Teachers in England have voted overwhelmingly to accept a 5.5% pay rise but warned ministers that without further “corrections” pay would remain uncompetitive and teacher shortages would persist.
Of those members who responded to the National Education Union’s snap poll, 95% voted to accept the 2024-25 offer, which would give schools an additional £1.2bn to cover the pay rise.
As the result was announced the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, launched the next pay round for 2025-26 with a letter to the School Teachers’ Review Body asking for their recommendations at the earliest opportunity.
Under the last government, the process slipped back, creating problems for school leaders setting budgets, but Phillipson told the STRB she is keen to return to a “more timely” annual pay process. She said the government wants to announce the next pay awards “as close to the start of the financial year of April as possible”.
Phillipson also asked the independent body, which makes recommendations to the government about teachers’ pay, to consider how the pay framework could be adapted to promote more flexible working, as the government seeks to improve teacher recruitment and retainment.
She also acknowledged the STRB’s request for more frequent and detailed equality, diversity and inclusion data at a national level, and committed to publish pay and progression data by protected characteristics.
Phillipson’s remit letter also alludes to the challenging financial position her government faces, referring to £22bn of wider funding pressures, which will form the backdrop to future pay and funding decision.
She concludes, however: “Alongside the pay round and formal funding processes, we will not hesitate to make further progress on wider issues that affect the teaching profession in order that we raise its status and improve recruitment and retention.”
The NEU general secretary, Daniel Kebede, said: “The earlier publication of the remit is a welcome early signal that the new government will give teacher pay the urgent attention it deserves.
“The secretary of state is also right to highlight the need to raise the status of the profession and tackle recruitment and retention – a marked contrast to the head-in-sand approach of successive Tory predecessors.
“But without a clear recognition of the need for further corrections in pay, teacher pay will remain uncompetitive, teacher shortages will persist and the government will not achieve its aims.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, added: “The pay award will need to be sufficient to address a severe shortage of teachers both in terms of recruitment and retention.
“It is vital that the government puts in place the funding that will be necessary to make this possible in the autumn budget on 30 October, and that this covers college staff as well as school staff.”
