The newly appointed education secretary will prioritise meeting with teaching unions this week as the profession awaits a decision on next year’s pay award, the Department for Education has said.
The DfE has also said it will immediately expand its flagship teacher recruitment campaign, Every Lesson Shapes a Life, but is yet to set out the details.
The moves are part of Labour’s manifesto promises to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers and to “reset” the government’s relationship with the profession.
The pledges come after the previous government missed its target for recruitment of secondary teacher trainees by 50 per cent this year.
Bridget Phillipson, who was appointed as education secretary after Labour won last week’s general election, also wrote to “all education workforces” today to set out the role they will play in the planned changes.
Phillipson: There is ‘a lot of work to be done’
Writing to schools and the wider education sector, Ms Phillipson admitted that there is “a lot of work to be done” and some “major challenges” to face.
She pointed to “the scar of child poverty, severe financial pressures squeezing all your budgets, high workload, climbing vacancy rates, [and] strain on care, mental health and SEND services”.
She added that the new Labour government wants to “tackle barriers like inadequate housing and child poverty that...make it so hard for children to learn”.
“This is a tough inheritance - none of these have quick and easy solutions but I will work with and for you to find practical ways forward,” the education secretary said.
And Ms Phillipson pledged to “listen” to the sector to “renew the trust and respect” between them.
Sector waits for decision on teacher pay
Many see the need to make an immediate decision on teacher pay and school funding as the most pressing item in the new education secretary’s in-tray.
The pay decision was deferred until after the general election by former education secretary Gillian Keegan.
While the teacher pay review body submitted its recommendations to the DfE before the election, the details of the document have not yet been made public.
A decision to implement a pay award that is not fully funded would attract significant concern from school and trust leaders, who have warned that pay rises above 2-3 per cent would be “unaffordable” for many this year.
Possibility of more teacher pay strikes
Last year, the government accepted the pay body’s recommendation that teachers receive a 6.5 per cent pay rise from September 2023. The deal came after a long-running dispute over pay and months of strike action by teachers.
This followed the previous year’s 5 per cent pay rise for experienced teachers.
Further industrial action has not been ruled out, pending the 2024-25 pay award decision.
Earlier this year, the NEU teaching union said that it would not hold a formal ballot for strike action over pay and funding before a formal pay offer was made by the government.
However, the union’s members did vote in favour of a “snap poll” on the government’s pay offer, adding that if the offer was “rejected with a convincing turnout”, the union should move to a formal ballot.
It is as yet unclear whether the NEU’s demands will change in the face of a new government.
Government will ‘work urgently’ to recruit teachers
Ms Phillipson said today that the government would “work urgently to recruit thousands of brilliant new teachers and reset the relationship between the government and the education workforce”.
She said that the government is “putting education back at the forefront of national life”.
“For too long, the teaching profession has been talked down, sidelined and denigrated. I have made it my first priority to write today to the people at the centre of making change happen: our workforces,” she added.
The DfE will also hold a reception with “key education stakeholders” later this week.
Ministerial appointments begin
Over the weekend, the government announced that Jacqui Smith - who served as home secretary under the last Labour government and is a former teacher and former schools minister - will join the House of Lords to become its higher education minister.
Ms Smith is not an MP and will receive a life peerage in order to take up the role.
The DfE is yet to announce any further ministerial appointments.
Catherine McKinnell held the role of shadow schools minister before the general election was called.
For the latest education news and analysis delivered directly to your inbox every weekday morning, sign up to the Tes Daily newsletter
