TEACHERS and school support staff vowed to resist Labour’s renewed push towards academisation under proposals in its schools white paper today.

Ministers have vowed to move to “all schools joining or forming high-quality school trusts” and allow local authorities to set up their own multi-academy trusts (MATs).

The National Education Union (NEU) passed an emergency motion opposing “an expanded and unaccountable MAT model” and to build on “recent MAT-wide disputes to win gains in other MATs” at its annual conference.

Teaching staff jobs are also at risk under major reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in England, the debate heard.

Plans to introduce “inclusion bases” — dedicated spaces for pupils with Send — in all mainstream schools were announced in the white paper in February.

The NEU has warned that an extra £4 billion ministers have committed between now and 2029 to prepare schools before the main changes come into force is not enough if the government ploughs on with an unfunded 6.5 per cent teacher pay rise spread over three years.

Delegates backed the motion statement: “Across every area, the White Paper exposes a system pushed to breaking point by chronic underfunding.”

The paper “does nothing to address the systemic barriers of high stakes assessments, narrow curriculum, accountability measures and growing class sizes, which all have a negative impact on students with Send,” says the text.

“Some schools will be forced to cut staff, especially support staff, in order to save money.”

Turnout for an ongoing indicative ballot of support staff to take action to prevent redundancies is currently 6 per cent higher than that for teachers against the pay rise, the debate heard.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “The NEU will resist any renewed push towards academisation. 

“An unaccountable MAT model that has failed to deliver transparency, equity or value for money, must be opposed.

“Our nation’s schools have been chronically underfunded for more than a decade. 

“Children with Send have been failed for too long by a system buckling under the strain of a lack of resources. 

“This cannot be resolved by cutting corners or small cost-saving measures. Reforms to Send provision need to be funded properly — including to pay for additional staff — if they are going to be successful.”