The union said the \u2018significant\u2019 step would result in an estimated additional \u00a3500m of funding for schools this year. Photograph: Monkey Business Images\/ShutterstockView image in fullscreenThe union said the \u2018significant\u2019 step would result in an estimated additional \u00a3500m of funding for schools this year. Photograph: Monkey Business Images\/ShutterstockUnion claims victory as ministers agree to fully fund pay rise for teachers in EnglandNational Education Union welcomes news that schools will not have to partly fund increase from their own budgetsThe UK\u2019s biggest education union is claiming a significant victory after the government bowed to pressure and agreed to fully fund a forthcoming pay increase for teachers in England in a sudden U-turn.Members of the National Education Union (NEU) were due to vote in a ballot for strike action next month over the government\u2019s recent pay offer which provided for a 3.5% increase from this month, with an additional 3% from next September.While the offer was a significant improvement on initial proposals from the then education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, there was concern among teachers and unions that it was not fully funded and schools would have to find almost a third of the wage increases from existing budgets.After weeks of negotiation over the summer with the NEU general secretary, Daniel Kebede, Phillipson\u2019s successor, Lucy Powell, confirmed on Monday in a letter to the union that the entire pay offer would be fully funded, using funds from recent revaluations of the local government pension scheme.Kebede said it was a \u201csignificant\u201d step and would result in an estimated additional \u00a3500m of funding for schools this year, which otherwise would have been spent on the pay rise.\u201cFinally, we have a government that accepts the reality that any teacher pay award must be fully funded,\u201d he said. \u201cPlugging the \u00a3460m black hole in school budgets signals a welcome return to reality, and a message of hope for the entire school community.\u201cSchools have been running on empty for far too long. Leaders simply could not afford to fund the pay award as set out by the previous education secretary.<\/p>\n
The new administration has accepted that it is wrong to force schools to make cuts to education just to make ends meet.\u201dAlthough the NEU national executive is yet to decide on the fate of the national ballot, the government will be hoping its latest gesture will lift the threat of strike action and possible school closure across the country.In a snap poll before the summer break, 97% of NEU members who participated said it was \u201cunacceptable\u201d that their school would have to find the funds to make up the 1.1% shortfall in government funding of the pay rise, and 89% were prepared to take strike action to ensure the teacher pay award was fully funded.In her letter to Kebede, Powell said: \u201cI understand you are concerned the funding available in 26-27 is insufficient to cover the costs of the recent pay award.\u201cI am therefore pleased to be able to update you that recent revaluations to the local government pension scheme will see a 4.9ppt reduction in employer contribution rates and deliver significant savings on schools\u2019 pay bill for support staff.\u201cWe can confirm this reduction in costs will not be clawed back and as such, we are confident that schools will be able to cover the costs of the teacher pay award, at a national level.\u201dShe added: \u201cGiven the material change to the affordability position, I would ask that the NEU revisits its proposed ballot of members planned for October and moves away from strike action.\u201dThe Department for Education has been contacted for comment.Explore more on these topicsSchoolsTrade unionsPublic sector payIndustrial actionEnglandPublic services policySchool fundingnewsShareReuse this content<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The union said the \u2018significant\u2019 step would result in an estimated additional \u00a3500m of funding for schools this year. Photograph: Monkey Business Images\/ShutterstockView image in fullscreenThe union said the \u2018significant\u2019 step would result in an\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}