The NAHT school leaders’ union has said the body that recommends pay in the education sector has a “last chance” to assert its independence amid widespread industrial unrest over wages, as the union demands a 15 per cent “uplift” in leader and teacher pay next year.
And Paul Whiteman, general secretary of NAHT, accused the pay review process of having “failed” the education profession.
It comes as teacher members of the NEU teaching union are set to walk out over pay from 1 February after 90 per cent of teacher members voted for strike action in a ballot turnout of 53 per cent.
If its evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), NAHT has urged the review body to recommend a fully funded “inflation plus” pay uplift to all salaries from September 2023.
The NAHT has said this would “constitute a reasonable, responsible and pragmatic recommendation” from the pay review body.
“This approach is designed to achieve pay restoration over the life of a parliament.”
The union also accused the government of using the STRB as a “shield to prevent substantive discussion with representative bodies about improvements to teachers’ and school leaders’ pay and conditions”.
In a recent report, NAHT said the government’s own figures show that around a third of senior school leaders leave their post within five years of appointment.
And in evidence to the STRB, NAHT said that more than half of those go on to leave the state-funded school system entirely.
Mr Whiteman said the figures show the very real consequences of the government’s driving down of school leaders’ pay over the last decade.
“The profession is haemorrhaging experienced and talented teachers, and leaders who we desperately need, and we are losing them for good.”
Mr Whiteman said: “The STRB process has failed the education profession. Under their watch, school leaders have suffered a significant pay erosion that has led us to this damaging recruitment and retention crisis. The repeated and carefully evidenced warnings we make each year have been utterly ignored.”
“This is the last chance for the STRB to listen to the evidence, assert its independence, regain the confidence of the profession, and recommend a pay deal that will begin to solve the crisis and ensure a stable supply of great teachers and school leaders for the future.”
NAHT said the number of school leaders leaving their post within five years has risen sharply since 2011.
More than one in four primary school leaders and more than one in three secondary school leaders leave within five years of appointment, said NAHT.
Mr Whiteman continued: “These are leaders who are not at the end of their careers, who previously would have expected to continue leading their schools for decades more.
“Instead, they are being forced out, and are finding jobs that pay and treat them better.
“Even if we could recruit enough new teachers to fill these gaps, that still wouldn’t replace the knowledge and experience these people have built up.”
Last year, five education unions published a joint submission to the consultation on the STRB that claimed the pay review body “did not recommend the significant improvements in pay and conditions that are needed”.
It followed an announcement in July 2022 that experienced teachers and leaders would receive a 5 per cent pay increase, in line with the recommendations from the STRB.
