying the price.

We do not want division between teachers and support staff and we do not want division between unions. This is why Socialist Party members on the Exec opposed the decision not to ballot support staff, and it is why we have campaigned all summer for maximum unity between support staff unions instead of division.

The fight is not over!

As Daniel Kebede said on the day of the announcement, “74% of schools have less money in real terms than they did in 2010… Experienced teachers have seen their pay cut by 23% in real terms since 2010, contributing to the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis.”

Our union’s demands

The indicative ballot for teachers asked, “Are you prepared to take industrial action to win sufficient funding to secure an above inflation pay increase, reduce workload and defend existing directed time provisions, including the 1,265 hours limit?”

In the July ‘snap poll’, over 70% of respondents voted to ballot for action to win more overall funding and for more than the 3.5% for this year and 3% for next year to address the 20% lost since 2010 through pay caps and freezes.

That was also the decision of the NEU Executive Committee just before the summer holidays.

School costs outstrip funding increases

Total school funding has grown by about £9 billion or 16% in real terms (almost £3.5 billion was won by us by planning to strike, by striking and then by threatening to strike again). However, due to the growing costs of special educational needs provision, energy bills etc, costs have far outstripped funding.

And what about the drain of the costs associated with privatisation through academisation and the explosion in CEO pay, of supply, and SEND with increased reliance on the private sector?

£14 billion is needed to save education! NEU’s stated aim is to restore funding at least to 2015 levels and ultimately to 5% of GDP (the OECD average), the equivalent of £14 billion.

Pay increase not enough

The pay increase is above current inflation but for how long? With Trump’s war on Iran and the oil crisis, energy and food prices and mortgages are rising. We can win better than 6.5% over two years.

The fight is not over on workload

For teachers and support staff, workload is by far the biggest issue. It is the biggest driver of the recruitment and retention crisis.

What about the £3 billion savings from 2027-28 Teacher Pension Scheme (TPS) changes?

This is the amount the government says it will save – which they plan to use for defence spending! We need to win the commitment now from government that all of it will be ploughed back into schools on top of the funding settlement for next year

If there is money – perhaps as much as £24.5 billion across the public sector – as a result of pension scheme revaluations, that should be spent on public services and pay

We have shown that even the threat of a ballot can win more from the government. But we need a better deal than this.

Now is not the time to step back.

We don’t want our union leadership rushing to let Andy Burnham off the hook.

Socialist party members say we must keep the ballot on to fight for what our members demand.

This is a two-year deal – if we don’t fight now, when will we?

Sheila Caffrey, Louise Cuffaro, Dan Warrington, NEU National Executive members