Proposed job cuts at Harris Federation reduced by two thirds following union pressure – but strike action at four schools still possible

Harris reduces number of positions facing redundancy from 45 to 15.

 

England’s second-largest academy chain has reduced the number of staff it is proposing to make redundant by two thirds following pressure from unions, Education Uncovered has learnt.

The Harris Federation is planning to make 15 teachers redundant – down from a maximum of 45 when the plans were first revealed a month ago.

However, the trust is still facing potential strike action at four schools which may remain in the scope of job cuts, with ballots opening today (Tuesday June 3^rd).

 

The detail

Harris, which runs 55 academies in and around London, set out redundancy plans at the start of last month, having warned that the federation was facing an “unfunded pay rise for teachers of 2.8% and for support staff of 3.2%,” plus a government increase to employers’ national insurance which was “not fully funded”. Harris schools had also been experiencing significant drops in rolls, “like nearly all London schools,” it had added.

The federation initially disclosed plans to cut a total of 45 teaching posts across 14 of its secondary schools and sixth forms, with its 19 primary schools not facing any cuts.

Unions had complained that Harris was not willing to hold negotiations about job cuts at a trust-wide level, Harris arguing that this was not a legal requirement.

However, following coverage of the dispute in the media, a special meeting was held with the unions’ joint negotiating committee on Thursday May 15^th. At this, the unions were told that the number of redundancies had been reduced from 45 to around 25.

The unions believe that the main reason for the reduction in this number had been, first, that overseas teachers, on visas which require “sponsorship” by the employer and which therefore would leave the staff member vulnerable to having to leave the country in the event of redundancy, had been removed from the “pool” of potential redundancies.

Second, those who were pregnant or on maternity leave had also had the threat of redundancy lifted.

Union sources say this was a direct result of a joint union demand that these groups be protected from redundancy.

Just before half-term, the government announced that teachers across England would be given a 4 per cent pay rise for 2025-26, with the Department for Education funding 75 per cent and the remainder needing to come from “efficiencies”.

This seems an improvement on the situation, suggested to be facing the trust by Lord Harris of Peckham, who set up and is in ultimate control of all the Harris schools, in a speech in the House of Lords just after the redundancy plans were revealed.

During a debate on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, he had said that the employers’ national insurance rise was costing the Harris Federation £1.5 million, while the government was only at that time proposing to fund 1.3 per cent of its plans, at the time, for a 2.8 rise in teachers’ pay. 

Harris’s original statement, on unveiling its plans, that the-then proposed 2.8 per cent pay award was “unfunded” also seemingly stands in contrast to the now-announced government position that it will fund 75 per cent of the pay award.

Last week, the unions wrote to Harris calling on it to withdraw all the redundancies, in the light of the government’s new pay announcement.

I understand that Harris responded to say that the number of redundancies had been reduced to 15 teachers, across eight schools. There was no information, however, on the roles or schools affected. Harris is continuing to argue that the pay increases for teachers and support staff are not fully funded by government, and that falling rolls across London remain an issue – though the latter are currently felt more intensely in the primary sector, where Harris is not looking to cut jobs.

Formal industrial action ballots on the redundancies opened today at four schools, including Harris Academy Peckham, in Southwark, south London, which had celebrated what appears to have been the first “outstanding” judgement from Ofsted in its history, on the day that the federation announced it was facing job cuts.

The other three academies opening ballots are Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich, Harris Academy Bermondsey (both in Southwark) and Harris Academy Beckenham (in Bromley).

Harris’s sector-outlier spending on executive pay has fuelled controversy around these cuts, with Education Uncovered having revealed last month how the trust could save more than £4 million if its outlay on six-figure salaries were reduced to being the same, per pupil, as England’s biggest academy trust.

Yet its highly-remunerated central teams have not been in the scope of these redundancies. The federation also sees remarkably high academic results and Ofsted ratings for its schools.

Harris does not respond to requests for comment from Education Uncovered.