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Schools across England are set to receive approximately £500 million in additional funding this academic year to support the teachers’ pay award. This injection of funds aims to ease tensions with the National Education Union (NEU) and reduce the likelihood of strike action by its members.
Initially, schools were expected to cover part of the 3.5% pay increase for teachers from their own budgets, a move that was strongly opposed by NEU leadership. However, a recent government letter, reviewed by the BBC, revealed that the new funding would come from savings achieved by a reduction in employer contributions to the local government pension scheme. Specifically, a 4.9 percentage point decrease in required contributions would generate substantial savings on the payroll for support staff, freeing up more resources for teacher pay without central government reclaiming the funds.
The NEU has estimated the extra money to be about £500 million, which schools can now allocate to teacher salaries for the current year. This announcement follows the government’s earlier acceptance, in July, of an independent pay review body’s recommendation for a 3.5% salary increase from September 2026, followed by a 3% uplift the year after. These increases had previously been partly financed by extra funding of £700 million for 2026-27 and £1.1 billion for the subsequent year. Despite this, analysts from the Institute for Fiscal Studies pointed out that schools still faced a funding shortfall of around 1% due to rising costs this year. The new funds could help align this year’s pay increase with that planned for next year.
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the NEU, described the additional funding as a “significant” development and welcomed it as a hopeful step for the entire school community. Earlier in the year, an indicative ballot conducted by the union showed that 90% of teachers who voted were willing to take industrial action over pay and funding concerns, with a turnout of 48%. The formal ballot was scheduled to run from 3 October to 15 December, raising the possibility of strikes in early 2027. The NEU’s national executive is set to meet on 24 September to decide whether to call off the ballot in light of the government’s new funding proposal
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
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