The Department for Education has recommended a 2.8 per cent pay award for teachers for next year.
The DfE’s evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body states that a 2.8 per cent award for 2025-26 would “maintain the competitiveness of teachers’ pay despite the challenging financial backdrop the government is facing”.
A pay rise of 2.8 per cent would deliver a real-terms pay rise in the context of inflation forecasts of 2.6 per cent for the 2025-26 financial year, the department said in its submission.
‘Extremely disappointing’ pay recommendation
However, the Association of School and College Leaders general secretary, Pepe Di’Iasio, said the DfE’s recommendation was “extremely disappointing” and warned it will result in further school cuts.
The pay award “will not be sufficient to reverse years of pay erosion, make teaching salaries suitably competitive, and address severe teacher shortages across the country”, he added.
The DfE submission says it recognises that to cover a 2.8 per cent award, “most schools will need to supplement the new funding” they receive for 2025-26 “with efficiencies”.
Mr Di’lasio added that the “inadequacy of the proposed pay award is compounded by the government’s intention that schools should foot the bill out of their existing allocations”.
ASCL called on the STRB to make a recommendation “sufficient to address the recruitment and retention crisis”.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “This recommendation falls far short of what is needed to restore the competitiveness of the teaching profession, to enable it to retain experienced professionals and attract new talent.”
He added that school leaders will be particularly worried that the DfE is suggesting the proposal will not be funded.
“This would inevitably push already-stretched budgets to breaking point, forcing head teachers into really unpalatable decisions,” he said.
Teachers received a fully-funded 5.5 per cent award for 2024-25. In its evidence, the DfE says the 5.5 per cent award is ahead of the wider economy, “which should support an improvement in recruitment and retention”.
The previous year, teachers received a 6.5 per cent rise after the DfE had originally proposed a 3.5 per cent increase. Teachers in the NEU teaching union went on strike over pay in 2023.
Reacting to today’s pay recommendation the NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said it “falls well short of the urgent action needed”.
“NEU members fought to win the pay increases of 2023 and 2024. We are putting the government on notice. Our members care deeply about education and feel the depth of the crisis. This won’t do,” he added.
The DfE pay recommendation of 2.8 per cent comes after the National Foundation for Educational Research suggested Labour’s plan to recruit 6,500 new teachers would require pay rises of nearly 10 per cent for three consecutive years if salary was the only incentive.
“Pay is an important part of recruitment and retention but it is not the only part,” the DfE evidence concludes.
DfE will work on increasing flexible working
The department added it will continue to work on increasing access to flexible working and supporting teachers from a diverse range of backgrounds.
At the Budget in October, the government announced a £2.3 billion increase in core schools funding for 2024-25, with £1 billion ring-fenced for high needs. This increase is also meant to cover the remaining cost of the 5.5 per cent pay award.
Experts had already warned the increase in school funding would get “swallowed up by ongoing cost pressures”.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated schools’ costs will grow by more than 3 per cent next year.
The latest initial teacher training data showed the DfE has missed its recruitment target for secondary teachers by nearly 40 per cent and has also seen a fall in entrants to primary teacher training.
The DfE is hoping to announce the final pay rise “as soon as possible after April 2025”. This was after repeated complaints from schools that the late nature of this year’s pay award made it difficult for them to plan budgets.
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