Teacher unions representing the majority of education staff in
England and Wales have submitted a joint statement calling for a
significant pay increase for teachers and school leaders, and
setting out their views on the most pressing issues facing the
School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB).
ASCL, NAHT, NEU, UCAC and Voice believe that the STRB needs to
set a benchmark for teacher and school leaders’ pay which will
make teaching competitive with other graduate professions and aid
both recruitment and retention.
The evidence from our organisations of a growing crisis in
recruiting and retaining teachers and school leaders means that
the STRB must take this opportunity to fully exercise its
functions as the independent pay review body for the profession.
We believe that this must lead the STRB to recommend a
significant increase in pay
for all teachers and school
leaders, irrespective of their career stage, setting or
geographical location.
We believe it is a matter of ‘justice and fairness’ that all
teachers and school leaders should receive an annual cost of
living increase to prevent them from being worse off
year-on-year. The current policy of differentiated pay awards is
not working and is demoralising the profession.
We are calling for a significant pay increase for all teachers
and school leaders to begin to address the decline in teachers’
real pay over the last seven years.
It is also vital that any pay increases arising from the
recommendations of the STRB are fully funded by the government.
School budgets are at breaking point. Without additional funding,
paying staff fairly whilst fully funding the curriculum will be
impossible.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of
School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “After
seven years of government-imposed austerity, teachers need and
deserve a decent pay rise, not only because it is the right thing
to do, but because it is essential in tackling the ongoing
recruitment and retention crisis. And the government must fund
any pay award rather than expecting schools to foot the bill from
budgets which have already been cut to the bone.”
Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the National Association of
Head Teachers, (NAHT) said: “Teaching is a
demanding and important profession and teachers’ pay should
reflect this. At the moment, it doesn’t. The recruitment crisis
continues unabated and the teacher supply pipeline is leaking at
both ends. At present the government is failing to recruit enough
new teachers, and doing nowhere near enough whilst too many
experienced teachers leave prematurely. A pay rise for school
staff is long overdue.”
Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National
Education Union (NEU), said: “Children’s education
is at risk – insufficient recruitment and retention of high
quality teachers is a very real problem. To begin to address
this, it is essential that teacher workload is reduced and that
the government now commits to reducing a restorative pay
rise, starting with a significant real terms increase in 2018,
which is fully funded. Ministers are right when they say an
education system is only as good as its teachers and leaders. The
public is demanding government values these hardworking
professionals who can make such a positive impact on young
people’s futures.”
Elaine Edwards, General Secretary of UCAC, said: “For
years teachers have not been properly valued or remunerated for
their crucial contribution to the education and social
development of our children and young people which has led to
serious recruitment and retention problems in Wales and England.
The UK Government must now address the issue of teachers’ pay and
provide a fully funded restorative pay award as a matter of
urgency for the next academic year.”
Deborah Lawson, General
Secretary of Voice said:
“After years of austerity measures, it is time for the pay of
teachers and school leaders to reflect the value of their work,
and the importance of the teaching profession to both our
children’s education and the future of the country. Without
substantial pay increases, the current recruitment and retention
crisis will continue. However, the pay rises required must
be fully funded so that schools can afford to recruit and retain
the teachers and headteachers they need.”
Unions will be submitting detailed evidence separately from each
other on 25 January 2018.
