The DfE has said it is not cutting any existing programmes to fund today’s pay award for teachers.

The department announced it was using £508 million from its existing budgets to finance the pay rise after the Treasury refused to give it any extra money.

There had been speculation that existing programmes, such as the flagship Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund (TLIF), would be cut back to help find the money.

Last week, organisations that bid unsuccessfully for the £45 million second round of TLIF were told that a “re-prioritisation” meant the DfE would only award one contract in each of two of the fund’s lots.

Following today’s pay award announcement, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT headteachers’ union, said he feared the funding for teacher pay would be “at the expense of school improvement and leadership development”.

However, the DfE today told Tes that there were no cuts to existing programmes to fund the pay rise - including the £45 million allocated for TLIF.

Instead, it said the bulk of the additional funding has come from what it called unallocated headroom and contingencies funding, including adjustments to projected pupil numbers.

Earlier this month, the DfE revised downwards its predictions for the number of the pupils in the school system in future years.

Education select committee chair Robert Halfon today pressed Treasury minister Liz Truss on the source of the £508 million.

She responded: “The money is coming from central DfE budgets - underspends in central DfE budgets - and it will be allocated to schools.”

She added that education secretary Damian Hinds “will talk about the allocation in due course”.