1. What we need to do to win on school funding
Enough is enough
What we need to do to win on school funding
Dear Colleague,
Your workplace meeting is vital because in the recent budget, the government
failed to restore any of the cuts made to education,
failed to promise that future funding would keep pace with growing school costs and
instead, betrayed a fundamental lack of understanding of the budget situation in schools by saying that they were giving a one off payment £400m for “little extras”
In response, an unprecedented simultaneous survey of member opinion is being conducted by National Education Union, NAHT and ASCL. We urge you to respond in your thousands to the survey so that we have the strongest possible hand to play in upcoming joint union meetings with Government ministers.
These cuts are clearly bad for the young people we teach. They are also bad for teachers and other school staff. They have:
Led to teachers being made compulsorily redundant.
Increased workload where teachers and support staff have left and not been replaced
Led to the Government for the first time in its 27 year existence refusing to implement the STRB recommendation that all teachers should get a 3.5%. In some schools teachers are not even getting the increases the Govt has allowed and, in others, teachers are being unfairly denied pay progression.
Your role in making sure we achieve the high turnout we need from members is vital. The impact you will make by ensuring all colleagues have voted YES in this ballot cannot be underestimated.
Together we can all make a real difference.
Thank you.
Mary Bousted & Kevin Courtney
We have provided some bullet points under each slide. You do not have to use them, nor are they a script. As one of our Reps you will know the best how cuts are affecting your school and your members.

2. “Some may think this dispute is just about teachers’ pay. It is not
“Some may think this dispute is just about teachers’ pay. It is not. This is about a Government that has cut real terms funding per pupil by 8 per cent since 2010; a Government that is ignoring the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention and its own experts in the STRB”.  (November Reps’ Mailing)
We can win a Ballot on Funding

3. School Cuts – a growing outcry
£2.8bn has been cut from school budgets since
£45.4k is the average cut made to primary school budgets
Secondary schools have had an average budget cut of £185.2k per year
The cuts are significant, schools and colleges do not have enough money to provide the education our learners need.
We have been campaigning hard on the issue and at the 2017 general election we know that around 750,000 people changed their vote based on our work.
Parents, Head Teachers and Communities are supporting us.
There is detailed information and videos /social media posts on the links provided.
We can win a Ballot on Funding

4. We set 6 tests for the Government
We said enough is enough
We said our schools and colleges need more funding if we are to give our children the education they deserve.
Find out more at neu.org.uk/hands-up and watch the joint ASCL/NAHT/NEU video
Our six tests are fair and straightforward.
They are the minimum our schools and colleges need.
They have not been met.
We can win a Ballot on Funding

5. Why do we need to fight funding cuts?
Because if we don’t act:
the intolerable pressure on teachers will get even worse
the recruitment and retention crisis will have an even worse impact on schools
schools will be expected to make an impossible choice between cutting pay, jobs, PPA and cover, resources, SEN.
The situation has reached crisis point, colleagues are leaving due to the pressures linked to funding cuts.
The cuts are having an impact on all colleagues, not just teachers.
We have to send a clear message to the Government that enough is enough.
We have to vote YES and be prepared to vote yes in any subsequent formal industrial action ballot.
We can win a Ballot on Funding

6. The Chancellor’s “little extras” failed our tests
The Chancellor only offered a derisory extra £400 million describing it as “a bonus to help schools buy the little extras they need”
This is a drop in the ocean compared to the extra billions schools need to stop the funding crisis.
An NEU surveyed identified that up to 94% of teachers are regularly purchasing resources for classrooms with some spending more that £1,000 a year.
With over 400,000 fte teachers (2011) are we are doing his bit?
The recent budget did not deliver what our schools needed. The sums announced amount to less than £50 per pupil.
On social media there has been outcry from Teachers, Head Teachers and Parents. Politicians of all parties have criticised the Chancellor.
The ‘little extras’ suggestion shows the Chancellor does not, or will not, understand the scale of the funding crisis.
We now need to up the ante and apply more pressure.
We can win a Ballot on Funding

