The number of hours Welsh teachers spend in front of classes should be capped and time for planning, preparation and assessment “re-examined”, according to a major review of teachers’ pay and conditions in Wales.
The review of Welsh teacher and leaders’ pay - commissioned by the Welsh government in December 2021 and conducted by the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body (IWPRB) - also says “a consolidated single pay scale with annual progression” should be introduced for Welsh teachers, and headteachers should earn at least £61,547 from September.
Currently, the minimum headteacher salary in Wales is £54,316 and “a classroom teacher could be earning more than their headteacher”, according to the report.
The report also recommends headteacher salaries undergo a more thorough review - both in terms of the salary range and the way salaries are calculated.
It says the “leadership pay range”, which applies to deputy and assistant headteachers, should also be reviewed.
‘Difficult’ financial situation
In total, the IWPRB report, published yesterday, sets out 26 recommendations with other areas covered including: teacher workload; newly qualified teachers’ pay; teaching and learning responsibility allowances; flexible working; and sabbaticals and career breaks.
The report recommends that the government looks at introducing unpaid sabbaticals as well as “a specified number of nationally funded sabbaticals or secondments for teachers and leaders”.
Responding to the report, education secretary Lynne Neagle said the government accepted “in principle all the recommendations subject to consultation with key stakeholders”.
However, she said “affordability” would be an important consideration given “the difficult financial situation faced by Welsh government, local authorities and schools”.
Ms Neagle said the implementation of any of the recommendations in the short to medium term would only occur “where they can be shown to be either cost neutral or are able to be met from existing budgets”.
Currently, Welsh teachers progress annually on the main pay range (MPR) and biennially on the upper pay range (UPR). Teachers who wish to move from the MPR to the UPR have to apply.
However, the IWPRB report - A Strategic Review of the Structure of Teachers’ and Leaders’ Pay and Conditions in Wales - finds the application process “is inconsistent and lacks…rigour”.
It says that, by September, teachers should be allowed “to move automatically between scales” and it supports “a single pay scale in principle”. It says the IWPRB should “consult on the development and structure of a single consolidated pay scale” in 2025-26.
A separate recommendation says “the role of the leading practitioner and its associated pay structure” should be reviewed at the same time.
The report says a single teacher pay scale would “allow classroom teachers to progress more rapidly” and “make the profession more attractive to new recruits”.
ITE recruitment in Wales
In 2022-23, more than half of secondary initial teacher education places in Wales were unfilled, with 448 students recruited, against an allocation of 948.
However, the report also recommends that newly qualified teachers should not be able to progress on the MPR until they have completed induction.
Currently, pay progression is not dependent upon having completed induction, and therefore the salary of NQTs will increase incrementally on an annual basis. The report says this practice should end.
On headteacher pay, the IWPRB says the salary range for headteachers and the methodology for calculating headteacher salaries should be reviewed in 2026-27 - as well as the “leadership pay range”, which applies to deputy and assistant headteachers.
The report also says the IWPRB is “supportive in principle of specifying a maximum number of teaching hours per week”. However, it recognises “there will be financial, educational and staffing implications”.
It calls on the Welsh government to carry out “a full impact assessment” of the proposal and says the IWPRB should be “remitted in 2025-26 to consult on implementation”.
Teacher PPA time
The report says “an increase in teaching time is negatively correlated with Pisa [Programme for International Student Assessment] 2018 scores”.
It notes that “Wales is in the upper quartile of self-reported average teaching hours per week across OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries”.
The report adds that time for planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) “needs to be reconsidered in the light of the reform agenda” - including the introduction of the new curriculum and the new qualifications.
Currently, time for PPA in Wales must amount to at least 10 per cent of teaching time, but the report says: “Most consultees called for an increase in the time allocated to PPA. Of those that expressed this view, the majority called for an increase from a minimum of 10 per cent of teaching time to a minimum of 20 per cent of teaching time.”
Workload reduction plan
The review also calls for the Welsh government to introduce “a workload reduction plan” so that by September 2027 Welsh teachers are working no more than an average of 48 hours per week and there is “no detriment when compared with working hours in England”.
A survey published in October 2021 found full-time teachers in Wales reported working an average of 56 hours a week, compared with an average of 51.9 hours per week in England.
The IWPRB report also finds “that teachers in Wales have an overall weekly working time (including teaching and performing other duties) that is second highest in the OECD, below only Japan”.
The IWPRB report says: “We believe that, in order to achieve maximum benefit, our recommendations are intrinsically linked and should be adopted ‘as a package’. However, each recommendation stands in its own right.”
