Why are 1,000 school support staff marching on Westminster on Friday 9 October, and what is the London Weighting pay row about

School support staff from Merton and Greenwich walk out on Friday 9 October in the second strike of a dispute over London Weighting. More than 1,000 teaching assistants, caretakers, administrators and other non-teaching staff are expected to rally at Old Palace Yard, opposite the House of Lords, before marching to the Department for Education on Great Smith Street. The GMB union says its members are paid the Outer London rate while teachers in the same schools receive the higher Inner London rate, a difference it puts at up to £1,400 a year. Merton Council says 28 of its schools will be affected, and in Greenwich at least three schools have announced closures or partial openings, The WP Times reports. It is the first walkout since 1 May, when around 1,000 GMB members in more than 30 schools in the two boroughs stopped work for a day.

The dispute centres on a mismatch that has lasted since the Inner London Education Authority was abolished in 1990. Teachers' pay is set nationally, and schools in a defined Inner London area pay teachers on the higher Inner London scale. Support staff are paid under local government agreements, and their councils treat Merton and Greenwich as Outer London. The union wants support staff placed on Inner London Weighting to match the teachers they work alongside; Nadine Houghton, GMB Regional Secretary, calls the gap "an historic underpayment". Merton Council says it supports fair pay but cannot lawfully use its General Fund to top up school budgets, which are paid from the ring-fenced Dedicated Schools Grant. It points to the new national School Support Staff Negotiating Body, set up under the Employment Rights Act 2025, which the government says will not deliver its first pay improvements before 2027-28. Greenwich Council says it remains in talks with the union. Parents in both boroughs are being told by schools directly whether they will be fully open, partly open or closed on Friday. For Westminster, the march means a large gathering between Old Palace Yard, Parliament Square and Great Smith Street during the day; organisers have not published a start time.

What is happening on Friday 9 October

The strike on Friday 9 October is the second full day of industrial action by GMB members employed in schools in the London Boroughs of Merton and Greenwich. The union announced on Wednesday 7 October that more than 1,000 support staff would join a rally at Old Palace Yard in Westminster, the open space between the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey, and then march to the Department for Education. The department's headquarters, Sanctuary Buildings at 20 Great Smith Street, is a short walk away along the south side of Parliament Square. The GMB said members had voted to take their case to Parliament because the two councils had not resolved the dispute over the summer. The union has not published a timetable for the rally, and the Metropolitan Police had not issued any notice of conditions by Thursday afternoon. The strike follows a first walkout on Friday 1 May, when the union said around 1,000 staff took part and more than 30 schools were disrupted.

Which schools are closed or partly open

Merton Council says 28 of its schools will be affected by the strike. It has not published a school-by-school list, and schools are contacting parents directly. Greenwich Council has named three schools with changed arrangements: Thomas Tallis School in Kidbrooke is open only to pupils in Years 11 and 13; Christ Church Church of England Primary School in Shooters Hill is open to Years 1, 2, 3 and 6 only; and Invicta Primary School in Blackheath is closed. Other schools may also change their arrangements on the morning of the strike, depending on how many staff take part. During the May strike, Greenwich Council said 11 of its schools were disrupted.

What is London Weighting and why does it differ between staff

London Weighting is an additional payment, built into salaries or paid as an allowance, to reflect the higher cost of living and working in the capital. In the public sector there is no single London Weighting. Each workforce has its own system, set by a different body, with different boundaries for what counts as Inner London, Outer London and the London Fringe. That is the root of the dispute in Merton and Greenwich: the teachers and the support staff in the same schools sit under two different systems that draw the map differently.

Teachers in state schools in England are paid under the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document, which the Secretary of State for Education sets each year after recommendations from the School Teachers' Review Body. The document has four pay areas: the rest of England, the Fringe, Outer London and Inner London. Schools in its Inner London area pay the highest scale. In 2025-26, the Inner London main pay range for teachers started at £38,766 and rose to £53,994, compared with £34,514 to £47,839 in Outer London. According to the GMB, teachers in the Merton and Greenwich schools involved in the dispute are paid on the Inner London scale.

School support staff in council-maintained schools are not covered by that document. They are paid under the National Joint Council for Local Government Services agreement, known as the Green Book, with London pay and allowances agreed through the Greater London Provincial Council. Under those arrangements, each council decides how its staff are classified, and Merton and Greenwich pay their support staff, and in Greenwich's case its wider council workforce, at the Outer London rate. That leaves a teaching assistant and a class teacher in the same classroom on different London Weightings.

