Schools will not be able to plan their budgets for next year if they face delays on a decision over teacher pay because of the general election, a union leader has warned.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said today that the union fears no decision will be made until after the election, having failing to get an answer from the Department for Education.
“The implications of this delay are serious as it means that teachers and leaders have no clarity about what they will be paid when they come back after the summer break, and schools are unable to plan their budgets for next year with any confidence,” he said.
“This is particularly problematic in the context of school budgets being under massive pressure with many schools planning deficit budgets while they consider further cuts.”
Teacher pay ‘a priority’ for next government
Mr Di’Iasio urged the next government to settle the matter “as soon as possible” with a fully funded pay award that helps to address the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
His warning comes after prime minister Rishi Sunak called a general election to take place on 4 July.
According to unions, the DfE received the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) report last week with its recommendations for pay for 2024-25.
In a joint letter sent to education secretary Gillian Keegan this week, before the election was announced, the general secretaries of ASCL, the NAHT school leaders’ union and the NEU and the NASUWT teaching unions said there was “no good reason for you to delay publishing the STRB report, and compelling reasons to publish it now”.
Earlier this year the DfE told the STRB that teachers’ pay rises should be lower than in the past two years and return to “a more sustainable level”.
Last year the government accepted the pay body’s recommendation that teachers receive a 6.5 per cent pay rise from September 2023. The deal came after a long-running dispute over pay and months of strike action by teachers.
In 2022-23 experienced teachers received a 5 per cent pay rise.
This week headteachers called for the teacher pay system to be reformed to bring an end to an “annual circus of delay and disappointment”.
A manifesto from the Headteachers’ Roundtable said schools needed a long-term approach to pay.
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