The Department for Education will miss the deadline for submitting its evidence over teacher pay levels for next year to the independent pay review body, according to an email sent to unions and seen by Tes.
According to the email, the delay is due to the DfE not yet having “finalised views agreed cross-government on the affordability position to put forward to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB)”.
It continues that it hopes that “ongoing discussions” with unions will “support the [pay review] process and ensure that Pay Review Bodies get more considered and detailed information to inform their recommendations”.
The email concludes: “Therefore, due to our ongoing discussions, the government will not be submitting our written evidence to the STRB on 27 January.”
It adds that unions may also want to delay their submissions.
It comes as teacher members of the NEU teaching union are set to walk out over pay from 1 February after 90 per cent of teacher members voted for strike action in a ballot turnout of 53 per cent.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) will also be asking for an extension to the deadline in light of the government delay, it has emerged.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of ASCL, told Tes: “A deadline was set and everyone should be working to the same deadline.
“I think there will be a collective rolling of the eyes at this, at the very least, that once again the department hasn’t hit its deadlines.”
He added that “lots of headteachers and chief executives, who are required” to hit deadlines “will roll their eyes in frustration”.
Mr Barton said he thought the most “generous view” of the situation “might be that because of the progress we’re making in talks with the department, they have decided to review aspects of their evidence”.
However, Mr Barton said “there’s no indication of that”.
Union bosses have met with the DfE for a series of talks over the past two weeks to discuss the dispute over pay this year and discuss evidence for next year’s pay award.
However, Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU, told Tes at the time that on “neither of those two issues could we get any indication of whether there is any extra money and what the recommended award would be for next year”.
And Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said it was unclear why the DfE is to miss the deadline.
“Are they worried it will enrage teachers or are they preparing for a move towards better pay? We don’t know.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “We will publish our evidence to the pay review body in due course and we continue to hold constructive discussions with teaching unions on a range of issues, including this evidence.”
