The teachers’ pay body has been warned to “assert its independence” in the pay review process after it was asked for its recommendations on pay for 2024-25.
The warning from heads’ and teachers’ leaders comes after the education secretary urged the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) to consider schools’ budget pressures in her remit letter kicking off the formal pay review process for next year.
In the letter, Gillian Keegan said the STRB should consider the impact of pay rises on school budgets, and the cost pressures that schools are facing, in making its pay recommendations.
However, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the STRB must not feel “constrained” by the letter, and urged it to recommend pay at a level that will address the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
He added that schools’ “cost pressures are a problem of the government’s making, as a result of its failure to allocate any additional money to schools in the Autumn Statement”.
Mr Barton urged the STRB to “assert its independence as it did for 2023-24”, adding that the “government must ensure that there is sufficient money available to schools” to fund any pay award recommended.
Teacher pay review pressure
In her letter to the STRB, Ms Keegan said pay review bodies recommended “historically high” pay awards in 2023-24 due to the cost-of-living crisis.
“Accepting these recommendations, whilst not increasing borrowing, required tough decisions. It is vital that the STRB consider the historic nature of the 2023-24 award and the government’s affordability position,” she added.
Ms Keegan also asked the STRB to take into account forecast changes in pupil population, a commitment to increasing headteachers’ autonomy, and teacher recruitment and retention in its pay recommendations.
Earlier this month the NASUWT teaching union announced a dispute with the government over the delay in the remit letter being sent out to kickstart the pay process.
Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, said the government’s “continuing failure to address a central demand from the STRB in their last report to scrap the system of performance-related pay remains a key outstanding concern for our members, alongside the lack of any commitment from the government to pay restoration”.
He added that the union was “also concerned that ministers have once again denied the pay review body the opportunity to consider the teacher workload crisis that is overwhelming our schools and driving record numbers of teachers out of the profession”.
Meanwhile, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, described the remit letter as “completely inadequate”.
“The government is again attempting to constrain the STRB by forcing it to work within the existing inadequate funding envelope. It is clear that the government is gearing up for a paltry 1-2 per cent teacher pay award next year,” he said.
The NEU will continue to make the case for a “properly funded pay correction”, Mr Kebede added.
