It is “extraordinary” that the Department for Education is yet to publish the School Teachers’ Review Body’s latest recommendations for teacher pay, Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has said.
Ms Phillipson submitted a parliamentary question asking education secretary Gillian Keegan when the government planned to publish the report, after it was leaked that the STRB called for a 6.5 per cent pay rise for teachers for 2023-24.
In response, schools minister Nick Gibb has said that the government is considering the recommendations and will publish its response “in due course”.
Following reports that the STRB had recommended a 6.5 per cent pay rise, the country’s four main education unions wrote to Ms Keegan, calling for the government to formally publish the leaked pay recommendations.
The Association of School and College Leaders, the NAHT school leaders’ union, and the NEU and NASUWT teaching unions also called on the DfE to urgently restart negotiations in the dispute over teacher and leader pay, and the funding of pay awards.
Now, Ms Phillipson has raised the issue, too. In a post on Twitter today, she said: “Extraordinary that the government is still refusing to publish the report of the School Teachers’ Review Body.
“The government knows the findings. Journalists know the findings. But ministers refuse to share them with teachers and parents.”
She sent the tweet following the government’s response to her parliamentary question.
In Mr Gibb’s written answer to her question, he said: “As part of the normal pay round process, the independent School Teachers’ Review Body has submitted recommendations to the government on teacher pay for 2023-24. The dDepartment is considering the recommendations and will publish its response in the usual way, in due course.”
The NEU has staged a series of strikes over teacher pay this year and is balloting again for a fresh strike mandate from its members. The NAHT, NASUWT and ASCL are also holding strike ballots this term and the unions have indicated that they could co-ordinate their action in the next academic year if their members vote to strike.
