School leaders have criticised the lack of attention or investment for education in the mini Budget unveiled by chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng this morning.
Various tax-cutting measures and other policies were announced as part of a “growth plan”, but headteacher union leaders have criticised the fact that “not a penny” was announced for education, despite the ongoing financial pressures faced by schools.
And a plan to legislate to require unions to put pay offers to a member vote before proposing strike action has been slammed as “unnecessary”, by education unions.
Commenting on the mini Budget, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the lack of mention of education in the chancellor’s speech indicated he deemed growth in the sector “unimportant”.
While Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the government had “squandered” the opportunity to address the “chronic underfunding in education”.
Mr Barton said: “This morning, we’ve heard the chancellor set out a mini Budget in which the government has given away billions of pounds to promote growth, but not a penny for education, where not only is growth presumably deemed to be unimportant but so is maintaining current provision”.
“The chancellor states that promoting economic growth will generate money for public services.
“However, the crisis in our schools and colleges is happening now, and a plan, which he acknowledges will not happen overnight, will not pay the bills”.
Mr Whiteman said: “It will seem bemusing to many people in this country who see public services stretched to breaking point. To them, today’s announcement will seem very distant from reality.”
Joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union Mary Bousted criticised the lack of funding for the sector, along with pay rises offered by the government this summer.
“Rocketing inflation comes after more than a decade of pay erosion, which has already seen a real-terms cut in teacher salaries of 20 per cent since 2010, and 27 per cent for support staff over the same period”, she said.
“It is simply unsustainable to deny teachers and support staff the fully funded, above-inflation pay rise they deserve, especially when the severe problems in teacher recruitment and retention are taken into account.”
Schools are facing what leaders have described as a “perfect storm” of financial concerns this autumn, with rising energy bills, staff costs and other inflationary pressures hitting budgets at the same time.
Rising energy prices have been partly offset by a government support scheme - though this is only guaranteed to last until the end of March.
Schools are also facing having to fund a 5 per cent teacher pay rise from September, which the DfE announced after budgets had been set earlier this year. Support staff have also been offered an increase.
This has culminated in many schools running deficits or making drastic cutbacks to make ends meet.
Unions slam new pay offer votes plan
Mr Whiteman also condemned a government plan to require unions to put pay offers to a member vote before proposing strike action, announced as part of the event this morning.
Mr Kwarteng said it was “simply unacceptable” for strike action to disrupt lives, and told MPs the government would legislate to require unions to put pay offers to a member vote “to ensure strikes can only be called once negotiations have genuinely broken down”.
However, NAHT’s general secretary has called the plan “needless” and “unnecessary”.
“Trade unions are already subject to stringent laws. Government should be focused on resolving the issues that cause dissatisfaction among workers rather than removing their ability to object,” Mr Whiteman added.
The announcement comes just a day before the NEU will hold a preliminary ballot to gauge interest in possible strike action, with a formal ballot to follow in November.
The ballot comes after the proposed pay award for teachers fell far below the fully-funded inflation-plus pay rise the union requested in June.
NI reversal will save schools money
The long-trailed confirmation that National Insurance (NI) hikes will be reversed will help schools financially.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson and ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak imposed a 1.25 percentage point increase to NI in April, with the increase proposed to increase money for health spending.
Employers, including schools, pay national insurance, as well as employees, so the reversal - which will come in from November - will cut schools’ outlays.
The Department for Education has previously said that they are increasing core funding by £4 billion this year alone and that school budgets will rise by £7 billion by 2024-25, compared with 2021-22.
