Govt doing nothing to avert next week's two day teacher strike (England)

[noblegiraffe]

The NEU are due to take two days of teacher strike action next Wednesday and Thursday in England.

What the govt have done to avert those strikes:

Told the NEU to call the strike off and enter talks. With no offer on the table, with no promise of new money to fund any pay rises and no reason for the NEU to suppose that those things would be forthcoming

Made a patronising video telling teachers to enter these talks.

Told Ofsted that they can phone schools this Friday to be inspected next Monday. This is normally not allowed as it means that school staff will spend the weekend working their arses off preparing. (Normally you get a phonecall lunchtime for an inspection the next day so you only have an evening to prepare). This, during an industrial dispute where teachers are deeply unhappy about workload.

Ignored a joint letter from the teaching and headteaching unions suggesting that ACAS mediate talks.

"Paul Whiteman, general secretary of NAHT, said that using Acas “to create a safe environment between parties in order to begin movement is a well-trodden path in industrial relations” and the success rate is “impressive”.

He added: “It is extraordinary for any party in a dispute to refuse such an offer. I am really worried that the government are not serious about finding ways through these difficulties. I hope for the sake of children that the government can see beyond political posturing and join us all around a table.”"

www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/unions-dfe-not-serious-about-resolving-teacher-pay-dispute

The government, as ever, don't give a shit about education.

Yup-or a year group that they have no wish
to teach. We had a superb reception teacher some years back who the new head took against (nothing at all to do with her being UPS3 with a TLR, I’m sure) who was suddenly and without discussion, moved into Year 6. It’s perfectly within the head’s rights to do it, but it’s a dick move and a sure fire way to make someone so unhappy that they leave.

Does not follow policy though...

Our LA HR would simply not allow anything other than following the agreed policy to the letter, which is as I've written about.

Fuck off Gillian. schoolsweek.co.uk/pausing-strikes-for-pay-talks-is-in-best-interests-of-teachers-and-pupils/

Pay rises need to be fully funded, not paid out of schools' already struggling budgets

You can argue about pay, but the IFS seems to think the current pay rises in England are fully funded?

School funding - January 2023

The funding picture has become more positive for schools. As shown in Figure 3, total school spending per pupil in England fell by 9% between 2010 and 2019. Since then, it has started to increase again. Furthermore, the government allocated an extra £2.3 billion per year to the schools budget in England in the 2022 Autumn Statement. Based on current forecasts, this will allow school spending per pupil in England to return to 2010 levels by 2024.

Importantly, this remains true even after we account for the specific increases in costs faced by schools. In cash-terms, school spending per pupil is due to increase by about 8% per year in both 2022–23 and 2023–24. This is above our estimates of the likely increases in the specific costs faced by schools, which we estimate will increase by about 6% in 2022–23 and about 4% in 2023–24. These estimates include the effect of the 5% increase in teacher pay in September 2022, the STRB recommendation for 3% increases in September 2023, the 8-9% increase in support staff pay in 2022–23, as well as rises in non-staff costs such as rising energy and food prices.

ifs.org.uk/articles/what-has-happened-teacher-pay-england

You can argue about pay, but the IFS seems to think the current pay rises in England are fully funded

School budgets were set for last September and submitted by heads in June/July (not exactly sure of dates). The government announced the pay rise for teachers after these school budgets had been set and said that there would be no new money to schools to account for the pay rise. Therefore the pay rise for September was not funded, headteachers had to cut things from their already-set budget to pay for it.

The Autumn Statement in November promising £2.3 billion extra for schools was for the next year. So it couldn't go towards the September 2022 pay rise because schools haven't got that money yet.

By asking for a fully funded pay rise, teachers want the assurance that any additional money given to teachers as a result of negotiation is paid for by the government with new money and isn't supposed to come out of the current school budget which is, as the IFS says, running below 2010 levels of funding and won't get back to even 2010 levels until 2024.

noblegiraffe
Therefore the pay rise for September was not funded

You seem to be disagreeing with the IFS;

These estimates include the effect of the 5% increase in teacher pay in September 2022, the STRB recommendation for 3% increases in September 2023, the 8-9% increase in support staff pay in 2022–23, as well as rises in non-staff costs such as rising energy and food prices.

School budgets were set for last September and submitted by heads in June/July (not exactly sure of dates)

Before the U-turn on national insurance?

@Clavinova , noblegiraffe is correct

You seem to be disagreeing with the IFS

Yes, because it implies that schools had enough money to start with. Saying 'this extra funding that is going to schools will cover increased costs' isn't any good when schools didn't have the money to fund the original costs.

It means that there is still a hole in the budget. The extra funding in the Autumn statement wasn't supposed to be going towards pay rises, it was supposed to be plugging a hole in funding.

Remember that schools are still below 2010 levels of funding. We've been underfunded for 13 years.

The extra funding in the Autumn statement wasn't supposed to be going towards pay rises, it was supposed to be plugging a hole in funding

Staff pay typically represents over 70% of expenditure.

I remember having a disagreement with you back in 2020 when I suggested that schools might be able to reduce their expenditure during partial school closures/cancelled exams;

April 2022
Academy trust coffers swelled by more than a quarter last year, with the sector’s total financial reserves surging to nearly £4 billion.

Data for maintained schools published in December showed a similar picture, with Covid fuelling an unlikely turnaround in their finances.

DfE figures showed the biggest annual decline in schools in deficit since records began in 2003, dropping from 12 per cent of schools to 8.4 per cent.

schoolsweek.co.uk/academy-trust-school-funding-finances-reserves-covid/

Staff pay typically represents over 70% of expenditure.

Which is why schools have had to make so many redundancies in the past 13 years.

And some had to make even more redundancies to fund the 5% pay rise last September. Others had to cancel needed building works, or new IT equipment.

is paid for by the government with new money
Well the government can't magic up 'new money' -it is getting it from taxes or borrowing.
Which is why people who have to be taxed to pay for it have little patience for it now.

neu.org.uk/press-releases/wales-pay-offer

Pay offer for Wales.

We could tax the people who are supposed to pay tax but don't. Like Nadhim Zahawi.

People who pay tax (e.g. teachers) are also fed up of hearing things like energy companies earning record profits and then the government finding even more money to give to them to subsidise people's energy bills.

Parents who pay tax should be wondering why their kid doesn't have a teacher.

Yawn -trotting out the same old. Yes of course enforce the tax rules - guessing you have never paid cash for a service to a tradesman? But that is just a red herring - even if money can be clawed back that is not money in the coffers NOW which is when you want it.
Will be interesting to see if there is a stampede to work in Wales 😂

So great to have this example of constructive talks for Gillian to learn from. Well done Wales.

even if money can be clawed back that is not money in the coffers NOW which is when you want it.

How about the billions in unexpected tax that the government raked in?

Gillian Keegan is a liar who can't define the word Girl.

I support the teachers. True essential, worthwhile contributors to our society. Unlike the lying, corrupt, incompetent Tories who have destroyed the UK.