7. What is happening to Teachers and Pay
Teachers’ pay is a key part of our dispute
For the first time in 27 years the Government have ignored the independent pay review body’s recommendations – even Michael Gove didn’t do this!
Schools will be forced to decide between paying staff what they deserve and providing enough posts and resources to support our learners.
What has your schools cut? What is the impact on the students and staff?
Enough is enough!
We can win a Ballot on Funding

8. They ignored the STRB - 1
The School Teachers’ Review Body gave compelling evidence why teachers’ pay must be increased across the board
The numbers of vacancies and temporarily filled posts in schools and of teachers resigning from the profession have continued to increase.
the evidence this year indicated that teaching has continued to lag behind other graduate professions, both in terms of starting salaries and pay progression prospects.
Significant gaps have developed between the teachers’ pay and the earnings available in other graduate professions. The expected starting salaries for new teachers in England and Wales have persistently fallen short of median starting salaries for graduates.
Teachers’ pay is a key part of our dispute
For the first time in 27 years the Government have ignored the independent pay review body’s recommendations – even Michael Gove didn’t do this!
Schools will be forced to decide between paying staff what they deserve and providing enough posts and resources to support our learners.
What has your schools cut? What is the impact on the students and staff?
Enough is enough!
We can win a Ballot on Funding

9. They ignored the STRB - 2
For the first time in 27 years the Government ignored the STRB’s recommendations.
They didn’t even fund schools sufficiently to meet the full costs of their cut-price pay award.
How are schools addressing the under funding of pay? Less teachers passing threshold, Teachers beings asked to consider reduced pay rises, Increasing the number of incremental steps on mains scale, so progression takes longer.
Teachers’ pay is a key part of our dispute
For the first time in 27 years the Government have ignored the independent pay review body’s recommendations – even Michael Gove didn’t do this!
Schools will be forced to decide between paying staff what they deserve and providing enough posts and resources to support our learners.
What has your schools cut? What is the impact on the students and staff?
Enough is enough!
We can win a Ballot on Funding

10. So what are we doing about it – An online indicative ballot
When?
... from November 15
until mid January.
Why indicative? an indicative ballot allows the Union to gauge the strength of feeling amongst members without being restricted by the rules of formal balloting.
When - ballot will open on 15 November and will remain open until mid January
How - because out indicative survey is not bound by legislation, we can test out new and different ways to get members engaged and voting yes. The majority of members will receive an with a unique reference number to enable them to vote on line. If members have an invalid address, they will receive a letter with their unique reference number on it.
Who - all in service teachers in state funded schools and 6th form colleges.
We can win a Ballot on Funding

11. So what are we doing about it – An online indicative ballot
How? by electronic link
with an unique code
Who? ... teachers in state schools (including academies) and Sixth Form Colleges
When - ballot will open on 15 November and will remain open until mid January
How - because out indicative survey is not bound by legislation, we can test out new and different ways to get members engaged and voting yes. The majority of members will receive an with a unique reference number to enable them to vote on line. If members have an invalid address, they will receive a letter with their unique reference number on it.
Who - all in service teachers in state funded schools and 6th form colleges.
We can win a Ballot on Funding

12. What are we asking Reps to do?
Call a meeting and talk to members.
Widely publicise the ballot in school and the reasons why we need a YES vote.
Engage with management and explain this is essentially a funding issue and ask for their support .
Use the Powerpoint to present the facts and reasons why we need to challenge the Government’s failures.
Check everyone has received a voting form and try to provide opportunities at school where staff can vote – it will take no more than a few minutes.
Keep reminding members to vote - particularly those that haven’t provided s so will get postal votes.
Because of legislation around unions taking strike action, we have to frame our disputes carefully.
There is further information in the FAQ document
We can win a Ballot on Funding

