They'd better believe it

He's been the NAHT's general secretary for 25 years, but, despite the rumours, David Hart has not turned into Victor Meldrew. As he tells Richard Garner, he is just projecting the disillusionment of his members

The question on the lips of civil servants and ministerial aides is, "What has happened to David Hart?". The veteran teachers' leader, approaching his 25th year as general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), has been adopting an increasingly militant tone in the past few months. His association threatened industrial action just before Easter, for the first time in as long as anyone can remember. Next week, at its annual conference, it will be voting on industrial action again.

Is the man whom New Labour courted during its first term of office becoming increasingly irascible as he grows older, the officials ask themselves. In the course of one week, the question came up three times in conversations with leading figures from differing parts of the education world. Each time, it was unsolicited.

One, unkindly, likened David Hart to the BBC sitcom character Victor Meldrew, whose grumbles about everything were legendary. (For those who never watched One Foot in the Grave, Victor Meldrew came to a sticky end – killed when he was run over by a car. But don't worry, David. It wasn't the Department for Education and Skills that made the comparison.)

Hart smiles at the simile but acknowledges that these are tough times for head teachers. "I'm not sure about the Victor Meldrew thing," says the sprightly 61-year-old, who enjoys horse-riding in his spare time. "But, yes, I'm really quite concerned about the effect that the Government's policies are having on our members. I think we are in this very difficult stage between promise and delivery, and I think there is a tremendous amount of frustration out there because the heads and their school colleagues thought that a Labour government would bring vast changes and very significant improvements.

"There is no doubt that this government has delivered in a number of significant areas but it is still very tough for heads and their deputies because they really bear the brunt of trying to deliver the standards agenda when it comes to accountability."

Next week's annual conference in Torquay looks likely to confirm the civil servants' image of a more hawkish NAHT. There is motion calling for industrial action over the review of workload if the Government fails to sort out an acceptable package for heads and teachers by the end of the autumn term.

This is the second time that the association has threatened industrial action recently. It comes only a few weeks after headlines of unprecedented industrial action by heads over performance-related pay. They were angry that ministers had only earmarked enough money for them to give half of their senior staff £1,000 pay rises, for which they became eligible in September. In the end, a face-saving formula was agreed upon, which put some more money into the pot.

In future, it seems, we will have to delete the word "unprecedented" when it comes to writing about head teachers threatening industrial action. "I guess the DfES was pretty gobsmacked by the threat of industrial action, and by the idea of head teachers and their deputies balloting on it," said Mr Hart. "They didn't imagine in a month of Sundays that it would happen. People should ask themselves why it did happen. I might appear more strident and militant but the Department had managed to get itself into such a mess over performance-related pay. I was merely projecting the views of my members." Around 10 per cent – "not an insignificant number of NAHT members" – still voted against accepting the settlement when it was put to a ballot, Mr Hart points out.

But workload is not the only issue on which ministers will be hearing some pretty harsh words from head teachers – and Mr Hart – next week. There is also an effective "no confidence" vote in the Government's agenda on raising standards. The motion declares that it is "failing the nation's children".

Hart is really annoyed by what he sees as a lack of trust in heads to deliver improved standards by themselves. He is particularly concerned about proposals in the education legislation to allow heads "earned autonomy" to do things their own way.

"There are 1,000 schools in this country that are on special measures, have serious weaknesses or are coasting, according to Ofsted (the Government's education-standards watchdog)," he says. "There are 23,000 others who are doing a fine job. Why should they all have to approach Estelle Morris for 'autonomy'? Estelle Morris, her ministerial colleagues and services such as Ofsted would love it if the NAHT spent the whole of its time saying what a great agenda it has got. It can't. In this world, we have to speak as we find." He offered this crumb of comfort to ministers, however. "I do believe that the gap between promise and delivery will be closed within the next 12 months on the back of Gordon Brown's comprehensive spending review," he says. Moving back into more strident tones, he adds: "If I'm wrong and it's not, then we have a real problem."

One of his worries is that the workload review will deliver for teachers but not for heads. The independent pay review body report calls for a reduction in teachers' hours, as well as guaranteed marking and preparation time during the school day, but offers little in the way of relief for heads. That is one of the reasons why David Hart sees it as his role in the next few months to be a constant reminder to ministers of his members' frustrations.

During Labour's first term, senior policy advisers realised that they had to get the head teachers on side for their reforms to succeed. They will probably find that they have to work harder at doing that in the second term.

The gospel according to David Hart

On balloting for industrial action over performance related pay: "I think we are heading for a confrontation. Heads are saying 'enough is enough'."

On a slump in appeals against A-level grades after the Government decided they could be marked down as well as up: "This bears out all my worst fears. My real worry is that many who would have obtained their first choice university place if they had appealed may be among those who have not."

On the Budget: "It is all promise and not a lot of delivery. If the spending review does not come up trumps on matters such as workload and performance-related pay, all hell will break loose."

On a threat to boycott new targets for curriculum tests for 11-year-olds: "Treasury-dominated targets are being imposed without any regard for realism. In advising heads to ignore the national and local education authority targets and set their own challenging but realistic ones, we are bringing sanity back into the process."

r.garner@independent.co.uk