NEU Grills Davis and Perry on School Pressures in Croydon 2026

Key Points

• The National Education Union (NEU) Croydon branch sent a detailed set of education questions to the leading Croydon Mayoral candidates ahead of Thursday’s election.
• Labour’s Rowenna Davis, a former secondary school teacher in West Croydon, and Conservative incumbent Mayor Jason Perry both submitted written responses, which have now been circulated to NEU members.
• NEU Croydon branch secretary Joe Flynn said no responses were received from the Green or Liberal Democrat mayoral candidates.
• Flynn noted that education is not a formal priority area for the Croydon Mayor because the borough’s public education system has largely been outsourced to academy chains, limiting direct Mayoral influence over schools.
• Davis highlighted staff burnout, excessive workload, lack of resources, pressures around supporting SEND pupils, and a bureaucracy-heavy exam system as key issues facing staff.
• Perry focused on sustained workload pressures, complex classroom needs including SEND and mental health, recruitment and retention difficulties, and falling pupil numbers linked to funding uncertainty.
• Perry pointed to the Croydon Education Partnership, established in 2023, as his main initiative to support collaboration, staff wellbeing, leadership development and recruitment across schools and colleges.
• Flynn reported that trade unions were excluded from the Croydon Education Partnership when it was set up, a decision the NEU “regrets”.
• On recruitment, Davis linked problems to unsustainable workloads, pay issues and what she described as the “de-skilling” and “de-professionalising” of teachers, including loss of autonomy over lesson planning.
• Perry attributed recruitment challenges to the high cost of living and housing across London, competition for experienced teachers and local concerns over falling rolls, while citing recruitment fairs and professional development work through the Partnership.
• On pupils’ issues, Davis listed poor housing, family breakdown, parental time pressures, unmet SEND needs, exposure to crime and violence, social media harms, and an exam system that can make many feel like failures.
• Perry referred to a borough-wide student survey published in January, saying most pupils reported good health and feeling safe at school, but also revealed anxiety, mental health pressures, fears about crime, bullying and worries over exams and the future.
• Flynn described Davis’s answers as “positive and thoughtful” and accurate to members’ experiences, but noted she did not explicitly propose that the Mayor should advocate for additional national funding.
• Flynn called Perry’s submission a “positive, if somewhat technocratic response” and said his record with the NEU is “fairly neutral”, while questioning the remit and impact of the Croydon Education Partnership and again noting trade unions’ exclusion.
• The NEU has sent the candidates’ full responses to its members and made them publicly available ahead of the 7 May vote.

Croydon (South London News) May 4, 2026 – The National Education Union’s Croydon branch has published responses from Labour’s Rowenna Davis and Conservative Mayor Jason Perry to a series of questions on the state of education in the borough, highlighting contrasting perspectives from a classroom practitioner and an incumbent focused on structures and data.

How did the NEU frame the Croydon mayoral debate on education?

The NEU in Croydon drew up a questionnaire for the “leading mayoral candidates” standing in Thursday’s borough-wide election, seeking to gather their views on staff and pupil issues, recruitment and broader education challenges. According to Inside Croydon’s report on the exchange, NEU branch secretary Joe Flynn said that neither the Green nor Liberal Democrat candidates replied, leaving only Davis and Perry represented in the union’s published responses.

As reported by the unnamed reporter at Inside Croydon, Flynn contextualised the exercise by stressing that education is not formally a top-tier policy responsibility for the Croydon Mayor, since the borough’s public schools have been transferred to academy chains, limiting direct Mayoral control. Nonetheless, the union circulated the responses to members and released them publicly, treating them as an opportunity for staff to assess how each candidate understands pressures in schools and what leverage they might still use to influence education.

What did Rowenna Davis say are the biggest issues facing staff in Croydon schools?

As reported by Inside Croydon, Labour mayoral candidate Rowenna Davis introduced her answer by referring to her own background as “a secondary school teacher myself in West Croydon for some time”, saying this gave her first-hand experience of staff concerns. Davis told the NEU that “staff burnout is huge because the workload is too high” and argued that there is “a lack of resources to properly and adequately care for all of the teachers and students, and give them the education they deserve”.

