The government has said a 2.8 per cent teacher pay rise “would be appropriate” for 2025-26.
In its evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body, the Department for Education said this level of award “would maintain the competitiveness of teachers’ pay, despite the challenging financial backdrop the government is facing”.
It comes after teachers were awarded a rise of 5.5 per cent this year and 6.5 per cent last year.
The government said the proposed 2.8 per cent rise would mean pay had risen by 21 per cent in four years.
However, the proposal is still likely to go down badly with unions, which have pushed for pay to be restored to 2010 levels in real-terms.
The IfS has estimated that even after this year’s pay rise, pay of experienced teachers will be around 9 per cent lower in real-terms than in 2010, with earlier career teachers less affected because of recent large increases to starting salaries.
CPI inflation rose by 2.3 per cent in the 12 months to October 2024.
Unions are also likely to be unhappy that the government has told the STRB what rise it deems “appropriate”.
The body is supposed to be independent of government, and leaders have previously warned ministers against trying to “constrain” its work.
In her remit letter to the STRB, published in September, education secretary Bridget Phillipson urged the body to consider the “cost pressures that schools are already facing and may face over the year (and how they affect individual schools)”.
Schools will need to make ‘efficiencies’ to afford rise
At the budget in October, the DfE said that £1.3 billion of additional funding for schools for 2025-26, as well as continuing to fund the impact of this year’s pay award, would also have to go towards next year’s rise too.
In its evidence to the STRB, the DfE said: “To cover the 2.8 per cent award proposed for teachers, the department recognises that most schools will need to supplement the new funding they receive in [financial year] 2025-26 with efficiencies.
“The balance between cost increases covered by new funding and those covered through efficiencies in existing budgets will vary at an individual school level, depending on a school’s circumstances (for example, changes to its pupil numbers) and previous spending decisions (which will determine, for example, the balance between spending on teachers, support staff and non-staff items).”
Schools “will also want to factor in the impact of a 2025-26 pay award for support staff on their budgets”.
“Any pay award assumptions which exceed what is affordable for a school overall will need to be covered through efficiencies. This includes steps necessary to achieve the proposed pay award for teachers.”
Biggest union puts government ‘on notice’
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said the “proposed unfunded 2.8 per cent pay increase” fell “well short of the urgent action needed.
“When the secretary of state took office, she rightly committed to securing the best life chances for every child and to recruiting 6,500 new teachers. However, neither objective can be achieved without properly investing in our education service and in the teachers who deliver it.
“A 2.8 per cent increase is likely to be below inflation and behind wage increases in the wider economy. This will only deepen the crisis in education.”
He pointed out NEU members “fought to win the pay increases of 2023 and 2024”.
“We are putting the government on notice. Our members care deeply about education and feel the depth of the crisis. This won’t do.”
‘An announcement of further school cuts’
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the ASCL leaders’ union, called it an “extremely disappointing submission from the secretary of state to the pay review body.
“The pay award that she proposes will not be sufficient to reverse years of pay erosion, make teaching salaries suitably competitive, and address severe teacher shortages across the country.”
He added that the “inadequacy of the proposed pay award is compounded by the government’s intention that schools should foot the bill out of their existing allocations.
“Given that per-pupil funding will increase on average by less than 1 per cent next year, and the government’s proposal is for an unfunded 2.8 per cent pay award, it is obvious that this is in fact an announcement of further school cuts.”
He said the STRB should “assert its independence once again by making a recommendation on teacher pay sufficient to address the recruitment and retention crisis and ensure that staff are fairly remunerated for their superb and important work”.
DfE plans ‘suite of productivity initiatives’
Although “most schools” will need to find savings, the DfE said they were “not alone in their efforts to better manage their spending”.
The department “will be developing a suite of productivity initiatives”, including “commercial support to provide schools with access to the department’s energy contracts.
“When schools’ energy contracts are up for renewal, they can join the Department’s contract. This is already being piloted. schools involved in the pilot will save 36 per cent on average compared to their previous contracts.”
The department will “also explore a number of other initiatives including plans to secure better banking solutions for schools (which would result in securing better interest rates for their savings and current accounts), and the creation of Departmental goods and services deals for IT and spend on areas other than technology”.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
