Almost seven in 10 members of a major headteachers’ union have voted to move to a formal ballot on strike action as the general secretary says the results show the ”strength of feeling” among members. 

A consultative ballot on industrial action conducted by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) in England - in which 54 per cent of members voted - saw 69 per cent vote in favour of moving to a formal ballot on strike action.

And almost three-quarters (74 per cent) voted in favour of moving to a formal ballot on action short of a strike.

ASCL has held an initial meeting to discuss the results and said it will meet again “in due course” to decide on the next steps.

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Geoff Barton, general secretary of ASCL, said: “The results of this ballot show the strength of feeling which exists among school leaders over the desperately difficult situation they are facing in recruiting and retaining staff, and operating their schools without the adequate funding to do so.

“This has been caused by the erosion of school leader and teacher pay, which has fallen by a fifth in real terms since 2010, and a decade of underfunding of education. The final straw was this year’s pay award which was significantly below inflation and for which there was no additional government funding for schools to be able to afford the cost of the award.

“We urge the government to avoid an escalation of this dispute, and do the right thing by schools and children, by addressing recruitment, retention and funding as a matter of urgency”.

The results of the consultative ballot in Wales were also released today, with the majority also voting in favour of moving to a formal ballot. 

61 per cent of eligible members voted in total, with 64 per cent of those in favour of moving to a formal ballot on strike action.

Nearly eight in 10 (79 per cent) voted in favour of moving to a formal ballot on action short of a strike.

The consultative ballot ran from 18 November to 16 December.

Have other education unions balloted over strikes?

The NASUWT and NEU teaching unions and the NAHT school leaders’ union are currently balloting members at schools in England over strike action with ballots set to close next week.

NAHT is urging members to vote for both strike action and action short of strike action for the first time in its history. 

NASUWT is also balloting members over strike action and action short of strike action, while NEU is balloting over strike action only.