13. What are we doing?
Aim to meet with Reps and support them in schools where time allows.
Through HQ and Regional Office, provide on-going resources and information to support the ballot.
Monitor ballot returns and advise Reps of the uptake rate in their school.
Utilise different Social Media outlets to keep Reps and members aware of developments.
Develop opportunities to engage parents and seek their supporting in securing greater funding for schools
Because of legislation around unions taking strike action, we have to frame our disputes carefully.
There is further information in the FAQ document
We can win a Ballot on Funding

14. What about support staff members?
School cuts have a detrimental impact on all our members in education, not just teachers.
However, we have decided not to ballot support staff members at this point.
This is largely driven by the significance that the Government’s failure to fully fund and fully implement the STRB recommendations (which only apply to teachers) might have in a formal strike ballot
However, we are keeping this under review and discussing with other unions such as Unison and GMB
Because of legislation around unions taking strike action, we have to frame our disputes carefully.
There is further information in the FAQ document
We can win a Ballot on Funding

15. We can win a Ballot on Funding
School Funding is an issue that affects every member
Action to win the funds needed to defend teachers’ jobs, pay and conditions (our legal trade dispute) will also help defend children's education. We can explain this message to parents.
Leadership unions ASCL and NAHT will also be simultaneously consulting their members about school cuts.
MPs know that School Cuts have become a key Election issue.
‘Enough is Enough’ sums up the discontent of so many of us. For some it will be about workload, for others about job security or inadequate pay and pay progression, or the lack of time, staffing and resources for the children they teach.
All these issues link to funding. That’s why every teacher should VOTE YES
We can win this ballot. We can win the campaign. We can win the funding we need to run our schools.
We have to take this message to our colleagues, friends and family.
The NEU is working closely with ASCL and NAHT. This is an issue that unites education workers, teachers, school leaders, support staff and parents.
Working together we can win.
We can win a Ballot on Funding

16. We need you to vote YES
This is not a formal ballot but we need you to vote yes to the questions asked because we can’t allow:
the Government to carry on ignoring the facts
school cuts to damage children’s education any longer
more resources and posts to be cut, driving up class sizes and teacher workload
more teachers to be denied pay rises and pay progression
even more colleagues being driven out of teaching as a result.
We need to persuade all teacher members of the NEU in our school to vote YES in this indicative ballot.
We need them all to vote YES
We all need to speak to colleagues and encourage them to vote.
We need them to check the NEU holds their correct home, school and address.
We all need to speak to friends and family and encourage them to support the campaign too.
We can win a Ballot on Funding

17. Enough is enough! Dear Colleague,
Your workplace meeting is vital because in the recent budget, the government
failed to restore any of the cuts made to education,
failed to promise that future funding would keep pace with growing school costs and
instead, betrayed a fundamental lack of understanding of the budget situation in schools by saying that they were giving a one off payment £400m for “little extras”
In response, an unprecedented simultaneous survey of member opinion is being conducted by National Education Union, NAHT and ASCL. We urge you to respond in your thousands to the survey so that we have the strongest possible hand to play in upcoming joint union meetings with Government ministers.
These cuts are clearly bad for the young people we teach. They are also bad for teachers and other school staff. They have:
Led to teachers being made compulsorily redundant.
Increased workload where teachers and support staff have left and not been replaced
Led to the Government for the first time in its 27 year existence refusing to implement the STRB recommendation that all teachers should get a 3.5%. In some schools teachers are not even getting the increases the Govt has allowed and, in others, teachers are being unfairly denied pay progression.
Your role in making sure we achieve the high turnout we need from members is vital. The impact you will make by ensuring all colleagues have voted YES in this ballot cannot be underestimated.
Together we can all make a real difference.
Thank you.
Mary Bousted & Kevin Courtney
We have provided some bullet points under each slide. You do not have to use them, nor are they a script. As one of our Reps you will know the best how cuts are affecting your school and your members.