I think most people would agree that Bridget Phillipson has made a pretty good impression during her first month as secretary of state for education.

Her letter to the education workforce struck the right note from the start; the appointment of Professor Becky Francis to lead the review into curriculum and assessment is inspired; and this week’s announcement of a 5.5 per cent pay award for schoolteachers in England, with allowance ranges also increasing by 5.5 per cent, is welcome and well-deserved.

While none of the above may seem particularly earth-shattering, they have helped set a tone that is markedly different from many of Phillipson’s predecessors.

There does now seem to be a new sense of optimism throughout those areas of the profession for whom this pay award announcement is relevant. There can be no doubt that this makes for a good start to the new academic year.

Pay parity must be a priority

However, while recognising the value of the new secretary of state confirming the pay award for schoolteachers in England, we cannot ignore that there are still other areas of our profession waiting for information on their proposed pay awards and associated funding.

Colleagues teaching and leading in sixth forms and post-16 colleges and in different jurisdictions remain uncertain about their pay awards and funding for the new academic year.

This is clearly unfair and needs to be addressed as a priority. If we do not achieve pay parity for all teachers, we risk creating a gap in the profession that is neither fair nor in the best interest of recruitment going forward.

For too long, post-16 has been treated as the “Cinderella” of education. It is long overdue that we gave this vital part of the sector the recognition it deserves for helping so many young people to gain the essential skills they need to enter and add value to countless industries.

I don’t believe anyone in education would argue against college teachers receiving a similar pay award to school teachers for essentially doing the same job. They are just as deserving as their counterparts in schools.

However, this will not happen without government intervention, as pay in post-16 colleges was already 9 per cent below that of teachers in schools, even before the latest 5.5 per cent award.

The impact on recruitment and retention

Funding for post-16 colleges has not risen above the levels of 2010-11 and current funding levels, and the conditions associated with that funding make it almost impossible for college leaders to know how much money they will receive each year until well into the new year.

Until they know that, they cannot know what pay award they can afford for their staff. They do know, however, that recruitment and retention of post-16 staff is impacted by pay comparisons with other parts of the education sector.

It is also true that many of the above points relate to business leaders in schools and colleges. School business leaders really must be included in the school teachers’ pay and conditions document going forward.

However, this will not happen until funding across all sectors is fairly distributed. It’s now up to the government to create the conditions that make this possible.

Everybody understands that public finances are tight, but as has been rightly pointed out this week, there is also a cost to inaction.

After an impressive first four weeks in the role, the secretary of state now needs to show a willingness to tackle difficult issues such as the continuous underfunding of post-16 education. Otherwise there is a risk that some of the goodwill that has been built up this month could start to evaporate.

Pepe Di’Iasio is general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders

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