The Department for Education must say when it plans to introduce a £30,000 starting salary for new teachers and explain how it will be funded, MPs have said in a report published today.
The Public Accounts Committee report says the DfE “cannot say when it will implement its commitment to a starting salary of £30,000 for new teachers”.
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The report points out the government set out plans to raise starting salaries to £30,000 by September 2022 in 2019.
But in February 2021, the government told the School Teachers’ Review Body that planned teacher pay rises would be paused and that the September 2022 target would not be met.
The report says that the DfE should set out a timetable for “meeting its commitment to a £30,000 starting salary for teachers, along with details of how this will be funded”, adding that for several years the DfE provided separate grants so that schools could cover increases in teachers’ pay, and that incorporating this into the dedicated schools grant from 2021-22 will make this funding “less transparent”.
The committee’s report also says that delays to the publication of the SEND review are “unacceptable”.
“The Department’s continued failure to finalise the SEND review means children with SEND are still waiting for much-needed improvements in support,” it says.
It notes that while the SEND review was announced in September 2019, the DfE wrote to the Public Accounts Committee in July 2021 saying it would need more time to develop its plans.
The department said it needs to extend the review’s timetable to take the impact of the pandemic into account, but the PAC report says the DfE should write to it, “within a month of this report being published, with details of the progress it has made towards finalising the SEND review and setting out when it now plans to publish the review.”
The report says the DfE has also “failed to take enough account” of the impact of its changes to the National Funding Formula, which have “fallen disproportionately on deprived local areas and schools”.
Under the NFF, the least deprived schools have gained the most, but minimum per-pupil funding levels have also benefited the least deprived schools. The report highlights that between 2017-18 and 2020-21, average per-pupil funding fell in real terms by 1.2 per cent for the most deprived fifth of schools, but increased by 2.9 per cent for the least deprived fifth.
In July 2021, the DfE began a consultation on moving to a “hard” national funding formula under which it would set schools’ budgets. But the Public Accounts Committee says that the Department should publish an assessment of the likely impact of the proposed changes on individual schools and different types of schools first.
Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, said: “The PAC report’s findings provide yet further confirmation that the government is putting at risk education recovery by failing to invest in education and in the teaching profession.
“Educational opportunities for all children, especially for those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, is being held back by the government’s failure to take the steps needed to end the teacher morale crisis, which is resulting in thousands more teachers seriously considering leaving the profession.
“Education is key to meeting the government’s aim of levelling up. After a decade of under-funding, ministers must urgently set out their plans to ensure that all schools have the resources they need to deliver the best educational provision for pupils.
“It is a poor indictment that the government is not only failing to keep its promise to deliver £30,000 starting salaries for teachers by next September, but ministers are now saying they are unable to say when this promise will be met.
“Teachers across the profession have seen the value of their pay eroded by around 17 per cent since 2011. Resolving the teacher morale crisis means the government must invest in the pay of all teachers in all schools at every stage of their careers.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “This report lays bare the reality behind the government’s ‘levelling-up’ rhetoric.
“The introduction of a National Funding Formula is the right approach, but the way in which the formula is being implemented means that those schools with the most need of more money - those serving our most deprived communities - have lost out.
“And we know, of course, that the children and young people in these schools have also suffered disproportionately from the impact of the pandemic.
“The continuing delays to the government’s much-vaunted SEND review are unacceptable. We have now been waiting for two years for its publication and almost 18 months have gone by since the Public Accounts Committee’s damning findings that SEND pupils were being failed by the system.
“The government’s apparent lack of concern and priority for our most vulnerable young people is, frankly, nothing short of scandalous.
“A government that is serious about improving the life chances of disadvantaged children and young people would be well advised to take note of the recommendations in this report. A good start would be a meaningful commitment of funding for education recovery at next week’s spending review.”
