Staff To Strike At Five University Of Brighton Academy Trust Schools In Sussex

School staff in East and West Sussex are to strike today and tomorrow (July 1 & 2) over workload following school funding concerns across the University of Brighton Academy Trust.

Members of the UK’s largest education union, the National Education Union (NEU) are planning to take strike action at schools across an academy trust in Sussex in a dispute over workload and job cuts linked to school funding.

The strike across five of the University of Brighton Academy Trust’s schools is believed to be the first academy trust wide dispute of its kind. It follows staff raising serious concerns over the Academy Chain’s funding model. This has seen more than double the national average amount of funding was being held back from schools by the Trust. This has meant in some schools up to 28% of the money allocated to the school not reaching it.

The union says the dispute has arisen out of 'excessive workload and job cuts resulting from underfunding'.

Negotiations have resulted in the Trust agreeing to radically change its funding model for its schools, but teachers and support staff in schools say they have not got the assurances they need that only the central trust, not the schools themselves, will pay for the changes. Further assurances over support staff numbers have also not been obtained.

Strikes will take place today and tomorrow at the following schools: Burgess Hill Academy, Hastings Academy, St Leonard’s Academy, Robsack Wood Academy and the Baird Academy. Further strike ballots at Lindfield Primary Academy and Blackthorns Primary Academy are currently also underway.

Pickets are planned outside the schools between 7.30am-9.30am on each strike date. Daniel Kebede, NEU General Secretary, will be attending the picket at Burgess Hill Academy (RH15 9EA) on Tuesday, July 2, between 7.30am and 9am. Phil Clarke NEU East Sussex Branch Secretary and NEU Vice President, will be attending pickets at various schools in the Hastings on July 1, between 7.30am and 9.30am.

Commenting on the situation, Phil Clarke East Sussex Branch Secretary and Vice-President, said:

“We are pleased the Trust has agreed to radically change its funding system to address our members’ workload concerns and to make sure that never again can they take such huge sums of money out of their schools.

"However, members are not satisfied with how long this will take to correct and the lack of a clear commitment from the Trust that other school budgets will not be raided to pay for this. It is also clear that to win back the trust of staff and parents who have shown huge support for our action, there must be an accounting for the decisions taken.

"These decisions have left thousands of children in schools that have been dramatically underfunded. If schools were still run by the local authority this simply would not be happening”.

Emily Ellis, a parent at a University of Brighton Academy Trust School, added:

“I fully support the strike. I am appalled that a CEO on a six-figure salary has made decisions to take money from our children’s schools to fund marketing teams instead of teachers and Teaching Assistants.

"The funding crisis caused by the government is already unacceptable. To make that even worse at a Trust level cannot be justified. Special Educational Needs provision, teaching assistants and classroom resources should have been put before executive salaries and corporate branding.”