NEU ballot fact file

What we need to change

Government refusal to provide the additional funding schools need, including for pay rises and workload improvements.

Core schools budget

The 2025 Spending Review (SR) has set the direction for education funding over the next few years (Spending Review 2025, Table 5.3, Resource Department Expenditure Limit (DEL) excluding depreciation.).

This barely matches the expected increase in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) once the funds to extend free school meals to all children on universal credit are taken into account.  It also provides no scope for pay restoration to repair the 23 per cent real terms pay cut most teachers have suffered since 2010.

The government has now accepted the STRB's pay recommendations for September 2026 and September 2027. Teachers and leaders will receive a pay award of 3.5 per cent in September 2026 and 3 per cent in September 2027. Support staff have received a 3.3 per cent pay offer for April 2026 from the local government employers.

This is not fully funded. Schools are expected to find the first 1 per cent of the pay awards each year from efficiency savings. The next 0.8 per cent of the award was funding in schools' existing budgets, funded from the 2025 SR. The remaining 1.7 per cent of the teacher pay award and the 1.5 per cent of the support staff award is being funded through new money. The dfe has provided £700m in 2026-27 and £1.115bn in 2027-28 from elsewhere in the dfe Budget.

The dfe has not restated the Core Schools Budget at this time. The NEU believes this will show an increase for 2026-27 because of the additional funding for the pay award. However, it will show a decrease for 2027-28 despite the extra pay funding. This is because the employer contribution rate for the Teachers' Pension Scheme will fall from 28.6 per cent to 17.6 per cent from April 2027. Our estimate is that the impact of this will be to save £3.3bn, which could have been used to increase school funding.

School cuts

School cuts have left education in crisis, and children are paying the price.

After more than a decade of devastating cuts, 74 per cent of schools in England have less funding in real terms than in 2010. In the last year, school cuts have deepened by an additional £1 billion. Over 1,000 schools have fallen into real-terms cuts.

This means they can't afford the same essential running costs they could when Labour left office in 2010. Broken down, that's 71 per cent of primary and 90 per cent of secondary schools.

It's simple: less money means fewer resources. Headteachers have rebalanced budgets, shaved costs and made impossible choices again and again to keep our schools running.

Our class sizes in the UK are among the highest in Europe. A million children are taught in classes of 30 or more. Bigger class sizes mean less personalised support and more stress for students and teachers alike.

Education spending as a percentage of GDP

A major part of the problem is that education spending is not seen as a priority in the UK. Public expenditure as a percentage of GDP has been on a downward trend since 2010 when it was 5.7 per cent with one blip caused by the covid-19 recession. It is now 4.1 per cent of GDP.

Public expenditure in the OECD has remained constant at around 5 per cent. Overall, the expenditure on education in the UK has been below the OECD average since 2012 and there is no immediate sign of the position reversing.

The NEU has previously called for public education funding to rise to 4.5 per cent by the end of the Parliament, with a longer-term aim of getting it back to at least 5 per cent.

Lack of basic provision

Over seven in ten teachers (71 per cent) say their school does not have enough funding to meet basic provision for pupils. This includes a third of teachers (32 per cent) who say their school has “nowhere near” enough funding to meet even basic provision. Problems are most acute in primary and special schools, where over three quarters (78 per cent) of teachers say their school cannot afford basic provision for their students (NEU Views member survey with 2,001 responses, conducted 8-9 January 2026).

In the same survey members report shortages of even basic supplies like glue sticks and pens. There is also an inability to provide support and interventions due to lack of staff and resources. Most teachers say the classes they teach are too large, and a large majority say staff in their school have left without being replaced. This exacerbates workload pressures and contributes to the recruitment and retention crisis in a vicious cycle.

The assumption that further 'economy savings' can be wrung out of schools is false. Schools are already 'running on empty'. Providing insufficient funding to fund pay rises and expecting schools to find the money will merely result in more cuts. The result will be larger class sizes, reduced curriculum options, cuts in educator jobs and lack of money for learning materials. In the 21st century we should be moving beyond the 'make do and mend' mentality and have adequate funding for schools.

Impact on recruitment and retention

• It's clear that, alongside pay cuts and workload problems, school funding shortages make a major contribution to the recruitment and retention crisis. We need more teachers, but schools are under constant pressure to cut costs. See the section below headed “Teacher shortages” for details on the recruitment and retention crisis.

