A new offer from the government 

We have reached a pivotal moment in our ongoing dispute with the government. In the last 24 hours, the government has made a new and updated offer to the unions.

The purpose of this message is to outline the details of that offer. It is a slightly longer message than we would usually send but given the importance of the content we would advise members to read it in full and consider the content carefully.

You will recall that the previous offer made by the government was rejected by our members. That offer centred on a 4.5% pay uplift for 2023/24, the majority of which schools would have to fund themselves from existing budgets. It was the rejection of that offer that led to the national executive to decide to ballot members over industrial action.

The new offer being made by the government can be summarised as follows:

• To accept and implement in full the 6.5% pay uplift for all teachers and leaders that are subject to the STPCD, as recommended by the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB)
• The government has committed to provide additional funding for schools to help cover the cost of the increase by funding the first 3% of the pay award. It is anticipated that most schools will have been advised by their LA or trust to budget for a 3.5% pay award from existing resources, as this was the recommendation originally made by the  government to the STRB in February 2023
• Establishment of a £40million ‘hardship fund’ for schools facing specific financial difficulties as a result of this offer
• A commitment to urgently establish a workload reduction taskforce with the unions with initial recommendations by October 2023
• A commitment from the government for talks with the unions, Department for Education (DfE) and the new chief inspector due to be appointed shortly to review all aspects of inspection.

While each of you reading this will have your own reaction to the offer, what it clearly demonstrates is that the resolve and determination of our members has had an impact. There is no doubt in my mind that the threat of industrial action by our members was key in bringing the government back to the table and in securing this improved offer. Our collective strength has undeniably made a difference.

Earlier today, your national executive committee met to discuss this new offer. As you would expect, the offer was subjected to close scrutiny and robust debate.  Following that debate, the committee voted to recommend the offer to NAHT members for acceptance.

The deal does not meet all of our ambitions, but it is significant progress beyond that thought possible when negotiations collapsed earlier this year. Crucially, it provides a strong platform on which to renew and continue our ongoing campaigns.

Below we have provided further analysis of each part of the offer.

Pay

When negotiations collapsed earlier this year, the government signalled that it would revert to the STRB process and would refuse to return to the negotiating table with the unions. It did this in the belief that the STRB would agree with its recommendation not to exceed a 3.5% pay award for 2023/24. It is therefore significant that the STRB ignored this and accepted our evidence that a higher award was needed. It is perhaps more significant that despite the government’s rhetoric on pay in recent weeks and their threats to ignore the STRB’s recommendations, it has now accepted them. It is important to be clear that this new offer is 3% above the government’s original recommendation and 2% above the offer made during the negotiations earlier this year (2.2% for school leaders). Although the offer is less than we were arguing for, it is your threat of action that has forced the government to accept the STRB’s recommendation on pay in full.

Funding

The government has consistently stated that it would not bring extra funding to schools to meet any pay award above that offered in the last set of talks. At the time of that offer, the government was arguing that school budgets would withstand a pay uplift of 4% in the belief that schools would have planned for close to that figure as part of their budgeting process. The government therefore offered to fund just the first 0.5% of that offer. We have managed to move the government to accept that a more realistic figure that schools would have been advised to budget for in relation to this year’s pay award is 3.5% and that the remaining 3% will need to be funded by the government in the form of extra money for schools. This is funding in relation to the cost of the pay deal only, rather than an attempt to address wider funding pressures. It should also be noted that it is in addition to the extra £4billion to be split over 2023/24 and 2024/25 that was announced last autumn. The acceptance by the government that it would need to bring additional funding to schools beyond that announced last year specifically for this pay award represents a significant achievement.

We know that funding averages do not tell an accurate story for every school. For that reason we have argued that further additional funding should be made available for schools that face specific and significant financial difficulties as a result of this offer. The agreement to set up a hardship fund of £40million for schools that find themselves in particular financial difficulty after receipt of the 3% is therefore another significant achievement, and we will share further details about this once we receive them.

Workload

As part of this offer, the government has recommitted to quickly establishing a workload taskforce involving both government officials and all the unions involved in the talks. The target remains to reduce workload by five hours a week. The difference this time is that the government has accepted the need for specific deadlines for the group to make recommendations, with the first being as soon as October 2023. The group will also be tasked with making recommendations that could be incorporated into either the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) or statutory guidance. While there will be significant work to be done, again this is a platform on which we can build.

Inspection

As you will be aware, the appointment of a new chief inspector is imminent. The DfE sees this appointment as an opportunity for a review of how inspection works in this country. While it was never going to be possible or even desirable to re-design the detail of how inspection works through these pay talks, it is significant that we now have this commitment in writing, and we should be very clear that we would see our work on Ofsted as a very high priority going forward. We know how much this matters to our members.

Summary

Against the backdrop of the government trying to publicly create the conditions necessary for it to ignore the recommendations of the review body, this offer represents significant progress and compromise on both sides. It is the view of the national executive committee that this is a reasonable offer and that it represents all that can be achieved from the current talks. As such, it recommends this to you for acceptance.

We understand that all four unions party to the dispute will recommend this package to members for acceptance.

The national executive committee is of the opinion that this offer represents a significant foundation to be built upon in future settlements and that any attempt to secure a better offer for 2023/24 would require protracted industrial action coordinated across all four unions.

Next steps

Throughout this dispute, we have been clear that ultimately it is our members who will determine our actions, and that remains the case now. We are a democratic union led by its members. With that in mind, you will shortly be asked to indicate whether you accept that recommendation.

We know members will think about this very carefully and we do need to be unambiguously clear with you about the choice we believe we now face. If members decide to reject this offer, we will need to be prepared for what will almost certainly be an extended period of rolling industrial action that will likely last many months. We appreciate that may sound rather stark, but this really is now a pivotal moment, and it is important that members are fully informed when making their decision.   

We also want to be clear that if members do decide to accept this offer, that does not mean the end of our campaigning, and the work on all four pillars – pay and funding, workload and wellbeing, recruitment and retention and inspection – will continue.

Thank you for taking the time to read this detailed message in full and for the consideration we know you will give to it. Please do look out for another important email in the next few days asking you to vote on this new offer. We will also be running a webinar for members on Monday evening where we will talk a bit more about the offer and its implications. You can register for the webinar here (you will need your membership number to hand. Members can find this in the email sent to them today or by contacting the NAHT team). 

Best wishes 

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary and Paul Gosling NAHT president