A major headteachers’ union has launched the first consultative ballot on strike action in its history over pay and funding - despite the government announcement of an extra £4.6 billion for the schools sector from next year.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) will be asking members if they believe it should move to a formal ballot for strike action and/or action short of a strike.
The consultative ballot opened today and will run for four weeks.
Geoff Barton, the union’s general secretary, said: “While yesterday’s extra money is welcome, it comes in the context of a decade of real-terms cuts and a teachers’ pay award this year which is both inadequate to improve recruitment and retention and unaffordable because there isn’t enough money for schools to be able to pay it.
“We will now be asking members to participate in our consultative ballot and guide our next steps.”
The announcement comes as the NAHT school leaders’ union indicated that it was continuing with its ongoing strike ballot after yesterday’s funding announcement for schools in the autumn statement.
ASCL said that its consultative ballot follows consultation - including surveys, meetings and webinars - where “we heard the strength of our members’ feelings about the continued underfunding of education and the major consequences this is having both for ASCL members and for the children and young people they serve”.
The union warned that underfunding was exacerbating an “already alarming” teacher and leader recruitment and retention crisis, by hampering schools’ ability to recruit and retain a “sufficient quantity and quality of support staff, teachers and leaders”.
It said this was both down to financial restrictions and uncompetitive terms and conditions.
In a statement announcing the ballot it added: “Most importantly, this underfunding is compromising the ability of our schools and colleges to provide the education and care to which our children and young people are entitled - particularly as we begin to emerge from the pandemic.
“As an organisation that speaks on behalf of members and acts on behalf of children and young people, we cannot sit back and let this continue.”
All members eligible to vote in ASCL’s consultative ballot received their voting link this morning and will have until 16 December to vote.
Commenting on the NAHT vote, the union’s general secretary Paul Whiteman said: “Our ballot is about pay, which has been eroded by nearly a quarter in real terms since 2010. The very real recruitment and retention crisis that is doing so much damage is not directly addressed by [the chancellor’s] statement.
“There is nothing in the headline announcement or the pay remit letter yesterday that gives us any cause for optimism in this regard. We will take soundings from our members, but this does not change our view on the inadequacy of the pay award.”
