Labour is calling on the Government to provide ring-fenced extra funding to schools to enable them to implement teachers’ pay rises.
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said lifting the cap on public sector pay, including for teachers, is “meaningless” unless it is backed-up by funding.
Ms Rayner said: “Even the Conservatives have been left with no choice but to admit they have left teachers thousands of pounds worse off.
“It is no wonder they have created a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention when they are asking teachers to take real terms pay cuts year after year.
“Their promise to lift their own cap on public sector pay is meaningless without new, ring-fenced funding to ensure that teachers, as well as support staff, can finally get a real pay rise after years of cuts.”
She said: “The next Labour government will give our teachers the pay rise they deserve, with a fully-funded plan to end the public sector pay cap and increase wages in our schools.”
Ms Rayner pointed to an Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) report from November last year which warned that public sector pay rises in the wake of the lifting of the cap would have to be met by “squeezing non-pay spending and by reducing the workforce”.
She said analysis of Department for Education (DfE) sources show that the average teacher was around £4,000 a year worse off in 2016 compared to 2010.
The School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) is currently considering its recommendation for this year after submissions closed in February.
Last year, the STRB recommended a 1 per cent hike to all teachers’ pay ranges, apart from the main pay range, which it said should see a 2 per cent increase at the minimum and maximum of the scale.
The recommendation was accepted by Government. Since then, the Government has signalled that it will look at easing limits on pay for public sector workers.
Earlier this year, five teaching unions said teachers and school leaders have faced seven years of pay cuts at a time of “unprecedented levels of change” in the education system, in a joint statement to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB).
The DfE’s submission to the STRB stressed its plans to increase spending on schools by £1.3 billion over the next two years, on top of existing funding.
But it said the STRB will “want to consider the value for money of uplifts to the statutory salary and allowance ranges against an opportunity cost of reduced flexibility for individual schools to make decisions to spend this money elsewhere, if that would be most effective in educating pupils.”
A spokeswoman said: “The education secretary has been clear that his top priority is to make sure teaching remains an attractive and fulfilling profession.
“There are a record number of teachers in our classrooms - 15,500 more than in 2010 - and increasing numbers are returning.
“With average wages of £37,400 outside of London, rising to £41,900 in the capital, teaching continues to be an attractive career. And there is more money going into our schools than ever before - with core school funding rising to a record £43.5 billion by 2020 - 50 per cent more per pupil in real terms than in 2000.”
