Find your “moral force” – it might come in handy if you’re about to make staff redundant, leader of academy sector group appears to suggest

Leora Cruddas, of Confederation of School Trusts, raises eyebrows after citing Gramsci's thinking on staying strong.

The well-known leader of an organisation representing a large portion of the academies sector has provoked controversy after sending an email which appeared to accept redundancies in schools - and quoted the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci on the benefit of being strong-willed in times of challenge.

Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), drew sighs of bemusement from several sources spoken to by Education Uncovered, after offering the thoughts in an email to its member organisations.

This website has been reporting on cutbacks within the academies sector in recent weeks, with England’s second-biggest chain, the Harris Federation, having embarked on plans to make up to 45 frontline staff redundant, and another large group, Academy Transformation Trust, also implementing cuts.

Pressures on budgets, including questions over whether the government is going to fund suggested teacher pay rises of up to four per cent in 2025-26, and a rise in employer’s national insurance, are being widely-cited as leaving jobs at risk. However, teachers’ unions are urging employers not to make cuts until the government’s final position is known.

In a CST round-up email, sent to school leaders and trustees and passed to Education Uncovered by one of its recipients, Ms Cruddas wrote about wanting to hear more about whether and how trusts were preparing to cut budgets, and whether they would like help with the “restructuring” that might follow.

She wrote: “Following various meetings and feedback we have had from members, we would like to check in with you on what action you might be taking to reduce budgets for next year and whether you would like support with restructuring, redundancies, and maintaining good industrial relations through this difficult period.”

She then went on to quote Gramsci, from a passage often associated with a famous soundbite – “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will”.

She wrote: “I am reminded of the words of Antonio Gramsci following his imprisonment by Mussolini. We shall find the moral force in ourselves, what Gramsci called ‘the iron coherence of ends and means.’ He concludes in a letter: ‘My own state of mind synthesises these two feelings and transcends: my mind is pessimistic, but my will is optimistic. Whatever the situation, I imagine the worst that could happen in order to summon up all my reserves and will power to overcome every obstacle.”

Sources, though, were unimpressed, including the source of the email who highlighted endless media reports, including here, about high spending on central senior management within multi-academy trusts, which perhaps unsurprisingly was not discussed in the email. The school leader who passed the email my way was non-plussed that, as they put it: “The focus behind the scenes at the moment is on schools cutting teachers and not looking at the very expensive centralised costs! "

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, told Education Uncovered: “After 14 years of cuts to school budgets, there are no more efficiencies to be made.  Everyone in education should be fighting for greater funding to provide the education service children deserve and the country needs - we should not be managing austerity.”

Two other union sources questioned the reference to Gramsci. One, noting that the former education secretary Michael Gove had been partial to the occasional eye-catching mention of the thoughts of the one-time leader of the Italian Communist Party, said: “Good to see Cruddas picking up the Gramsci mantle from Gove, but hopefully she can look for alternative quotes? ‘Now is the time of monsters’ may be appropriate.”

Another told me: “I'm surprised that the Confederation of School Trusts is quoting Gramsci, even if it is the 'pessimism of the intellect/optimism of the will' quote, which is his most well-known.

“I think that Gramsci would certainly have been on the side of the unions and the workers facing the cuts/redundancies!”

With a subtle reference to the dispute at Harris, which has chosen not to consult unions at trust level about its redundancy plans, arguing that it is not legally obliged to do so, this source added: “That being said, Leora Cruddas does realise that cuts and redundancies cause industrial relations difficulties, which is helpful. If she could go further and advise employers to always hold collective consultations over potential redundancies, that would be even more helpful.”

The CST said: "CST has repeatedly called for additional investment in education...We support [academy and other] trusts in their legal duty to prepare balanced budgets and it is only responsible to plan on the basis of announced funding, not as we would like it to be."