Teaching unions in England begin talks with government as strikes paused

Intensive negotiations between the government and teaching unions in England are under way, holding out the possibility of a deal over teachers’ pay after a damaging series of strikes.

The talks between the teaching union leaders and Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, started on Friday and are expected to continue over the weekend, in a sign of the government’s willingness to end the dispute.

The National Education Union, which held two days of strikes in England earlier this week, said it would “create a period of calm for two weeks” and hold back from announcing further industrial action to allow talks to go ahead, ending an impasse with the Department for Education (DfE).

The parties, including the National Association of Head Teachers, the Association of School and College Leaders and the NASUWT teachers union, have agreed a vow of silence on the progress of negotiations through the media.

A joint statement by the two sides said talks would focus on teacher pay, conditions and workload reduction.

The DfE had refused to start negotiations while strikes were scheduled but the end of the NEU’s current round of industrial action opened a window for talks to begin.

Keegan has held separate discussions with the leaders of other unions, including the National Association of Head Teachers and the Association of School and College Leaders, with the DfE hinting that teachers risked missing out on a pay deal similar to that being negotiated with NHS workers.

The negotiations will not include representatives from college unions, with the Association of Colleges chief executive, David Hughes, saying they had been “left on the sidelines looking in” on the talks.

“Pay in colleges is just as important, particularly now that colleges are part of the public sector,” said Hughes, who noted that further education college lecturers were already paid £8,000 to £10,000 less than their counterparts in schools.

“Poor pay is now holding back colleges from offering training and skills because they cannot recruit and retain people to teach,” he said.

“Better pay for college lecturers would unleash capacity to meet the wider labour market needs. If the government is serious about prioritising jobs and opportunity, then the education secretary needs to get to the negotiating table with colleges as a matter of urgency.”

In recent weeks the governments in Scotland and Wales have held intensive talks with the teaching unions, with Scottish teachers accepting a pay offer rising to 14.6% in January.

In Wales the NEU paused strikes to consider a “constructive” offer of an extra 3% immediately and a fully funded 5% pay rise from September.