NASUWT comments on the Spring Statement
Commenting on the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union, said:
“The forthcoming full three-year spending review is needed urgently to tackle the serious financial pressures affecting delivery of education and other vital public services for children and young people.
“The Chancellor’s speech today may provide promises for future government spending but it provides nothing to meet the pressing needs of schools today.
“The era of austerity will continue despite the Chancellor’s statement. Teachers and headteachers will be looking to the government urgently to address the years of real-terms cuts to school budgets and the drastic erosion of teachers’ salaries which has contributed to the current teacher recruitment and retention crisis.”
Period Poverty
“The NASUWT welcomes the Chancellor’s commitment to fund access to free sanitary products for pupils in secondary schools from next year. However, it is vital that this scheme is extended to cover all primary schools and colleges to ensure that no girl misses out on her education or has her dignity compromised due to period poverty.
“The fact that so many families cannot afford sanitary products for their children is in itself a reflection of the shameful indictment on the Government’s policies, which have hit the poorest hardest, and especially children and young people.
“The Chancellor would do well to poverty impact assess any future government spending priorities and decisions.”