Why does the gap date back to 1990

The Inner London Education Authority ran schools in the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs until it was abolished on 1 April 1990 under the Education Reform Act 1988. After abolition, responsibility for schools passed to the boroughs, and the separate pay systems for teachers and council staff developed in different directions. The GMB and the London Assembly have described the current gap as a legacy of that change. The union's Weighting for Change campaign identified seven boroughs where some schools pay teachers the Inner London rate while support staff receive the Outer London rate: Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Ealing, Greenwich, Haringey, Merton and Newham. Only Merton and Greenwich staff are currently on strike.

How much are school support staff losing

The GMB says the difference between Inner and Outer London Weighting for its members in Merton and Greenwich is up to £1,400 a year. Earlier in the dispute, around the May strike, the union put the gap at more than £1,000 a year for some staff. The figure varies by grade and hours, because much school support work is part-time or term-time only and many staff are paid pro rata. Neither council has published its own estimate of the cost of moving all school support staff to Inner London Weighting. The union has also argued, in its Greenwich campaign, that because school support roles are low paid and disproportionately held by women and workers from ethnic minority backgrounds, the effect of the gap falls hardest on those groups.

The national picture shows the scale of the workforce involved. The Department for Education's school workforce statistics, published on 4 June 2026, record 295,183 full-time equivalent teaching assistants in state-funded schools in England in November 2025, up by 6,200 on the previous year. Total support staff, including administrators, technicians, caretakers and other roles, stood at 518,200 full-time equivalent. Teachers numbered 466,372 full-time equivalent, 1,900 fewer than a year earlier.

What do the GMB and the councils say

The GMB says the issue is one of equal treatment within the same workplace. "This is an historic underpayment that our members are owed," said Nadine Houghton (GMB Regional Secretary, announcement of the Westminster march, 7 October 2026). She said it was "non-negotiable" that members be treated equally with teachers in the same schools, and accused both councils of "pleading poverty and burying their heads in the sand". She added that the second day of action could have been avoided had the councils acted over the summer. Before the first strike, Helen O'Connor (GMB senior organiser, April 2026) said members "have had enough of being undervalued" and that "no offer has been made to address this historic but ongoing underpayment".

Merton Council's position rests on how school budgets are funded. In a statement published on 25 February 2026, before the ballot, the council said support staff pay is set nationally under the National Joint Council agreement and that it "cannot lawfully subsidise school budgets from its General Fund". School staff salaries are paid from the Dedicated Schools Grant, which is ring-fenced for schools. "Unfortunately, the law does not allow us to use the General Fund to supplement school budgets," wrote Cllr Ross Garrod (Leader of Merton Council, open letter to staff, February 2026). Hannah Doody (Chief Executive of Merton Council, letter to the GMB, February 2026) said "mediation and conciliation are the best way forward", and the council has said it is seeking formal mediation under the national agreement. Ahead of the latest strike, the council said it was disappointed by the further action, supports fair pay, cannot fund the increase locally and cannot endorse a one-off payment because of the effect on other services and residents.

Greenwich Council's public statements have been shorter. At the time of the May strike, it said it remained in dialogue with the union and that "we respect the right of unions to take industrial action" (Royal Borough of Greenwich, May 2026). In Greenwich, the GMB has also campaigned for the council's own workforce, not only school staff, to be moved to Inner London Weighting. "This mass protest is purely about fairness," said Stuart Fegan (GMB senior organiser, protest outside Woolwich Town Hall, February 2024).

What have politicians said

The London Assembly backed a motion on 7 December 2023 calling on the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to lobby for greater parity in London Weighting for public sector staff and to end the mismatch in the seven boroughs. The motion also supported an independent pay board to set London Weighting rates. "It shouldn't be the case that two people in the same workplace have two different London weighting rates," said Unmesh Desai (London Assembly member, December 2023). The Mayor has no power to set school support staff pay, and the Department for Education has not commented publicly on the Merton and Greenwich dispute.

What is the School Support Staff Negotiating Body

The School Support Staff Negotiating Body is a new statutory body created by the Employment Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. It will negotiate minimum pay and terms and conditions for support staff in state-funded schools in England, covering both council-maintained schools and academies. According to the Department for Education, it covers directly employed non-teaching staff up to and including middle leadership, such as teaching assistants, administrators, technicians and business staff, but not senior strategic leaders. The government says formal establishment is planned for autumn 2026, existing pay arrangements continue for 2026-27, and the first improvements to pay and conditions are expected in 2027-28 at the earliest. Its first tasks are the annual pay uplift and maternity pay.

