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SEMINAR


School leaders up for the challenge

School leaders have been urged to join the fight against the Government’s spending cuts to education and the wider public sector. Resisting the cuts and protecting a high quality state education service is possible, delegates to the NASUWT’s seminar for school leaders on the impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) were told, but this will rely on building a strong and determined coalition of opposition.

(Photo of Dr Patrick Roach)

Far from being spared from the impact of the spending cuts, as ministers claimed, schools and teachers have in fact been hit hard, Dr Patrick Roach, Deputy General Secretary of the NASUWT, told the seminar, with the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimating that funding for schools will be cut by 0.6% per year in real terms, even factoring in the £2.5 billion pupil premium.

Schools are being expected to save £1 billion through efficiencies and teachers and headteachers will also be hit by a two-year pay freeze and changes to their pensions that will cut around 15% off their value while being expected to contribute 3% more.

These changes are not designed to reduce the budget deficit, Dr Roach argued, but are part of the Government’s ideologically driven assault on public services.

“Our system of education and schooling in this country has been founded on the principles of equality and social justice to create an inclusive system that seeks to respond to the needs of individual pupils and in which the ability to pay is not the arbiter of access to educational opportunity,” he said.

“It is a vision in which the public, through democratic means, influences and is able to hold schools to account. But all of this is now under threat.”

(Photo of Darren Northcott)

The drive to slash costs is compromising choice and quality of provision across the whole education sector, Darren Northcott, the NASUWT’s National Official or Education, told delegates, with maintained early years provision and sixthform colleges under severe strain due to their higher costs in comparison to further education colleges and private nurseries.

As maintained early years settings and sixth forms tend to have much higher numbers of qualified teachers and lower staff/pupil ratios than their private equivalents, cuts are likely to mean redundancies, moves to buy in cheaper learning packages from private contractors and reductions in pay and working conditions, with the resulting impact on the quality of education provision, Mr Northcott warned. Rather than greater ‘freedom’, schools are likely to find themselves being expected to do more with less, explained Bob Johnson, the NASUWT’s National Official for Salaries, Pensions and Conditions of Service. Local authorities are being sidelined and, in the case of academies and free schools, written out of the picture altogether, he said, meaning schools will no longer be able to rely on their support. Instead, schools will be held accountable to Ofsted for achieving greater value for money and, in the case of those schools receiving funds from the pupil premium, will be expected to demonstrate a resultant improvement in performance.

(Photo of Bob Johnson)

“School leaders are going to be faced with a series of real issues in delivering and meeting the Government’s aspirations,” Mr Johnson said. “Schools will have far fewer resources but there is no sign that there will be any let-up in the pressure on school leaders to meet higher and higher standards.”

Learn more about what the CSR means for you and your school at www.nasuwt.org.uk/ChampioningEducation


“It is a vision in which the public, through democratic means, influences and is able to hold schools to account. But all of this is now under threat.“


What the cuts mean for me…

School leaders gave their views on the Government’s package of spending cuts and education reforms

Stuart – Kirklees

“I work in a small school and we have no back office staff so I find it hard to know how I can be expected to make these efficiency savings that the Government is asking for.

“There is no reason why this deficit, which was not created by the public sector, cannot be bankrolled over a much longer period. These cuts are nothing more than an ideologically driven strike against public services.”

Shan – Broxtowe

“I’m worried about the impact on children in my school. There is going to be a reduction in the quality of provision for every child.

“For example, all the research shows that children make much better progress when they are taught by highly qualified staff but the Government seems to want to bring in cheaper unqualified teachers, which will have a huge impact on pupil attainment.”

Simon – Bromsgrove

“My wife works in central services for the local authority and she and her teams are very worried about reorganisation and whether they will lose their jobs or have to take cuts in resources and salaries.

“These cuts will be savage, I think, and then the impact of them will hit schools hard.”