The National Education Union is set to formally ballot its members for strike action over pay and funding, in a move blasted by the education secretary as “irresponsible and massively premature”.
The sector is still awaiting the outcome of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) report and its recommendations on teacher pay – as well as final decisions by government on future pay rises and how they will be funded.
But the NEU said early reports indicated this “will not result in a fully-funded pay offer for teachers that exceeds inflation, nor in sufficient funding for schools to prevent redundancies and rises in workload”.
The ballots of teachers and support staff across England’s state schools will take place “if the government does not take urgent action to address these issues”, the union said.
Ballots are set to open on 3 October, and close on 15 December.
‘Schools are running on empty’
Announcing the move, NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said schools were “running on empty” while pay and workload issues “are driving many out of the profession”.
“Enough is enough. Unfunded below-inflation pay increases are an insult. The government is well aware that schools do not have the money to fund them.”
He said if ministers “insist that any pay rise must be carved out of already decimated school budgets, then it is a wilful rejection of reality. It completely fails to understand what our schools are having to cope with.”
“No member wants to be taking strike action,” he added.
He said to “avoid this collision course” the government “needs to step up and deliver the properly funded education system our children and young people deserve”.
‘Wildly premature’ says education secretary
But Bridget Phillipson, education secretary blasted the decision as “wildly premature”.
In an interview with Laura Kuenssburg at the weekend, she said: “We haven’t even gone through the pay review process. And we are investing record sums in our schools, and they have had big and generous pay awards.
“I think it’s irresponsible, and massively premature.”
In evidence to the STRB, the DfE said teacher pay should rise by 6.5 per cent over the next three years.
But in its annual school costs technical note, the department forecast schools would be able to afford an overall pay increase of just 2.7 per cent over the next two years. It said schools “will need to realise and sustain better value from existing spending” to “improve the manageability” of a 6.5 per cent pay increase over three years.
It comes after teachers received a 6.5 per cent pay rise in 2022, a 5.5 per cent rise in 2023 and a 4 per cent rise last September. Support staff received a 3.2 per cent pay rise for 2025-26.
A DfE spokesperson described the NEU’s decision to formally ballots as “extremely disappointing”, adding it is children and parents “who will pay the price”.
“We’ve taken action to restore teaching as the highly valued profession it should be including boosting pay, and tackling poor pupil behaviour, high workload, and poor wellbeing so more teachers stay on in the profession and thrive.
“We also recently set out a once-in-a-generation plan to improve the life chances of children in all corners of the country – in particular those with SEND – and all of us have a role to play in making it reality.”
Indicative ballots suggest support for strikes
Recent indicative ballots carried out by the NEU showed both teacher and support staff members supported strikes over pay, funding and workload.
Over 90 per cent of teachers, and just over 86 per cent of support staff who took part said they were prepared to take industrial action to secure better funding.
The indicative ballots had a turnout of 48.6 per cent of teacher members, and 55.5 per cent of support staff members. At a formal ballot, unions must have a turnout of at least 50 per cent, to vote through strike action.
In total, more than 280,000 teachers and 50,000 support staff will be eligible to vote in the formal ballot.