Unions representing teachers and school leaders in England are
today united in calling on the School Teachers’ Review Body to
make urgent recommendations on pay, workload and conditions of
service to address the critical pay issues and
the recruitment and retention crisis in the profession.
The joint statement calls on the STRB – which advises the
government on the pay and conditions of school teachers - to
address the consensus in the profession, and reject continuing
pay cuts, pay fragmentation, sky-high workload and inadequate
funding for schools.
It comes after the government submitted its evidence on teacher
pay to the STRB. The Department for Education is recommending a
3% pay increase for most teachers and leaders from this September
– separate to its offer for 2022/23 which resulted in the current
industrial action by education unions.
The unions say continuing damage to the education service caused
by over a decade of unjustified attacks on pay, alongside
declining funding to school budgets, has resulted in critical and
serious risks to the supply of teachers and school leaders.
It is the united view of the unions that for more than a
decade the STRB has failed to protect teachers and school
leaders from real-terms pay cuts. The STRB must assess the impact
of those pay cuts and recommend improvements to pay and
conditions that will support recruitment and retention.
The STRB must recommend the pay increases needed to reverse the
pay cuts. Valuing teachers and school leaders is essential
to repair the damage to recruitment and retention, so is in the
interests of parents and young people too.
Major pay reforms, dismantling the national pay structure and
imposing unfair Performance Related Pay, have created significant
problems and must now be remedied.
The statement from ASCL, Community, NAHT, NASUWT and the
NEU shows that the Government is isolated and teachers
and school leaders completely reject the policy of real-terms pay
cuts and fragmentation. The Government is ignoring the real
issues on teacher and school leader pay – the STRB must not.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of
School and College Leaders, said: “The long-term decline
in the real value of teacher pay and the resultant recruitment
and retention crisis has put educational provision and standards
at serious risk.
“Despite repeated warnings, the STRB has failed to comprehend the
scale of the issue and urgent intervention is now required. The
STRB must recommend the significant improvements to pay,
conditions and workload that are needed to protect the education
service from further unnecessary damage.”
Helen Osgood, National Officer for Education & Early
Years with Community: the union for education
professionals, said:
“Let’s make the aspiration within the STRB document a reality and
make a real difference to the working lives of educational
professionals. They deserve it, they have earned it, and this
Government needs to recognise the vital role that education
professionals play.
“The Government needs to take this as an opportunity to start to
invest in the education system and stop the decline and restore
the pay of education professionals to where it should be. We need
to see a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union
NAHT, said:
“The STRB process has been failing the education profession for
many years now. Under their watch, teachers and school leaders
have suffered more than a decade of significant pay erosion that
has helped cause the recruitment and retention crisis currently
damaging our schools.
“The repeated and carefully evidenced warnings we make each year
have been utterly ignored.
“This is the last chance for the STRB to listen to the evidence,
assert its independence, regain the confidence of the profession,
and recommend a pay deal that will begin to solve the crisis and
bring an end to the industrial action dispute.”
NASUWT General Secretary Dr Patrick Roach, said:
“Teachers have faced a decade of real-terms pay cuts, morale is
at rock-bottom and our schools are being starved of cash. The
STRB cannot continue to wring its hands in the face of the
government’s continued ideological attacks on the education
service, which are damaging children’s education and life
chances.
“If the STRB is to regain any credibility, it must listen to the
evidence we are presenting and recommend urgent improvements to
pay, workload and conditions to address the crisis in the
profession.
NEU Joint General Secretaries Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin
Courtney, said:
“Years of pay cuts have created critical recruitment and
retention problems. To properly value teachers and school
leaders, and protect our education service, we need fully-funded
above inflation pay rises.
“We are calling on the STRB to recommend the pay rise needed to
ensure our children have the education they need. The STRB should
not be constrained by Government claims about affordability. The
Government must fully fund the pay rises needed.”
