The Department for Education will now have until after the Budget next month to submit its written evidence on teachers’ pay next year to the independent pay review body.
In a letter to consultees, seen by Tes, the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) has set a new deadline of 22 March for all parties to submit written evidence.
The STRB said the revised dates should ensure its report and recommendations are available by the end of May.
But one union leader has suggested that the delayed deadline shows that the pay review body is “far from independent” from the government and another warned that the delay would make it impossible for schools and trusts to plan.
The new timetable has been drawn up after the DfE failed to meet the deadline for submitting evidence last month.
The STRB has said it does not intend to make “further timetable revisions as this would negatively impact the timeliness of our recommendations”.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, told Tes: “This simply demonstrates that the review body is far from independent.
“The letter explains explicitly that this change is because the DfE decided to delay its evidence.”
He added: “It’s no wonder the profession has little confidence in a process that has let them down for more than a decade.”
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, told Tes that the deadline proposed by the STRB “might be the first time we see what the government says its affordability limit is for September”.
He added: “If the DfE wanted to settle the ongoing pay dispute, this delay isn’t helpful.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We assume the reason that the new deadline for submissions to the School Teachers’ Review Body falls after the spring budget is to enable the Department for Education to submit its evidence in the knowledge of public spending decisions announced in the budget.”
Mr Barton said that this meant the process “is likely to be very late indeed”.
“This is deeply unsatisfactory as late announcements on pay make it impossible for schools and trusts to budget accurately and leave them having to plan on the basis of guesswork.
“While we understand the reason for the delayed deadline, this is a problem of the government’s making, and it must do better than this in future.”
In the email seen by Tes, STRB chair Dr Mike Aldred said: “It is our intention not to make further timetable revisions as this would negatively impact the timeliness of our recommendations.”
Last month, the DfE told unions that it would miss the deadline for submitting its evidence over teacher pay levels for next year to the independent pay review body.
According to an email seen by Tes at the time, the delay was down to the DfE not yet having “finalised views agreed cross-government on the affordability position”.
Now, the revised deadlines will see the STRB submitting its report by the end of May.
Here are the new deadlines:
- Written evidence by 22 March.
- Supplementary evidence by 12 April.
- Oral evidence in the week commencing 17 April.
- Report submitted by end of May.
The government’s Budget announcement is due to take place on 15 March.
Tes also understands that the DfE will discuss the shape of its written submission to the STRB at its next meeting with unions.
Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said the integrity of the STRB process had been “undermined by the government with each passing year”.
He said “the delay to the timetable for evidence submission is to accommodate the government” and he suggested it had been given preferential treatment.
Dr Roach added: “The government cannot put off facing up to the teacher recruitment and retention crisis created on its watch, and we expect the STRB to act in the interests of the profession and reassert its independence.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We will publish our evidence to the pay review body in due course. We continue to hold constructive discussions with teaching unions on a range of issues, including this future pay and our evidence submission.”
Union bosses met with the education secretary yesterday in the latest of a series of talks to discuss teacher pay for the first time since the NEU carried out its first national strike day on 1 February.
Last year, the DfE accepted the STRB’s recommendations in full.
In July last year, the government announced that teacher starting salaries for outside London would rise by 8.9 per cent in September, reaching £28,000, with experienced teachers and leaders receiving an increase of 5 per cent.