The body will not handle individual disputes or replace local grading structures and pay spines. The government's published description does not mention London Weighting. Merton Council has argued that the national body, and the next national pay negotiations, are the right place to resolve the gap, because it affects several London boroughs. The GMB's position is that its members should not wait and that the councils should act now.

What does the march mean for Westminster on Friday

For residents, workers and visitors in Westminster, the main effect is a large gathering on Friday around Old Palace Yard, Abingdon Street and Parliament Square, followed by a march to Great Smith Street. Old Palace Yard sits between the House of Lords and Westminster Abbey, and the shortest walking route to the Department for Education runs past the abbey and along Broad Sanctuary and Great Smith Street. Organisers have not published the start time or the exact route, and no road closures had been announced by Thursday afternoon. Westminster station is the nearest Tube station, and on Friday the Circle, District and Jubilee lines are running; the Circle and District lines close through Westminster only on Saturday and Sunday for planned engineering work. St James's Park station is the nearest to Great Smith Street. Bus routes along Millbank, Victoria Street and Parliament Square may be slowed while the march is moving.

• Expect crowds around Old Palace Yard, Parliament Square and Great Smith Street during the day.
• Allow extra time for buses on Victoria Street, Millbank and Whitehall.
• Westminster and St James's Park stations are open on Friday.
• The Royal Parks Half Marathon closes roads in St James's Park and Westminster on Sunday 11 October, not Friday.

What should parents in Merton and Greenwich do

Parents should check messages from their child's school, which will confirm whether it is fully open, partly open or closed on Friday. Merton Council and the Royal Borough of Greenwich have said schools are contacting families directly, and arrangements can differ between year groups, as the Greenwich examples show. Schools may set work for pupils at home where year groups are not in school. The GMB has advised parents who are concerned about closures or safety to raise the matter with school management, the councils, their local councillors or their MP.

• Check the school's email, app or website on Thursday evening and Friday morning.
• Confirm which year groups are expected in, and whether breakfast and after-school clubs are running.
• Pupils in exam years, such as Years 11 and 13, may still be expected in where other years are not.
• Contact the school office, not the union, about arrangements for individual pupils.

No further strike dates have been announced. The GMB has not said whether it will ballot members in the other five boroughs it has identified. Any further action in Merton and Greenwich would depend on whether the councils make an offer or the dispute moves into formal mediation under the national agreement. The union has said that equal treatment with teachers is non-negotiable; Merton Council has said it cannot lawfully meet the demand from its own funds. The Department for Education has not said whether London Weighting will be on the agenda of the new negotiating body.

Frequently asked questions

Why are school support staff striking in London

GMB members in Merton and Greenwich schools are striking because they receive Outer London Weighting while teachers in the same schools receive the higher Inner London rate. The union says the gap is up to £1,400 a year.

When and where is the school support staff march

On Friday 9 October 2026, starting with a rally at Old Palace Yard in Westminster and continuing to the Department for Education on Great Smith Street. A start time has not been published.

Which schools are closed for the strike?

Merton Council says 28 schools are affected. In Greenwich, Invicta Primary School is closed, Thomas Tallis School is open to Years 11 and 13 only, and Christ Church C of E Primary is open to Years 1, 2, 3 and 6 only.

What is the difference between Inner and Outer London Weighting?

They are extra payments reflecting the cost of working in London, with Inner London paid at a higher rate. Teachers and support staff are paid under different national systems, which classify some boroughs differently.

Why can't Merton Council pay the Inner London rate?

The council says support staff are paid from the ring-fenced Dedicated Schools Grant and that it cannot lawfully top up school budgets from its General Fund.

What is the School Support Staff Negotiating Body?

A new statutory body under the Employment Rights Act 2025 that will negotiate minimum pay and conditions for school support staff in England. Its first outcomes are expected in 2027-28 at the earliest.

Are Tube stations in Westminster open on Friday?

Yes. Westminster and St James's Park stations are open on Friday 9 October. The Circle and District lines close through Westminster on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October.

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Sources used: GMB national press release (7 October 2026), Merton Council statement on the GMB ballot (25 February 2026), Department for Education Education Hub on the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (July 2026), Department for Education school workforce in England statistics (June 2026), GMB London Weighting for Change campaign (December 2023), GMB Southern Region on Merton ballot and Greenwich protest, Press Association reports via Yahoo News UK (April and October 2026), GB News (May 2026), Morning Star (October 2026), School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document 2025/26, Transport for London planned closures.