Teachers should receive a 6.5 per cent pay increase this year, according to an independent pay review body. 

The School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) recommendation is considerably higher than the 4.5 per cent offer made by the government in March.

The STRB’s reported recommendation, leaked in a national newspaper, says that the teaching profession needs this level of pay increase to keep it on a stable footing.

The leaders of the NEU teaching union have told The Times that if the offer was fully funded it could lead to a resolution of the pay dispute. 

Meanwhile, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, tweeted that it was “good to see the School Teachers’ Review Body asserting its independence”.

In March, the government had said its teacher pay offer was “fair and reasonable” but the deal was condemned as “insulting” by the NEU and rejected by its members, leading to more strike action.

Jack Worth, school workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), said of the STRB recommendation: “For recruitment and retention to improve it is critical to have a pay award that ensures teacher pay increases faster than pay in the rest of the labour market.

“With NFER’s latest forecast indicating unprecedentedly low recruitment into teacher training this year, this reported STRB recommendation is a good first step.

“However, it is crucial for the government to ensure that schools have the funds to pay for any increase - and also that this pay award be accompanied by a long-term plan to continue to improve the competitiveness of teacher pay.”

Government ‘needs to fully fund’ teacher pay award

Union leaders have called on the Department for Education to ensure that if this pay recommendation is accepted by the government, it is fully funded to avoid schools having to make cuts to afford it.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “This simply shows how out of touch the government’s offer of 4.5 per cent is. Education is in crisis and the government now needs to listen to the profession and let us help them solve the crisis.”

He added that a 6.5 per cent rise would be progress but said the sector faced “deep recruitment and retention issues”.

“The government needs to fully fund the award and resolve the pay dispute for the current financial year, as well as making big changes to ease workload and inspection pressures. It must now urgently reopen serious negotiations,” Mr Whiteman said.

Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU teaching union, said: “Teachers and school leaders overwhelmingly rejected [education secretary] Gillian Keegan’s last offer - both because it was too low and because it wasn’t fully funded. Since that rejection she has sought to hide behind the School Teachers’ Review Body, saying that she is leaving it to them to make the decision on teacher pay.

“She now has the report and can no longer hide behind the STRB.”

The union leaders said the reported 6.5 per cent proposal would be “significantly above” the government’s pay offer, which was rejected by members of the four main education unions.

They added: “However, it does not make up for the poor awards the STRB has made almost every year since 2010, leading to declining rates of pay and enormous problems with teacher recruitment and retention.

“Gillian Keegan must now break cover from Sanctuary Buildings [the DfE’s office in Westminster]. She must publish the STRB report. She must invite the teacher and leader unions into the DfE and be absolutely clear about whether, and when, she intends, or not, to implement the STRB’s recommendations in full, or, as we would argue, to go beyond them.  

”She must make it clear if she intends to fully fund it.”

Mr Barton said: “If true, this appears to be a step in the right direction in terms of addressing the worsening teacher recruitment and retention crisis facing schools, and towards restoring teacher and leader pay levels.

“It is a significant improvement on anything so far offered by the government and it is good to hear that the pay review body has asserted its independence.

“However, it is only one half of the equation. The other crucial factor is that any pay award is fully funded by the government at an individual school level, so that every school has enough money to be able to afford the costs of paying their teachers without having to make cuts to education provision.”