This message was sent to NAHT members in England via email on 28 March 2023:

Following the meeting of the national executive committee (NEC) yesterday evening, I am writing today to provide you with further information about the offer that all the education unions have received from the government.

NAHT's NEC believes that the offer does not address over a decade of pay erosion. The NEC is also clear that the offer does not address the crushing weight of unreasonable accountability or workload. As such, the offer fails to address the recruitment and retention crisis that is damaging the quality of the education you aspire to deliver on behalf of the young people in your care.

The NEC is not persuaded that sufficient funding is being made available to meet even this inadequate offer. To be very clear, the government is proposing to fund the £1,000 payment for 2022/23, but only 0.5% of the overall 4.5% pay award for 2023/24, leaving schools to find the remaining 4% from existing budgets (you will find further detail about this below).

Creating a situation where school leaders must make cuts to afford a pay deal that the government says is designed to make teaching a more attractive profession would be perverse.

Significant effort has been required to secure even this offer from the government. It is the result of the campaigns of all the major education unions and joint negotiations. The NEC of NAHT believes that the offer takes us to a crossroads.

Despite the views expressed above, the NEC believes it is important for NAHT members to consider the offer free of a recommendation one way or another. This is because members need to be clear that despite the obvious crisis in education as well as all the campaigning on this issue, the offer is apparently the limit of the government’s ambition. It is the best that the government is prepared to make. If members reject the offer, the NEC believes that industrial action by NAHT members will be necessary.

The offer

I am aware that much of this information has already made it into the public domain, but for those of you who have not yet seen the detail, the government has made the following offer:

• A £1,000 pro rata (per FTE) non-consolidated payment to all teachers and leaders (paid this year)
• A 4.3% average consolidated pay rise for 2023/24 for all pay points from M5 to L43 (with higher uplifts for M1-M4, making the overall offer an average of 4.5%)
• The removal of the statutory requirement for schools to use performance-related pay
• A series of non-pay measures, including:

- the setting up of a joint taskforce focused on workload reduction based on 50% union membership and 50% Department for Education (DfE) membership. This will have the explicit target of reducing average working time for teachers and leaders by five hours a week

- greater clarity from Ofsted on when schools should expect their next inspection (particularly for those previously judged outstanding)

- a review of the process by which schools make complaints to Ofsted regarding inspections

- a commitment from the DfE to review the complaints procedure for parents

- the reinstatement of the ’21 tasks’ that teachers should not be expected to do.

In terms of the funding of the pay offer, to reiterate: the DfE has said that the £1,000 payment would be funded by the government. However, the government has said it believes that schools can afford a 4% pay award for 2023/24 and so will only fund what it sees as the 'additional' 0.5%.

Since NAHT's industrial action ballot failed to reach the legislative 50% turnout requirement, we have consistently said that we will ballot our members again. Now the government has revealed the extent to which it is prepared to go to resolve the dispute, that time has come. 

In the upcoming electronic ballot, we will ask relevant members whether you accept or reject the offer. In that ballot we will also ask you to carefully consider your school’s budget so that you can confirm or correct the view of the national executive that the funding provided will prove insufficient.

We will also ask you if you will be prepared to vote in favour of industrial action (likely to include strike action) if members reject the offer. To reject the offer while not being prepared to take action in pursuit of improving that offer will have the effect of acceptance.

Please look out for further updates over the next 24 hours that will give you information about broadcasts for members and meetings that will provide finer detail and the ability to ask questions and provide opinion.

Best wishes

NAHT president Paul Gosling	NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman