More than 30 schools in one Welsh local authority are making teachers redundant as they struggle to balance the books. Teachers affected said they felt “betrayed” and questioned whether education was a priority.
Rhondda Cynon Taf Council said around 15% of 115 schools are looking at cutting teachers. That equates to around 17 schools making teacher redundancies.
Teaching union Nasuwt said it understands around 15 teacher jobs will go and said the council should "hang its head in shame. The council blamed falling pupil numbers and cut backs after extra spending post-pandemic.
Read more: RCT council approves budget including 3.9% council tax rise
News of the cuts comes after all teachers and other staff at six schools in RCT being reorganised were told they must re-apply for their jobs. The statutory consultation, which has just ended, involved 294 staff at Pontypridd High, Hawthorn High, Hawthorn Primary, Cilfynydd Primary, Ysgol Pontsionnorton and Heol y Celyn Primary.
Now teachers in around 17 other schools have been issued with notices of possible redundancy. One teacher affected said she and colleagues were shocked to be handed letters saying their jobs were at potential risk.
She said headteachers told them schools were struggling with rising costs: “At my school we are losing one teacher out of 12 and two out of 10 support staff will also have to go. There are also agency staff which schools can no longer afford.
“We were told three weeks ago about the cuts and people were asked if they were willing to drop a day’s work or take early retirement. These cuts will affect children’s education because classes will have to be amalgamated and get bigger.
“We have just had training for the new additional learning needs (ALN) but there will be no support staff for some of these children with special educational needs. Moral is broken and we feel betrayed.
“People are looking at alternative jobs outside teaching, which is a waste of their training. Teaching is not a job for life. They can just discard you.”
The primary teacher, who has seven years service, said staff are being selected for redundancy based on a skills audit and those with less experience were most likely to go. She said her headteacher had reported that only one primary in RCT does not have a deficit budget going into next year.
Neil Butler, Nasuwt national official for Wales said: "We don’t know the final figures but we presently believe that at least 15 teachers are set to lose their jobs in RCT Schools. This is devastating for those teachers and will impact on the children, schools and communities.
"It will just mean larger class sizes, poorer learner behaviour and therefore increased teacher burnout. "
He said the Nasuwt understands that schools are having to fund part of the pay uplift, although the council said that was not the case and the Welsh Government pledged to fund the pay increase agreed to end last term's strikes.
"The NASUWT understands that schools are having to fund part of the pay uplift. This is not what we were promised by the Welsh Government and the WLGA. It is outrageous that small progress towards trying to restore teachers pay to where it was over a decade ago should lead to making working in schools harder than it has ever been. We need more teachers not less. RCT Council should hang its head in shame," Mr Butler said.
RCT Council insisted it prioritised school funding, but some schools were affected by falling numbers of pupils and reining back on extra spending post-pandemic.
A spokesman said: “A number of schools are having to make difficult decisions with regard to their budgets for 2023-24, with any teacher reductions driven by changes in pupil numbers. This is no different a situation than in other years.
“School reserves amounted to over £20m at the beginning of the last financial year and schools have rightly been using these reserves, as one off resources, and have employed more capacity than their ongoing budget levels would support. This has been a post pandemic response and one which was always going to need to be unwound.
“We continue to work with and support our schools to ensure the best outcomes are reached for all parties. To date around 15% of our schools have identified the need to make teacher redundancies.
“Working with our trade union colleagues, any redundancies identified will be managed in accordance with our agreed procedures, which will include seeking volunteers in the first instance.”
The council said it always sought to prioritise schools and “has a long track record of providing them with funding at levels well above other council services”.
The spokesperson added: “Over the last 10 years the schools budget has increased by 36% as compared to other council services which have been seen their funding levels increase by 17%. For 2023/24 financial year, funding has been allocated to schools to cover their additional costs of pay, non pay inflation, energy cost increases, pupil number changes, additional funding to meet the needs of pupils with ALN and an additional £0.5M of general funding.
“After fully funding these costs, a level of efficiency of 2.2% has been applied resulting in the overall aggregate Schools Budget (ISB) increasing by 7.9% in comparison to the increase in Welsh Government funding of 6.6% for Rhondda Cynon Taf.
“Schools have been advised that the additional costs of the recently agreed pay award will be fully funded."
To get our free Wales Matters daily briefing on the biggest issues affection the nation, click here.
Read next:
- Teacher filmed herself performing sex act in primary school classroom
- Local firm funds free breakfasts at a school in one of Wales' wealthiest areas because pupils were turning up hungry
- Schools don’t have enough money to keep children safe or provide the statutory level of education, warn governors
- All staff at Cardiff primary school warned their jobs are at risk
- New £46m push to tackle Wales' school absence problem
