Govt announces huge cut to schools funding, redundancies

[noblegiraffe]

Yesterday the government announced that there would be huge cuts to schools funding and this would mean larger class sizes, less support for SEND pupils and a smaller subject offering.

You might have missed this as it was framed as a generous pay rise for teachers.

This pay rise will be massively below inflation and therefore represent a large pay cut for experienced teachers, where ‘experienced’ means that they have been teaching for 5 years. The pay rise for new teachers is well below (due to inflation) what was promised in the 2019 Conservative manifesto as necessary to tackle the teacher recruitment crisis. schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-announces-5-pay-rise-for-most-teachers-in-2022-23/

However, poor as the pay offering is, the critical issue is that the government isn’t going to fund it. Schools would need to fund these pay rises from their existing budgets, which will mean that either teachers don’t get the pay rise (this happens) or there will be cuts and redundancies in schools, or both.

School funding itself will only rise by 1.9% which, as everyone is acutely aware, will not be enough to deal with the across-the-board price rises. schoolsweek.co.uk/school-per-pupil-funding-to-rise-by-only-1-9-per-cent-next-year/

Schools have already made redundancies, cuts to SEN provision and subject provision over the last 12 years of dire education funding. We are now cutting deep into the bone of educational provision.

So when the government talk about accepting in full the pay recommendation from the pay review body whose hands the Treasury tied, or about selfish unions and greedy teachers, in the end it’s going to be the kids who are losing out, when their class sizes increase, their SEN provision is reduced, they can’t take the subjects that they want, and their school can’t provide them with a qualified teacher.

It's the same for the NHS and I suspect all the public sector 'pay rises' will result in a poorer service. I think it's time for a general strike.

Really bad news, worrying for our children. Out schools need teaching assistants as much as they need teachers and specialist SEN staff. Helping all children to learn and achieve their potential, whatever that means for them, is vital and yet this government are determined to destroy it. More and more teachers will leave or be unwell with stress if the correct support for children and teachers is not in place. This is just such a sad move and clearly shows how they only care about themselves very few of whom will have children in state schools. Terrible for children and society as a whole.

Jeez we need a Labour government and quickly!

All the teaching unions and head teaching unions are discussing balloting for strike action which means that the right wing press will be all out to slate the profession, call us greedy, lazy, letting the kids down. It would be great if these reports could be viewed with an extremely critical eye and even better if education staff could be supported in any action.

(As an example, the Daily Mail the other day ran a story about a school that closed due to the heat, which was down to lazy teachers wanting to sun themselves in their gardens because the school had air conditioning. A quick glance at the school in question’s website found the letter that explained that parents could send children in if needed, and that the school didn’t have air conditioning.)

Any Conservative party members on here could find ways to question the prospective next Prime Minister about school funding, and try to get them to commit to funding the pay rise.

Others could write to their Tory MPs highlighting that school funding is a concern so that they can’t say it’s not coming up on the door step. They need to believe they are going to lose their jobs over this.

It is worth noting also, that we are only allowed to strike over pay and working conditions, so if anyone says ‘urgh, teachers are striking over pay, why do they never strike about cuts to SEN provision or the other shit that has been thrown at the schools sector over the years?’ - We aren’t allowed to. Don’t think we don’t care.

Yup to all of this.

Our school made three redundancies tis year which has never happened in all my years of teaching (and not replaced at least six staff or replaced with people doing fewer hours and on temp contracts). One was a specialist LS teacher. English staff are now apparently SEN teachers and it has been rebadged. The other teachers were in hums and now non specialists are teaching history, RS etc...

It's only going to get worse.

Meanwhile , buildings are not fit for purpose.

It's so depressing that people voted for this and will continue to do so.

Yes, piggy, my school has made redundancies in core subjects this year (leaving staff not being replaced). It will have an impact on kids.

I don’t know where the government think the money is going to come from.

Horrified to hear that NHS pay rises are also unfunded.

Today we said goodbye to 2 TAs who won't be replaced, two other support staff who won't be replaced, four teachers - only one of whom will be replaced.
We'll cope because we always do but it's getting harder every year. And the students are the ones it hits.

I thought the starting salary for new teachers was being increased to 28k (30k in London)? This is a lot more than other graduate jobs....and many of those require a masters.

I wholeheartedly agree that in general, teaching staff, SENCOS and SLT's have minimal, often woeful la knife knowledge and understanding of all things SEN.
Sadly at present if a SEN parent sees progress it's the result of a line individual within a setting being willing to make the effort and follow guidelines, legal frameworks and sorciflust recommendations.
Sadly until training and funding in mainstream education improve, little hope exists.
However what I observe on a daily basis with families I support are that the attitudes towards SEN children and their right to access education is poor. Usually again down to funding.
The entire system is a mess that is overdue a considered and professional overhaul- but hey until then parents and teachers can only do their best.

Yes, in their 2019 manifesto they said they would raise new teacher pay to £30k, so they’ve not met that commitment, with the £28k award.

£30k was a figure that research suggests is needed to solve the huge teacher recruitment crisis, and was come up with before inflation soared, so I would expect even £30k would be inadequate now.

Firstly, this is not resolving the retention issue because test good pay flatlines.

Secondly, what master's qualified roles are you speaking of? ( don't forget most teachers have postgraduate qualifications and many have master's)

A sad grim depressing non aspirational one.

Agree with OP and some PP's The Tories have wrecked so much. They just need to go

It’s now being increased to £28k for new teachers, yes-but that pay rise isn’t being funded. They are promising something that schools can’t pay for.

What will probably happen in my school to pay for that is that either the SENCo will lose one of her days, or a TA will be made redundant. Or both. Which of those will affect the children the most, I wonder?

The business manager was nearly in tears when I spoke to her this morning-she had just about managed to make the budget balance and then this is announced.

@Appuskidu
The business manager was nearly in tears when I spoke to her this morning-she had just about managed to make the budget balance and then this is announced.

I've had some very similar conversations today- schools and their management teams have some truly horrific decisions to make, this is abhorrent and shows such disgust for the very teams who throughout a global pandemic delivered more consistently and compassionately than any other. It's infuriating!

Pupils deserve better. It’s just not fair.

Also, are they going to get rid of performance related pay then?
And OFSTED inspections?
Because holding school staff accountable for children’s attainment and progress when you keep taking away resources needed to achieve good attainment and progress seems pretty unfair too.

Would business managers have known this was coming or is this brand new news?

The pay rise was expected (although originally DfE wanted 3% for experienced teachers, this was raised to 5%), the lack of any funding for it is news.

It’s absolutely horrendous and most people won’t realise no extra funding is being given to cover it. School budgets are already extremely tight. What are our taxes paying for? Education should be absolutely top of the pile.

The amendments to the Schools Bill are looking positive @xraydelta

What are our taxes paying for?

I guess if Tory PM candidates want to be able to get the job by promising tax cuts, then it needs to be clear that this comes at a terrible price for people's children.

The energy bill for my school is now 4x what it was last year. This plus salary increases are just impossible to fund from existing budgets, already cut to the bone. I honestly don't know how the public sector can survive in the current climate 😔

If we were coming from a decade of excellent funding, then there might be areas where cuts could be made. But schools are on their knees and have been for years. Headteachers would have thought that they have already made the hard decisions when they made TAs and support staff redundant, when they cut subjects at GCSE and A-level and lost teachers. Some heartbreaking decisions.

What now? What's left?