School leaders are hopeful, too, that a new timeframe for announcing the September pay rise will finally take guesswork out of the budget-setting process.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has set out her intention to bring forward the pay announcement in her remit letter to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), published this week.
In July, chancellor Rachel Reeve pledged that the new government would announce pay awards as close as possible to the start of the financial year in April.
In her letter, Ms Phillipson said that while the pay process will be brought forward this year, “knock-on effects” from delays to the previous pay round will mean that it is “unlikely that the pay award will be announced before maintained schools should be setting their budgets”.
However, she added: “But by bringing the pay round forwards this year, we can more fully reset the timeline in 2026/27.”
While her letter does not put a specific date on the announcement next year, she asks the STRB to publish its recommendations “at the earliest point that allows you to give due consideration to the relevant evidence”.
The National Education Union (NEU) welcomed the decision. A statement said: “Late issuing of the remit under the Conservatives meant teachers having to wait until November to get the pay increase due on September 1, so we hope that this year’s earlier remit means they will get their 2025/26 increase on time.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, is also pleased. He said: “The previous government’s practice of announcing this decision in July reduced budget planning to a guessing game and created uncertainty for teachers. Bringing it forward is a simple and welcome step.”
It comes as members of the NEU have voted in favour of accepting this year’s 5.5% pay award. The union has run a “snap poll” of its members working in state schools with 95% of those who responded voting to accept the offer. The poll was sent to 300,000 members and turn-out was 41%.
This year’s award was one of the first acts of the new Department for Education and schools are to receive an additional £1.2bn to fund the pay rise.
However, education unions have been quick to point out that pay is still behind 2010 levels in real-terms and want to see continued action from ministers.
In her remit letter, the education secretary said that next year’s pay award would be “a key step” towards the government’s manifesto pledge to deliver an additional 6,500 teachers.
To this end, she has also pledged to publish more frequent and detailed pay and progression data for those with protected characteristics.
Her letter adds: “I am interested in (the STRB’s) views on how the current framework can best support teachers from all backgrounds and with protected characteristics, including by promoting flexible working. I am aware the pro-rating of teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) payments are a concern for many in the sector, so I am specifically asking for your recommendation on whether changes should be made to enable greater flexibility.”
The remit letter specifically asks the STRB for:
- An assessment of the adjustments that should be made to the salary and allowance ranges for classroom teachers, unqualified teachers, and school leaders in 2025/26 academic year.
- An assessment of any changes to flexibilities around TLR payments, concerning the existing pro-rata rule.
The NEU’s statement said that the government must “recognise that a significant pay correction to reverse the huge real-terms pay cuts since 2010 is essential to restore the competitiveness of teacher pay and solve the recruitment and retention problems”.
General secretary Daniel Kebede added: “The earlier publication of the remit is a welcome early signal that the new government will give teacher pay the urgent attention it deserves. Asking the STRB to focus its considerations on widening teacher access to flexible working options, increasing the flexibility of teaching and learning responsibility payments and committing to publishing pay and equality data addresses long-standing concerns raised by the NEU.
“But without a clear recognition of the need for further corrections in pay, teacher pay will remain uncompetitive, teacher shortages will persist and the government will not achieve its aims.”
Mr Di’Iasio echoed the sentiment: “The pay award will need to be sufficient to address a severe shortage of teachers both in terms of recruitment and retention. It is vital that the government puts in place the funding that will be necessary to make this possible in the Autumn Budget on October 30, and that this covers college staff as well as school staff.”
The National Association of Head Teachers, meanwhile, raised its concerns that the remit letter asks the STRB, once again, to take into account “cost pressures that schools are already facing and may face over the year” when making its pay recommendations.
General secretary Paul Whiteman said that this was not the job of the STRB: “The review body made clear that teachers and leaders pay lags behind roles with comparable size, scope and responsibility and that investment is needed to make teaching roles competitive. Sustained investment in the profession is required. Affordability is about political choices, not a matter for the review body.”
- DfE: Correspondence: School Teachers’ Review Body remit letter for 2025, September 2024: www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-teachers-review-body-remit-letter-for-2025