The vote will take place during the summer term and if enough members vote yes, strike action would likely take place in the autumn.
ASCL has around 23,000 members at all levels of school leadership and who predominantly work in secondary and further education.
The union is in dispute with the government over the school funding crisis, the erosion of teacher and leadership pay and conditions, and consequent staff shortages which it says are undermining the education system.
On Wednesday afternoon (April 19), ASCL’s executive committee of senior elected members met to discuss next steps and “unanimously decided to move to a formal ballot on strike action”.
A statement on Thursday morning (April 20) said: “The association has endeavoured to resolve the matter through negotiation, but the government made an offer to settle the dispute in March which was completely inadequate.”
ASCL and other unions rejected the pay offer made by the Department for Education after weeks of intensive talks before Easter.
The DfE’s offer was for a 4.5% average pay rise from September 2023 (4.3% for experienced teachers; 7.1% for new teachers) as well as a £1,000 one-off cash payment this year. It also included “the removal of the statutory requirement for schools to use performance-related pay” and a series of non-pay related offers concerning issues such as Ofsted and workload.
However, ASCL members turned down the offer with 87% voting to reject it on a turn-out of 55%.
The National Association of Head Teachers, NASUWT, and National Education Union also voted to reject the offer. The NEU has since announced two new strike dates on April 27 and May 2.
The NASUWT and NAHT both failed to meet legal thresholds in their strike ballots earlier this year. The NASUWT has now announced it will ballot members for strike action a second time, while the NAHT will decide whether to hold a second strike ballot at its annual conference on April 28 and 29. For more, see our report here.
ASCL has never before formally balloted at a national level, and announcing the ballot, general secretary Geoff Barton said it was “clearly a very significant step”.
He continued: “The fact that we have reached this point reflects the desperate situation regarding inadequate funding, long-term pay erosion, teacher shortages, and the intransigence of a government which we can only conclude does not value the education workforce or recognise the severe pressures facing the sector.
“We have made every effort to resolve this matter through negotiations prior to reaching this point. Unfortunately, the government’s offer has failed to sufficiently address pay and conditions, and, critically, did not provide enough funding for even the meagre proposal it put forward.
“Following the rejection of the offer by all education unions involved – ASCL, NAHT, NEU and NASUWT – the government has made no effort to reopen negotiations and has said only that the issue of pay will now revert to the School Teachers’ Review Body.
“The conclusion of the ASCL executive committee is that the government has left us with no option other than to conduct a formal ballot for national strike action.
“This action is taken as a last resort and with a heavy heart, but we cannot accept the continued damage to education caused by government neglect and complacency.”