Bedford schools face "dire situation" over lack of funding

The teachers’ pay award is not enough, not funded, and will have a “devastating” effect on borough schools’ budgets, a meeting heard.

The 2022 School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) from the Department for Education (DfE) includes a five per cent pay award backdated to September.

On Friday (November 11) the Joint Negotiating and Consultative Committee was asked to recommend that the STPCD should be sent out to the borough’s schools.

The representatives from education unions said while they do not agree with the STPCD for various reasons, they did not want to hinder its distribution.

Deirdre Murphy, representing the National Education Union (NEU), said: “This pay award has not been fully-funded.

“A majority of us are involved in a pay campaign, this is not in any way against council, this is very much a protest, or a ballot, about the fully funding position that needs to take place in education.

“We should be working together on this, we should all be going to the government and asking for proper funding. Because it’s also important to recognise that schools are going to be in a dire situation in the future because of the lack of funding from the government,” she said.

Peter Thornes, representing NAHT, the school leaders union, said: “Schools are going to be in [a horrible situation] come this spring where they’re going to be possibly having to lose support staff or make some really, really difficult and horrible cuts.

“[The] whole idea of a five per cent pay rise that isn’t funded – the effect that can have on secondary schools, primary schools and their budgets is devastating,” he said.

Keith Anderson from NASUWT, the teachers’ union, echoed the points from his union colleagues.

“The council should also be very much supporting the teachers in the borough by pushing for a decent pay rise and ensuring that it is fully funded,” he said.

Chris Morris, acting chief officer for education, SEND & schools, said an unfunded five per cent uplift is a difficult position to be in “at the best of times”.

“On top of the years that we’ve had within education, and on top of the cost of living crisis and the challenges that schools are facing with regards to heating and electricity bills,” he said.

“I’ve had conversations with head teachers about the cost of heating going up so much that it’s almost potentially [pay for] another teaching assistant. I completely sympathise and empathise with the challenges that school leaders are facing with regards to trying to implement this pay rise in the context of also trying to submit balanced budgets,” he said.

In proposing a vote, acting chair councillor James Valentine (Labour, Kempston West) said: “Nobody is proposing actually hindering the policy, but we are taking account of the fundamental objections to the policy from I think everybody concerned on the union side. Then that way your objections are fully recognised and if that’s minuted then hopefully we can go forward on that basis.”