What we need to change

The Government had originally proposed a 6.5 per cent pay increase spread over three years. NEU pressure resulted in a Government offer of a 3.5 per cent pay increase in September 2026 followed by a 3 per cent increase in September 2027 – so 6.5 per cent over two years instead of 6.5 per cent over three years. Our pressure also resulted in additional Government funding for the pay increases.

But a pay increase of 3.5 per cent this year and 3 per cent next year is not enough to provide the significant progress towards reversal of the pay cuts against inflation. Since 2010, pay for most teachers has been cut by around 23 per cent against RPI inflation, cutting the real value of teacher pay against inflation and the comparative value of teacher pay against other professions. This has hit teacher living standards hard and fuelled the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.

Global instability is creating ever-greater domestic turbulence.  Ongoing conflict in the Middle East looks set to impact food and energy prices. Soaring inflation and a further entrenchment of the cost-of-living crisis now looks certain.  We need pay increases well above inflation, to make the significant steps towards pay restoration needed.

Not only is the pay increase not enough, it is not fully funded. The Government expects schools, already asked to do more with less, to contribute some £460 million towards the cost of the pay award.

With a new prime minister taking office, we need the Government to change its political choice to attack teacher pay and instead deliver on the promise of change it made when it was elected in 2024. Instead of pay cuts and more teacher shortages we need fully funded, above inflation pay awards to properly value, recruit and retain the teachers our education service needs.

Teacher pay cuts against inflation

• Teacher pay is down by around 23 per cent in real terms against RPI inflation since 2010 for most teachers. Pay would need to increase by around 30 per cent over and above RPI inflation in order to recover the lost ground.(NEU calculations from RPI All Items Index (Jan 1987=100), ONS, compared to teacher pay increases.)
• Teacher pay increases have been below RPI in 12 of the 16 years from 2010 to 2025. (ibid)

• Teacher pay has failed to keep pace with the huge increases of the 2020s in the cost of basics like food, energy, childcare and rent.
• Pay for experienced teachers has risen by 23 per cent since September 2020, but food costs have risen by 43 per cent and utility bills have risen by 53 per cent over the same time period.
• In cash terms, a teacher who started working in 2010 and made normal progress up the pay scale will have lost over £109,000 in real terms by the end of the current academic year. (NEU calculations based on a specific example: a teacher who entered the profession in 2010, worked outside London and progressed by one scale point each year up to the top of the main scale, and took two years to progress from each pay point from M6 to U3.)

Damage to the relative value of teacher pay against other professions

• Teacher pay cuts against inflation have been much worse than for other professions, resulting in significant damage to the competitive position of teacher pay and therefore contributing to teacher shortages.(STRB report, May 2025, page 8.)
• NEU research shows that recent years have seen teacher pay at its least competitive since at least 1945. (NEU analysis of average teacher pay from DfE/House of Commons/Hansard vs historic Average Weekly Earnings figures.)The NEU strikes have resulted in a small correction; however, there is still a long way to make teachers' salaries competitive again.

Teacher pay in England v teacher pay in Scotland

• Teacher pay in England compares unfavourably with Scotland.
• In 2025-26, a teacher in England (outside London and the fringe) with six years' experience earned a staggering £7,262 less than an equivalent colleague in Scotland. Assuming normal progression through the scales, the comparison by year with teachers in Scotland is shown below.(NEU calculations from teacher pay data in England and Scotland for the given year.)

Impact on recruitment and retention

• The facts show that the worsening teacher shortages correlate with the period of significant pay cuts since 2010. See the section below headed “Teacher shortages” for details on the recruitment and retention crisis.

What we need to change

Excessive workload and long working hours remain the main reasons teachers and leaders leave the profession. Despite repeated promises from the Government and multiple reviews, the situation hasn't improved. Teachers and leaders continue to face overwhelming demands on their professional time, poor work/life balance, and increasing stress and burnout. These conditions directly contribute to the recruitment and retention problems in schools and academies. A pay rise that is not fully funded and not accompanied by enforceable workload reduction will not solve the recruitment and retention crisis.