She went on to state that staff face “the challenge of trying to properly support and look after SEND children without the proper resources” and criticised the current exam system for generating “so much bureaucracy, so much paperwork, so much recording, rather than focusing on the development of the full range of students’ talents”. Davis’s comments framed workload, resourcing and system design as central to staff pressures, emphasising teachers’ ability to support diverse learners and nurture broader talents beyond core exam subjects.

How did Jason Perry characterise staff pressures and his response as Mayor?

Inside Croydon reported that Conservative Mayor Jason Perry responded by highlighting “sustained workload pressures” and “increasingly complex needs in the classroom, particularly around SEND and mental health”. Perry added that “recruitment and retention remain challenging” and pointed to “falling pupil numbers across London” as a factor creating financial uncertainty because school funding is tied to roll numbers.

As reported by the Inside Croydon journalist, Perry stated that, “In response, we established the Croydon Education Partnership in 2023, bringing together schools, colleges and the council under an independent chair.” He described this body as “an important forum for collaboration”, saying it supports staff wellbeing, shares best practice and works collectively on workload, inclusion and leadership support. Flynn, however, noted that when the Partnership was founded, “a decision was taken” not to include trade unions, something the NEU branch “regrets”.

What are the key obstacles to recruiting and retaining staff, according to Davis?

In her response to the NEU’s second question on recruitment barriers, Davis referred back to the issues she had already listed, replying “See above!” before expanding on the theme of school working conditions. She argued that “until we make all schools sustainable, warm and welcoming places to work and properly resourced, we’re going to lose staff,” directly linking recruitment and retention difficulties to workload, environment and resources.

As reported by Inside Croydon, Davis highlighted pay as another factor, “particularly in Croydon where we don’t have the inner London weighting”. She also criticised trends she described as “de-skilling, de-professionalising”, saying “some teachers feel creativity has been crushed out of teaching by taking lesson-planning out of the hands of individual teachers”, suggesting that loss of professional autonomy discourages people from entering or remaining in the profession.

How did Perry explain recruitment difficulties, and what measures did he cite?

Perry’s answer, as carried by Inside Croydon, attributed recruitment pressures mainly to “London-wide factors”, including “the high cost of living and housing, alongside strong competition for experienced teachers”. He said that locally, “falling pupil numbers can also affect confidence in recruitment”, linking demographic trends to headteachers’ willingness to expand staff.

According to the article, Perry told the NEU that through the Croydon Education Partnership, the council is working with schools “to strengthen recruitment and retention, share best practice and expand professional development opportunities”. He said that “through the Partnership we have so far held two recruitment fairs” and that the council is “supporting leadership development and wellbeing initiatives, so Croydon is seen as a place where staff are supported, valued and able to build long-term careers”.

What did the candidates say about the main issues facing pupils in Croydon today?

In response to the NEU’s question on pupils, Davis gave a wide-ranging list of social and educational pressures. As reported by Inside Croydon, she cited “damp, mouldy, overcrowded housing”, “family breakdown”, and parents lacking time to support their children because they are “juggling multiple low-paid jobs” as major underlying problems affecting students’ lives.

Davis added that SEND needs are “often not recognised or met” and said, “crime and violence out on the street tempts children into other ways of life, to get a sense of belonging, or earn some money”. She warned that “social media and the online world leaves them not feeling safe enough to have a proper childhood, or develop confidence, instead they’re sucked into worlds online”, and argued that “the exam system just making you feel like a failure unless you’re excellent just at English and maths”, with these combined factors contributing to poor mental health, especially during and after lockdown.

How did Perry describe pupils’ experiences, and what evidence did he rely on?

The Inside Croydon report states that Perry drew heavily on a “borough-wide student survey published in January”, which he said showed “a broadly positive picture, with most pupils reporting good health and feeling safe at school”. At the same time, he acknowledged “clear challenges”, noting that “many young people report anxiety, mental health pressures, concerns about crime and worries about exams and their future”.

