Headteachers have called for the system of teacher pay to be reformed to bring an end to an “annual circus of delay and disappointment”.
The call comes in a manifesto, published today by the Headteachers’ Roundtable group, which warns that a shortage of funding and teachers, along with crumbling buildings, is making the job of leading schools seem impossible.
It says that schools need a “long-term approach to reliable pay and progression to secure a consistent, sustainable supply of staff”.
The comments come after the government recommended teacher pay awards return to “a more sustainable level” for 2024-25.
The Headteachers’ Roundtable group said its manifesto has been drawn up after a series of conversations with “school leaders across the entire country”.
“What emerged from these conversations is the powerful and unequivocal message that the job of the headteacher is now impossible on so many fronts”, the group said.
It makes a series of recommendations, which the headteacher-led think-tank says will help to make the job possible.
1. Long-term approach on pay needed
“Pay settlements cannot represent an annual circus of delay and disappointment”, the group’s manifesto warns.
It adds: “Leaders must be able to plan over time for pay progression. All staff working in schools must know the sector provides consistently competitive salaries for all to pursue a rewarding career”.
It said that a long-term approach to reliable pay and progression is needed “to secure a consistent, sustainable supply of staff”.
The manifesto also includes calls to fully fund and increase statutory PPA time to give teachers “adequate time to fulfil teaching responsibilities outside of the classroom”.
2. Reallocate LA funds to special schools
The think tank has warned that local authority (LA) funding is currently “disproportionately” funnelled towards independent specialist schools over the maintained sector.
The manifesto says: “LAs should instead redistribute SEND funding to invest and grow new provision within our existing special schools.”
It said change is needed to “stop state funding leaking out into the independent sector, and keep our most vulnerable children close and in their communities”.
The group has also called for a change of accountability measures to ensure schools are “positively regarded rather than penalised” for including higher proportions of pupils with SEND and from disadvantaged backgrounds.
It comes after the government announced it is investigating why some schools are not inclusive, while Ofsted is considering how to assess inclusion during inspection.
The Headteachers’ Roundtable group has also called for a “judicial review of school policies and practices around admissions” to “protect against the exclusion of, or disadvantage to, children with SEND and other priority groups”.
3. Calls for a revamp of performance data
The group has also urged the government to redesign the way it measures school performance.
It says: “There is a growing consensus that the zero-sum approach to school performance at key stages 4 and 5 is at best misleading and, at worst, downright damaging. Our current system pits school against school, and incentivises and rewards non-inclusive leadership behaviour that damages children and adults.”
The manifesto adds: “We can only get a full picture of how a school or trust is performing when we also look at: destinations; proportions of children with education, health and care plans; movement off roll; elective home education; long-term disadvantage and all those other factors that sit behind the headline figures we see for schools.”
The recommendation comes after the DfE confirmed there will be no replacement for the Progress 8 measure for the two KS4 cohorts impacted by the pandemic.
The think tank has also called for a school performance dashboard which school leaders would help to create.
“Information to parents on school performance could take the form of a dashboard covering a range of metrics. School leaders should be involved in the design of a dashboard and ensure that it presents context and inclusivity measures,” the group suggested.
4. Value school leaders
Another key set of recommendations from the think tank’s manifesto come under the heading of ensuring the system is designed to “value school leaders”.
It calls for the government to “develop more humane and intelligent accountability systems” and says professional supervision for headteachers should be provided as standard.
The Headteachers’ Roundtable manifesto has also called for Ofsted to “address problems with the current complaints process that absorb a huge amount of leaders’ time, energy and resources”.
Ofsted has recently introduced several changes to its complaints system, including allowing schools to contact the inspector the day after an Ofsted inspection.
5. Review PFI contracts taking up public money
The manifesto has called for an urgent review of “complex and perverse” private finance initiative (PFI) contracts, which it warns are “stripping affected schools of essential resources.”
The manifesto said this review needs to be undertaken “to obtain best value for taxpayers’ money and put a stop to valuable resource lining the pockets of private companies”.
6. Ensure schools have sufficient capital funding
The Headteachers’ Roundtable manifesto also repeats calls for the government “to ensure sufficient capital funding for the maintenance and improvement of the school estate”.
It adds that “the long-standing existing and well-documented issues must not be sacrificed to fund the urgency of RAAC”.
The document warns that in the current situation, school leaders are “left chasing a plethora of elusive pots simply to apply sticking plasters to the fabric of their schools”.
A DfE spokesperson has said: “We are increasing school funding to £60.7 billion this year, which includes additional pay and pensions grants for teachers, and comes on top of additional capital funding to improve provision for young people with SEND, and support schools to help maintain their buildings”.
They added that the national funding formula ensures funding is “distributed fairly, based on the needs of each school and its pupils, and that every school gets higher pupil-led funding compared with the previous year”.
“Our attendance strategy has been backed as ‘comprehensive’ by the OECD, and has seen over 375,000 more children in the classroom almost every day last year, including vulnerable children and those with SEND,” the spokesperson added.
