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Support staff funding campaign

Support staff members have voted to ACCEPT the funding element of the Government's pay and funding offer.

Strike ballot update

Our strike ballot of support staff is now closed. 

The YES vote was 89 per cent, on a turnout of 43 per cent. Read the full results. This result does not meet the legal thresholds which would allow us to take strike action.

Our strike ballot for support staff opened in June, weeks before the Government made an improved offer on teacher pay and school funding.

85 per cent of support staff voted to ACCEPT that funding offer, on a turnout of 45 per cent.

The prospect of combined strike action involving teachers and support staff next term was a critical factor in forcing ministers’ hands to pledge £900 million of additional cash to ensure teacher and support staff pay awards are adequately funded, thereby protecting jobs. 

Update on support staff pay

Support staff pay is determined by the National Joint Council (NJC) and negotiated by its recognised unions, Unison, GMB and Unite. Read full details of the NJC offer.

For the bulk of support staff, the flat-rate offer represents an increase of between 6 and 8 per cent, slightly better than the Government’s improved offer to teachers.

We believe that the Government's new offer on teacher pay and funding will ensure that teacher and support staff pay awards are adequately funded.

Pay scales for support staff

Pay scales for support staff. Most support staff are employed on the local government pay scales determined by the NJC for local government services.

What extra funding has been offered?

  • £900 million extra funding, year-on-year, for schools to pay for the extra 3 per cent for teachers’ pay.

This extra £900 million is on top of the £2bn increase to school funding that the Government was forced to announce in its Autumn Statement last November, after the NEU wrote to all Tory MPs showing them the relaunched School Cuts website. That £2bn included sufficient funding to make the Government’s initial 3.5 per cent pay offer for teachers and the National Joint Council (NJC) pay offer for support staff affordable for most schools. The head teacher unions, NAHT and ASCL, have told us that most heads have already budgeted for a pay rise of 3.5 per cent for teachers alongside the NJC pay offer for support staff.

  • Guarantees that the extra money will not come from any frontline services, including Special Educational Needs (SEND) funding, schools’ capital, maintained nursery or 16-19 funding provision.

The Government has explained that the funding will come from DfE budgets, and that it will be re-directed from DfE underspends. The additional funding is not coming from Home Office programmes or policies.

How has this extra funding been achieved?

While the offer does not resolve the broader funding issues in education, this is a major breakthrough on funding and represents a significant “win”. It has been secured by the action of NEU members, both the strike action of teacher colleagues, but also our support staff ballot and the prospect of joint action by support staff alongside their teacher colleagues in the autumn, not to mention leader and teacher colleagues in ASCL, NAHT and NASUWT.

Our consultation

We are consulting NEU members on the Government’s new teacher pay and funding offer. 

Support staff will be asked to vote on the school funding element of the offer only, as our dispute with the Government is on their “failure to provide adequate and sufficient school funding, in particular for fully funded pay awards, leading to worsening employment terms, conditions and job security for school support staff.”

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