The vast majority of school leaders do not trust the pay review body process that recommends teacher salaries, a snap poll has found.
The poll, by the NAHT school leaders’ union, found that 87 per cent of school leaders surveyed said they were unconfident or very unconfident in the pay review body process.
The remaining 13 per cent of the 870 leaders surveyed said they were very confident or confident in it.
The NAHT said the findings showed that the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which makes recommendations on pay, “has lost the confidence of the profession”.
The findings from a February survey are included in the NAHT’s latest submission to the STRB, ahead of tomorrow’s closing date for evidence on next year’s teacher pay award.
The STRB is an independent body made up of economists and experts in pay and education.
Each year, the STRB invites evidence from unions, the government and other interested parties before submitting a final report to the Department for Education setting out recommendations on teacher pay for the following academic year.
The STRB’s report will not necessarily be in line with the government’s proposal, though, with the exception of last year, it usually is.
After the STRB publishes its final report, the DfE then makes its final decision on teacher pay.
It is under no obligation to follow the STRB’s recommendations, and in previous years has declined to do so.
The NAHT has claimed in its latest submission that the “failure” of the STRB “to counter the pay erosion of the last decade or arrest the damage to salaries caused by current inflation has led many school leaders to the view that the pay review process has demonstrably failed them”.
The union also criticised the failure of the DfE to meet the STRB’s deadline for main evidence submissions for the sixth consecutive year.
“Not unreasonably, school leaders question why it is that the department, with its considerable resources, is unable to meet the deadline, and why the review body appears to repeatedly accommodate such failure,” it said.
The DfE eventually recommended a pay rise of 3 per cent for experienced teachers in 2023-24 in its evidence to the STRB published last month.
The NAHT added in its submission today that the STRB must “demonstrate its efficacy and autonomy” and “be seen to actively resist attempts to constrain its work, and to call out government’s selective, partial and misleading evidence”.
The union also called for a reformed national pay structure with mandatory minimum pay points and pay portability, as well as a comprehensive review of the factors that determine leadership pay.
Today, the DfE also published its long-awaited report on the working lives of teachers and leaders, which revealed that 43 per cent of leaders are working at least 60 hours a week, with 19 per cent of teachers reporting also working these hours.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said today that it was “only proper” that the survey results were “considered by the STRB, in addition to the wealth of evidence submitted by education unions”.
Last week, all four education unions announced that members had rejected the government’s latest teacher pay offer.
The STRB’s report for 2023-24 pay is expected to be submitted by the end of May.
The STRB has been contacted for comment.