Perry told the NEU that around “28% report being bullied, and some say they do not always get the support they need”. He said the council is “expanding wellbeing programmes, strengthening support through schools, and working in partnership to tackle bullying and improve outcomes”, adding that “there is more to do, particularly on early intervention and mental health support”.

How did the NEU’s Joe Flynn assess the two candidates’ responses?

As reported by Inside Croydon, Flynn offered written commentary on both sets of answers for NEU members. He described Davis’s replies as “a positive and thoughtful set of responses, as befits a recent education practitioner and former NEU member”, adding that “members will recognise the accuracy and pertinence of these comments”.

However, Flynn also noted that “no opportunity has been taken to suggest that part of the Mayor’s role could be advocating for greater funding from national government to butter the parsnips of these fine words”, implying that Davis did not explicitly address the financial levers available to the office. Regarding Perry, Flynn said, “This is also a positive, if somewhat technocratic response,” and described his record in office as “fairly neutral as regards working with the NEU”.

What concerns did the NEU raise about the Croydon Education Partnership?

Inside Croydon’s coverage reports that Flynn acknowledged the Croydon Education Partnership as “a worthy undertaking” but raised concerns about its structure and reach. He emphasised that “at its foundation, a decision was taken not to include trade unions”, reiterating that this was a move the NEU “regrets” given that unions represent “the vast majority of teaching staff in Croydon”.

The article records Flynn as saying that the Partnership has “a limited remit and funding”, and that “members will have their own views as to how much impact it has had on education locally”. This commentary placed Perry’s flagship collaborative body under scrutiny in the context of staff representation and the practical scale of its work on workload, inclusion and leadership.

How does this exchange sit within the wider Croydon mayoral election?

The Inside Croydon piece situates the NEU questionnaire within the final days of campaigning before Croydon’s 7 May mayoral election, for which the official list of candidates was published by the council in April. The article notes that the union’s responses have been shared with members and made available “for all to see”, positioning education as one of several key issues being tested at the local level despite limited formal Mayoral powers over schools.

Inside Croydon’s wider election coverage has included interviews and digital debates with candidates from multiple parties, though the same report states that Mayor Perry “refused to give a pre-election interview” to the site in another context. Against that backdrop, the NEU exchange offers one of the few structured comparisons between the incumbent and the Labour challenger, specifically on education.

Background to the Croydon education and mayoral context

Croydon moved to a directly elected Mayor model for the first time in 2022, creating a single borough-wide executive figure separate from the council leader system used previously. Since then, the Mayor has had a defined set of responsibilities mainly around strategic leadership, budgets and key services, while the operation of most state schools has remained under multi-academy trusts and other providers rather than the local authority.

As Inside Croydon notes, this outsourcing means the Mayor has “little real say or influence in the running of Croydon’s schools”, though the office can still shape wider policies affecting children and young people, from housing and safeguarding to youth services and community safety. In 2023, Perry’s administration launched the Croydon Education Partnership as a forum linking schools, colleges and the council under an independent chair, aiming to coordinate responses on workload, inclusion and leadership support despite these structural constraints.

Prediction: how might this development affect Croydon school staff, pupils and union members?

The publication of detailed written responses to the NEU’s education questions is likely to give teachers, support staff and school leaders additional material to judge the main mayoral candidates’ understanding of day-to-day pressures in Croydon classrooms. For union members already concerned about workload, resourcing, SEND support and mental health, the contrast between a practitioner-led narrative from Davis and a data-and-institutions-focused reply from Perry may help them identify which approach they feel better reflects their experience, even though the Mayor’s formal power over schools is limited.

For pupils and families, any subsequent decisions by the next Mayor to prioritise early intervention, youth wellbeing, housing quality or community safety—areas referenced in the candidates’ responses—could shape the broader conditions in which children learn, particularly around mental health, exposure to crime and support for SEND. Within the NEU and other unions, the renewed spotlight on the Croydon Education Partnership’s composition and remit may prompt further campaigning for inclusion in borough-level forums, potentially changing how staff voices are represented in future collaboration between schools and the council.