HEADTEACHERS and other school leaders in Wales will be carrying out their own industrial action next month.

Earlier this week, NAHT Cymru – the union for school leaders – announced that 95 per cent of members who voted (55 per cent of the total number of members voted, passing the 50 per cent needed to carry out any action) voted for action short of strike. 75 per cent voted to strike.

The news came as the details of when teachers were going to strike were revealed.

The action means that from Wednesday, February 1, NAHT Cymru union members – headteachers, deputy headteachers, assistant headteachers and middle leaders - will take action short of strike on an ongoing basis.

During this time, the following will happen:

  • They will restrict availability to receive or respond to calls and emails before 9am and after 3pm.
  • Abstain from attending meetings after 5pm.
  • Refuse to facilitate unsolicited school visits or take part in non-statutory consultations, surveys, projects, meetings, government, local authority or Consortia webinars or data requests.
  • Abstain from involvement in any staff appraisal or redundancy process.
  • Abstain from facilitating or arranging cover for those taking part in any industrial action.
  • Refuse to provide information regarding staff participating in industrial action.
  • Refuse to engage with Estyn, which inspects education and training providers in Wales, beyond statutory requirements.

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The union’s Welsh executive committee and the NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman and president Paul Gosling have met and reached an agreement into the action.

Mr Whiteman said: “None of our members want to be in this situation but unless something changes drastically, they fear there will be incalculable damage to their profession, and crucially, the education and life chances of a whole generation of children.

“They have put up with the gradual erosion of their pay and school budgets over the last decade, but eye-watering inflation and a worrying recruitment and retention crisis have brought things to a head and left them at the end of their tether.

“The action we are announcing should send a clear signal that enough is enough. But if the Welsh Government do not take the action we need to resolve this dispute, our members are also prepared to move to strike action.”

The announcement comes as NAHT entered into discussions with the Welsh Government and local authorities on pay – including a one-off payment - on January 19.

Laura Doel, NAHT Cymru director, said: “The talks this morning were productive and we welcome the opportunity to enter into meaningful negotiations. There was a discussion about a potential one-off payment for teachers and leaders and a desire by all sides to make progress on some of the other concerns from our members on funding, workload and recruitment and retention.

“We remain committed to further talks with the Welsh government and local authorities to resolve this dispute as quickly as possible and we hope for more meetings in the coming days. However the discussions today are not enough to pause our industrial action.

“A decade of unfunded, below-inflation pay awards has compounded a recruitment and retention crisis in education which has led us to this action, and we maintain that unless our concerns are addressed immediately, education will continue to suffer.”