The introduction of changes to improve behaviour and school safety will not work unless the government recognises the resource challenges that schools and other agencies are facing, a teaching union has warned.
Asked by Tes what the government’s behaviour strategy should include, Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, identified the need for clearer guidance and the issue of funding.
Speaking at a briefing ahead of the union’s annual conference, he said: ”We’ve spoken about the importance of government having clearer guidance for the sector in respect of behaviour which demonstrates that headteachers and teachers have got the backing of ministers when it comes to dealing with violent and disruptive pupil behaviour. That’s crucially important.
“But none of this works unless government recognises the resource challenges, the funding challenges, that not only schools but also the agencies working with children, young people and families are facing at the present time.”
DfE considering behaviour strategy
The government is still thinking through its behaviour strategy, education minister Stephen Morgan told Tes last month.
Dr Roach added that the work of behaviour hubs “had huge potential, but was underdeveloped and, to some degree, under-resourced.”
A motion in the calls on the national executive to work with government to introduce mandatory time for teachers to access nationally agreed professional development on behaviour management.
The motion also calls for the existing guidance on behaviour management to be strengthened to ensure that “no exclusion” policies are not legitimised across the education sector.
School finance leads have warned that next year “the sector is looking at one of the most challenging forecasts in probably the past two decades”.
The DfE has said schools have £400 million headroom in their budgets for 2025-26, which would only cover a pay rise of 1.3 per cent. The DfE has recommended a 2.8 per cent pay award, and the sector is still waiting for the pay recommendation from the School Teachers’ Review Body.
”Regardless of the figure that is recommended by the pay review body, the government is going to have to find additional funding for our schools,” Dr Roach said.
The NASUWT also warned last week that it has seen a “surge” in members seeking support over restructures and redundancies.
“Finance and demographics are having a significant impact on the job security of teachers at a time when the government wants to recruit 6,500 more teachers,” said Dr Roach.
“The government needs a plan to address some of this because at the moment schools are not being offered any alternative than to consider cutting their cloth.”
Education legal services company Edapt said it recorded double the number of redundancy and restructuring cases between January and March 2025 than it saw in the whole of 2024 in the schools sector.
When Ofsted laid out its plans for inspection report cards earlier this year, the NASUWT said some of the proposals failed to address the “root problems” with the inspection system.
Asked what action the NASUWT would be prepared to take if Ofsted does not change its current proposals, Dr Roach said Ofsted and the education secretary have “a responsibility to take seriously the issues and concerns that have been raised by the profession”. He added that the union will hold the government to account if “the workload and wellbeing of our members is not being addressed”.
He said that Ofsted and the government should “not hesitate” to take extra time to get accountability changes right rather than “rushing towards changes which could have profound adverse consequences for the profession and the relationship between the profession and the inspectorate”.
The NASUWT’s annual conference will take place on 18 and 19 April.
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