The country’s largest teaching union has agreed to launch an indicative ballot over potential strike action for “better pay and funding”.

The NEU said the ballot in February would ask members’ willingness “to take strike action on the issue of continued austerity in education”.

The union added that its executive had approved launching a campaign to “build a case over the coming months for better pay and funding” and would be “taking the argument to government, to parents and the profession”.

It said its national executive met on Saturday to “discuss the crisis in education funding and teacher pay”.

‘Existential crisis’ facing schools

Speaking after the meeting, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “This week’s Budget failed to address the existential crisis our schools are facing.

“The government’s proposed 6.5 per cent pay rise for teachers over three years, with no extra money behind it, will only worsen the situation.

“Cold classrooms, leaking roofs, broken toilets. Staff leaving and never replaced. Workload soaring as a result. We cannot endure any more cuts to education.”

The School Teachers’ Review Body is expected to send its report on teacher pay to the education secretary in February 2026.

NEU will take ‘whatever action necessary’

Mr Kebede added: “If the government responds and sticks with an under-inflation and unfunded 6.5 per cent, then we will know that yet more cuts are on the horizon.

“That is why the NEU executive has approved the launch of a campaign to save education and build a case over the coming months for better pay and funding.

“It is in the government’s gift to avoid a confrontation with the profession. Education is running on empty. We will not stand by as this government continues to underfund our schools and drive education into the ground.”

“As a union, we are prepared to take whatever action is necessary to save our schools.”

Wednesday’s Autumn Budget included plans for £5 million for libraries in secondary schools and £18 million for playgrounds.

There was controversy surrounding a fiscal outlook report from the Office for Budget Responsibility, which highlighted the government’s plan to bring the full cost of special educational needs and disabilities provision into the central government spending envelope from 2028-29.

It is estimated this would mean an additional £6 billion increase in spending in 2028-29, and if this came from the core schools budget, it would imply a 4.9 per cent real fall in mainstream school spending per pupil.

However, on Friday last week, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said core funding for schools would not be cut.

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