A former boss of the Girls Day School Trust (GDST) has written to its current chief executive to express “dismay” over its plan to withdraw from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) and urging it to reverse the decision.
Teacher members of the NEU teaching union at 23 independent schools within the GDST went on strike last week in opposition to their employers’ plans to withdraw from the TPS, with five further days of strike action due to be held over the coming weeks.
In an open letter sent to the trust, Michael Oakley, who was its chief executive between 1984 and 2000, said he was “horrified” that the organisation was facing strike action, and said the decision to withdraw from the scheme would also risk the recruitment of staff.
A growing number of private schools are leaving the TPS after the government raised the rate of employers’ contributions by 43 per cent in 2019.
Speaking last week, the GDST’s chief executive Cheryl Giovannoni said that the rise in contributions had put schools in a “very difficult position”.
However, Mr Oakley has challenged this and suggested that scrutiny of GDST accounts showed it could “easily afford” the difference in cost between the TPS and the scheme the trust is proposing.
He said that if costs need to be saved, then the GDST should “take an axe” to managerial and administrative overheads.
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said the letter asked “fundamental questions” of the trust’s financial argument for withdrawing from the scheme.
But the GDST has responded by saying that it would not be making the changes unless it felt they were “absolutely necessary” to support the long-term sustainability of the trust’s schools.
Mr Oakley’s letter to Ms Giovannoni reads: “As one of your predecessors as CEO I feel I must write to express my dismay at the Council’s decision to withdraw the teaching staff from the TPS.
“Apart from the inevitably adverse effect on their pensions (in contrast to your many public statements about how much teachers are valued), there is the likely risk to the recruitment of good staff who traditionally have come largely from the maintained section.
Mr Oakley also adds: “Frankly I am horrified that the trust, which in my day was an exemplar of good practice throughout the independent sector, should now be faced with what I believe is unprecedented strike action.”
And talking specifically about the accounts, the letter states: “Your public statements cite affordability as the reason for the change in pensions arrangements. As the Union has pointed out, even a casual scrutiny of the GDST’s accounts indicate that you can easily afford the difference in cost between the TPS and your proposed in-house scheme.”
Mr Oakley concludes by saying that he hopes the Trust will “reconsider then withdraw” the pension proposal, and use the situation as an opportunity to “review the culture of the trust” as both employer and educator.
Dr Mary Bousted said that she hoped the “volume of opposition” to the GDST’s plans would be considered when trustees met to discuss proposals next week.
She added: “In his letter to Girls’ Day School Trust, Michael Oakley has rightly asked fundamental questions of the Trust’s entire financial argument for plans to withdraw teaching staff from the existing pension scheme. The former CEO also agrees with the NEU that this move will be a disaster for recruitment.
“Only a complete and unconditional withdrawal of the plans will do,” she says.
The GDST said it had received the letter and that it had acknowledged this to Mr Oakley.
A spokesperson for the trust added that while their published accounts showed the financial position at a relatively high level, this was a “consolidated view”, which included its two academies, and that of its reserves were restricted.
They also said that the increase in employer contributions to the TPS implemented by the government had resulted in an extra £6 million cost for the trust and that, while the government had covered this rise in full for the maintained sector, including its two academies, independent schools had been forced to “deal with this additional burden on their own”.
The spokesperson continued: “In the year following the last published report there was not a general pay increase in our independent schools and across support teams from September 2020, as we continue to grapple with the challenges of external financial pressures on the organisation, including the additional TPS employer contributions.
“The decisions we must make during this difficult period underline how hard we’re working to keep the GDST financially sustainable and the organisation is in a very different place to that of 20 years ago, in so many ways.”
They also said: “We are proposing a strong alternative pension scheme, with a 20 per cent employer contribution alongside other benefits. The proposed GDST Flexible Pension Plan would provide greater scope for a total reward package, including pay.”
On the first day of planned strike action last week, pickets were held at GDST schools across England and Wales, with speeches being made by NEU officials and teachers.
Strikes will also take place on 23 and 24 February, and 1, 2 and 3 March.
