The body that makes recommendations on teacher pay has its “arms tied behind its back” as it can only make recommendations within what’s affordable based on current school funding levels, a governors’ leader has warned.
Writing in a blog today, Emma Knights, chief executive of the National Governance Association, said the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) is “limited” by its remit, and suggested a more “compelling” model would be to allow it to leave affordability to politicians and make recommendations based on the need to “recruit, retain and motivate the workforce”.
Each year, the education secretary writes to the STRB asking for recommendations on teacher pay and conditions for next year, with this letter asking for the body to come back with a report in May.
But in the most recent letter, education secretary Gillian Keegan wrote: “In the current economic context, it is particularly important that you have regard to the government’s inflation target when forming recommendations”.
And she also asked the STRB to recognise the impact pay rises would have on schools’ overall budgets.
Writing in a blog today, Ms Knights said: “Clearly, income needs to come into the equation, too - but STRB has its arms tied behind its back if it can only make recommendations which are affordable within current school funding parameters. Chickens and eggs come to mind.
“A more compelling model for reviewing pay would be for independent review boards to report to the government, having taken account of the need to recruit, retain and motivate the workforce, but leaving the government to decide what they can afford given the state of the economy and the public finances.”
Speaking to Tes, Ms Knights said this change would make the review board “rather more independent”.
“It would not be constrained by the government’s approach to public expenditure, but advising them on what they need to spend to secure and reward the profession”, she added.
Back in July, the Department for Education announced it would award experienced teachers a 5 per cent pay rise from September 2022.
This came after the STRB said it was “necessary and appropriate” to exceed the government’s proposed general pay increases for experienced teachers (of 3 per cent in 2022 and 2 per cent in 2023) in order to “address the risks to teacher supply while balancing the needs of affordability”.
Both teaching and school leaders’ unions strongly criticised the teacher pay award over concerns that it was not in line with the rising cost of living, and because of schools’ inability to meet the extra cost involved without funding.
At the time, then education secretary James Cleverly said that the DfE was delivering “significant pay increases for all teachers, despite the present economic challenges”.
DfE needs to take recruitment ‘far more seriously’
Ms Knights also raised the issue of teacher recruitment in her blog.
She said: “The Department for Education needs to take the whole issue of teacher recruitment far more seriously - or is that unfair? - are they taking it seriously, but just not very successfully?
“We really do need this to be an absolute priority, a prime focus of the ministerial team with a sense of urgency, backed up by competence, knowledge, transparency and a spirit of true collaboration in order to tackle the systemic issues which go beyond the scope of a single school or even a multi-academy trust.
“We all need staff recruitment to improve, not least the children and young people being educated.”
She added that the organisation was hearing that the issues at the top of the list of governing boards’ concerns were staff retention and staff welfare.
The recruitment of trainees into postgraduate initial teacher training plummeted in 2022 compared to levels seen before the pandemic, with secondary teacher trainees 40 per cent below the government target in September and the DfE also failing to hit its primary target for the first time.
The DfE has been approached for comment.
