The UK’s statistics watchdog has called for the Department for Education (DfE) to be clearer about claims that the teacher pay offer was “fully funded”.
The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has published correspondence today between itself, the NEU teaching union and the DfE. The union reported the government to the watchdog last month over claims made in a department evidence document and follow-up blog.
The watchdog has said today that it considers that the Department for Education has evidenced its claim that the offer is fully funded in line with its definition.
However, it has advised that the department should consider including its definition of “fully funded” in future schools’ cost technical notes and also consider including more information on high-needs funding.
The OSR said that “some users may interpret ‘fully funded’ to refer to the individual school level” and it was important that the department “continues to support understanding by being clear about its use of the term ‘fully funded’”.
The OSR also said that it is not within its remit to comment on the approach taken to setting pay awards.
The NEU teaching union has said that education secretary Gillian Keegan should learn from this adjudication that she “should not be using national-level costing to tell individual schools what they can or cannot afford”.
Both the NEU and the DfE had written to the OSR in relation to the teacher pay offer put forward earlier this year.
The NEU raised concerns about government claims in five areas: high needs funding, teacher number projections, the per-pupil price inflation figure, financial years and the affordability of the pay offer.
In a letter replying to the DfE, the OSR director general for regulation, Ed Humpherson, recommended that the DfE “should consider including more information” on the points of “high needs funding” and consider “including its definition of ‘fully funded’” in future schools’ cost technical notes.
Mr Humpherson said that the OSR “considers that the Department for Education has evidenced its claim that the offer is fully funded in line with its definition”.
But he added: “However, we acknowledge that some users may interpret ‘fully funded’ to refer to the individual school level. In the light of this difference of interpretation, it is important that the Department for Education continues to support understanding by being clear about its use of the term fully funded.”
The DfE had referred itself to the watchdog last month, claiming that it “believed it would be helpful to have our statements on this issue independently reviewed”.
After a period of intensive talks, the DfE last month made all four teaching unions the offer of a £1,000 non-consolidated payment for 2022-23 and an average 4.5 per cent rise for 2023-24.
But school leaders voiced concerns about the affordability of the government offer after it was revealed that just 0.5 per cent of the overall 4.5 per cent pay award for next year, plus the £1,000 one-off payment for this year, would come through new funding.
Civil servants told school staff last month: “On average, using the methodology that we use year on year, our assessment is that there is sufficient in the budget to make a 4 per cent pay rise affordable.”
However, all four education unions rejected the government pay offer last month and NEU analysis showed that between 40 and 58 per cent of schools will not be able to pay the rise without making cuts elsewhere.
Commenting on the adjudication, Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU said: “Gillian Keegan should learn from this adjudication that she should not be using national-level costing to tell individual schools what they can or cannot afford.
“The evidence document just shows how out of touch the education secretary is with the reality in our schools.
“It is now very important that Gillian Keegan begins to understand and articulate the reality of school funding. Schools are not funded on a national average. The majority of schools will not be able to afford even a 4.5 per cent pay rise without making cuts to provision.
“The government needs to commit to investing in this generation of children, their schools and the people who work in them, including through bigger pay rises.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “We made a pay offer to unions that was fair, reasonable and recognised teachers’ hard work. As per our published calculations, the pay offer would also have been fully funded, and we welcome the Office for Statistics’ recognition that we have communicated this transparently.
“Just this week thousands of schools will receive additional funding, as part of the extra £2 billion of investment we are providing both this year and next. As a result, school funding will be at its highest level in history next year, as measured by the IFS (Institute for Fiscal Studies).”
