Rishi triumphs over the teaching unions!

[noblegiraffe]

He has managed to beat the teaching unions into submission and to call off strikes by:

Offering them a pay deal worth more than double the original government recommendation

Giving schools extra funding to pay for it.

Well done Rishi, you really showed them!

https://twitter.com/rishisunak/status/1679462222655881218?s=46&t=vKGM6xpoeW3wdlaVVVagQA

I knew it wouldn’t be funded!

How?

I'm not suggesting teachers don't need a pay rise but these teacher threads have been full of arguments about the poor state of schools. The joy about this supposed victorious win isn't going to do anything about the state of schools.

If it was always about pay, then don't claim otherwise.

Let's hope not. We've already had to lose a couple.

I don’t think this will be affordable for quite a few schools

Mary Bousted tweeted that it was affordable for most schools and the headteacher unions agree.

@RosaGallica - yes I agree somewhat, whether they have in reality any choice I’m not so sure. But this is why I don’t think the unions have triumphed against Sunak as OP states. And Tbf the unions primary role is to get better pay for teachers - it’s up to parents and everyone else to fight for wider school funding I guess ( I work in the public sector and have had a 1.4% pay rise the last few years so they’ve done way better than my union!).

Yeah, I don't believe the extra funding will actually happen. It lists the departments it won't be taking money from, but the way it's been put is in sleazespeak . So it won't come from nursery or 16-19 funding, or schools capital. But I don't think school staff salaries come from schools capital, it comes from some other budget, doesn't it? I don't think it could come from capital. Please correct me if you know better, but I think this is all just slippery terminology and we'll just end up with all staff other than class teachers or 1:1s being made redundant. Because there are no other possible savings to be made. Most schools have very few general TAs, if any, so class teachers will be having to manage children with needs falling short a formal ECHP alone. That is dangerous.

@noblegiraffe - well that’s good if true. And let’s hope the hardship fund is enough for the small schools and SEN/specialist schools who are the ones most likely to struggle.

Although of course ‘afford’ is in the context of things staying in the really dire financial situation they are now ( but as I said that’s for all of us to fight for).

Glad it’s resolved, the general public have no
appetite for strikes.

We can’t strike about school funding in general. We can (and did) reject a pay offer which would mean sacking teaching assistants and taking funding away from other areas of school budgets.

Part of the terrible state of schools is the lack of teachers. This may help keep some in the job, 9% quit teaching last year.

It will be back dated, for those that ask.

Seems pretty good to me and I'd accept if I was still teaching.

There’s nothing wrong with striking for more pay, but I do think we need to be clear about what the strike is about. I do think a lot of the insistence that it isn’t about pay is because people don’t like to look mercenary tbh.

I agree with this. There's absolutely nothing wrong with striking for pay but that wasn't the sole argument being relied on and I imagine that was because the unions knew that wouldn't get the support teachers needed.

We’ve also got concessions on funding and workload.

All strength to you when you do! 💪

A lot of the claims were about poor kids rather than poor teachers though.

Teachers were also sounding the alarm about recruitment and retention. I imagine a pay rise should go towards that - particularly if workload issues are actually addressed.

I’m shocked that he’s actually agreed to give schools extra funding to fund it!!!

Yes and no. If my understanding is correct (and I’ve read a few different things so forgive me if it isn’t) schools are being given 3% to fund the pay rise and the remaining 3.5 % comes from existing budgets. Given that the 5% last year apparently pushed many schools into bankruptcy, if the strike was indeed about matters other than pay we shouldn’t be sounding the horns of triumph just yet.

I, of course, was referring to Rishi’s tweeting about this offer as if it is a governmental success and not a humiliating climb down.

They must be hating every fucking minute of this (and we know from previous news stories that Rishi has fought strongly against giving this pay rise), and it brings joy to my heart to think how pissed off he must be at paying public sector workers any more money at all.

Oh, there’s also a commitment to reduce teacher workload, so less work for more pay 👍**

Ha - where've I heard that one before!

There’s an extra £2 billion going to school funding in September (and an extra £2 billion the year after) before the extra 3% is taken into account.

But the extra 3% is coming from where? The existing budget of the DfE? So they are now going to prioritise pay over what?

This.
Stop wasting money then there would be more for the important things. Very similar to a family budget.
Or tax the super wealthy like him a little more.

That’s what I’m wondering. Two billion is obviously an eye watering amount of money but when you consider how many teachers there are needing a pay rise it isn’t that much, really! (I mean when spread across every school - obviously if someone wants to give me two billion I won’t argue!)