Parents have become increasingly politicised by the squeeze on school funding and will be a powerful force if politicians fail to take heed of their concerns, a leader of the country’s largest teaching union told its annual conference.

Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said he was proud the NEU spent £300,000 on campaigning during the last general election.

“Some politicians have cried foul. Some have objected to the fact we spent more than Ukip. Well I say this: we make no apology. We will do it again. And we now have hundreds of thousands more parent supporters. Politicians of all parties should beware. Parents will not forgive education cuts,” he told the conference in Brighton.

Courtney paid tribute to the efforts of teachers to influence the outcome of last year’s general election through leafleting and lobbying.

“Your campaign had a huge impact. Candidate after candidate told us that school funding was top of voters concerns … and [the opinion polling agency] Survation said 750,000 people had changed their vote because of education funding,” he said, calling for a further effort in May’s council elections.



“We don’t tell people who to vote for, but we did tell the truth about school funding, and if voters changed their mind because of that then we are pleased and all politicians should listen.”

Courtney highlighted pressures on funding for special needs education in England, calling it “an absolute scandal” that disabled pupils with high needs were not receiving the attention and funding they deserved.

“The government needs to act on it right now – and I am calling on [the education secretary] Damian Hinds to make it clear that action will follow,” he said, adding: “Your government is failing children with special needs – and you and the chancellor need to fund an emergency cash injection to close the gaps in the high-needs budgets. We need that announcement, we need it very soon.

“Parents won’t forget or forgive that these cuts are damaging their children’s education. A whole generation is affected.”

He said children in England had been failed by what he called 30 years of political consensus, involving both Labour and Conservatives, encouraging the use of high-stakes tests, school league tables and structural changes such as academy schools taken out of the hands of local councils.

Earlier the conference passed a motion to lobby against national tests of all types in primary schools in England, with one teacher from Leeds calling them “a form of institutionalised child abuse”.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said core schools and high-needs funding had been protected in real terms per pupil.



“The budget for pupils with special educational needs is £6bn this year. Local authorities now have more money for every pupil in every school.



‎“Our new education, health and care plans are putting the views of young people with special educational needs and disabilities and families at the heart of the process so they can help shape the support they receive,” the DfE said.