Workload

• In 2025, 26 per cent felt their workload was acceptable, slightly up from 22 per cent (2024).
• 39 per cent reported having “sufficient control” over their workload, up from 34 per cent (2024).
• Key reasons teachers and leaders leave the profession remain consistent across all years: high workload (74 per cent) and stress/poor wellbeing (73 per cent).
• 29 per cent of teachers and leaders indicated they were considering leaving the English state school sector in the next 12 months (for reasons other than retirement).
• The National Education Union's (NEU) State of Education 2025 survey found that working at home in the evenings is common for 62 per cent of respondents and at weekends for 55 per cent. Around a quarter (27 per cent) are 'always' or 'often' contacted by their employer, either by phone or email, outside working hours.
• The TUC's annual survey Work Your Proper Hours Day shows that roughly two in five teachers are doing unpaid overtime, and educators are among the professions most likely to do so.

Flexible working

• The most common flexible working arrangements for teachers and leaders: part-time (22 per cent), PPA time off-site (21 per cent), ad-hoc start/finish adjustments (15 per cent), ad-hoc personal days at manager's discretion (14 per cent), job share (9 per cent).
• Nearly half (48 per cent) of staff say they have no flexible working arrangement at all.
• 57 per cent disagreed that working flexibly would not affect their opportunities for career progression.
• 62 per cent of teachers and leaders who were not currently working flexibly were less likely to disagree that they felt confident requesting flexible working arrangements.
• 82 per cent of workers in Britain want to work flexibly in the future, rising to 87 per cent amongst women workers.
• Around 63 per cent of UK workers now work remotely either some or all of the time, according to Forbes Advisor UK.

There may be concerns that mandatory flexible working policies would be costly, impractical, or difficult to implement in educational settings. However, these concerns are outweighed by the benefits of improved retention and workforce stability. IFF Research, commissioned by the DfE, has explored the benefits of flexible working in schools, highlighting its positive impact on staff recruitment, retention, morale, and ultimately, pupil outcomes. While acknowledging potential logistical challenges before successful implementation, several case studies demonstrate that flexible working arrangements can lead to improved teacher wellbeing, reduced absence rates, increased productivity, and, in the long term, are cost neutral.

How the workload crisis is impacting and damaging pupils' learning

Excessive workload in English schools directly harms pupils by reducing the time and energy teachers can devote to high-quality lesson planning, feedback, and individual support, while increasing staff absence and turnover, which disrupts learning continuity. The latest DfE WLTL survey shows that teachers routinely work around 50 hours a week, with only a quarter judging their workload acceptable, and that workload and stress are the leading reasons for leaving the profession. This pressure fuels shortages and larger classes, limits support for pupils with additional needs, and leaves exhausted staff less able to build relationships, manage behaviour consistently or innovate in the classroom, ultimately lowering the quality and stability of pupils' educational experience.

What we need to change

The data below sets out the extent of the teacher recruitment and retention crisis. This crisis has deepened and intensified over the period since 2010, because teacher pay cuts and high workload make it much more difficult to recruit and retain teachers. In turn, teacher shortages add to the workload problems for other teachers.

Only a fully funded pay correction and improvements in workload can effectively and sustainably tackle teacher shortages.

Teacher recruitment

• The Government missed its target for recruitment of new secondary school teachers in 2025-26 by 12 per cent.
• This was a significant improvement on the previous three years, but those were the worst for recruitment in recent memory, and this year targets were significantly reduced.

• This is the 12th year of missed targets in the last 13 years.
• One year of slightly better data cannot lead to complacency on teacher recruitment, especially since even the reduced targets in secondary were missed.

• The number of newly qualified teachers entering the profession after completing their training has dropped again, to the lowest on comparable record.

Teacher retention

• One in four teachers leave the profession within three years of qualification.
• A third of teachers leave within five years.
• Over 35,000 teachers left the profession between November 2024 and November 2025 for reasons other than retirement. This is only slightly down from the previous three years, which were higher than at any other time on record.
• Vacancy rates have improved after peaking two years ago, but are still 50 per cent above pre-pandemic levels, driving larger class sizes and greater reliance on non-specialist teachers.

• Twelve years ago, 34 per cent of teachers who left the profession did so due to retirement. The figure now is only 9 per cent.
• Since 2010, the number of head teachers quitting prior to retirement has almost quadrupled.

Class sizes

• Failure to recruit and retain sufficient teachers has badly affected class sizes and pupil to teacher ratios.
• Primary class sizes are the highest in Europe.
• Secondary class sizes are the highest since records began more than 47 years ago (1977).

• Over a million pupils are taught in classes of more than 30.