A decision on a pay rise for teachers could be decided under the “caretaker” team that is in place at the Department for Education (DfE), the new education secretary has said this morning.
James Cleverly, appointed as secretary of state yesterday, said that not making a decision on teacher pay would “bind the hands” of his successor, as it would leave school leaders unable to plan their budgets for the next academic year.
Speaking on Radio 4‘s Today programme this morning, Mr Cleverly said that being able to budget is an “incredibly important part of the planning process” for school leaders.
He said he had spoken to union leaders yesterday about the question of teacher pay.
Last month, the National Education Union (NEU) warned the former education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, that it would ballot members over strike action in the autumn if the government fails to commit to a pay rise above inflation, which currently stands at 9.1 per cent.
In a letter to Mr Zahawi, the joint general secretaries of the union said it had calculated “that teacher pay has fallen by a fifth in real terms since 2010, even before the latest bout of inflation”.
On the Today programme, Mr Cleverly said the current administration recognised that education leaders “need the ability to plan over the summer”.
“Their budgets, their salaries, the overall spending is an incredibly important part of the planning process,” he added.
And he said: “Not making a decision on things like this will also bind their hands because it would mean that leaders in the teaching profession would be unable to plan for the future.
“We hugely respect the difficult challenges that leaders in education are facing now - recovering from Covid as well as the inflationary pressures that we’re seeing,” he added.
Mr Cleverly’s appointment was announced yesterday after Boris Johnson finally agreed to stand down as leader of the Conservative party but insisted on staying on as prime minister until a new leader is elected.
The new secretary of state replaced Michelle Donelan, who resigned after only 36 hours in post.
