The government has proposed this week that teachers in England should get a 6.5 per cent pay award split across the next three years.

In written evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), the Department for Education has said that a 6.5 per cent pay award over 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29 would be “appropriate”.

However, the announcement has been met with strong backlash from education unions, who called it “inadequate” and a “real-terms pay cut”.

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has also said the pay award is “very unlikely to contribute to improving teacher recruitment and retention”.

Here is all you need to know about the government’s 6.5 per cent teacher pay recommendation:

What is the government offering teachers?

The DfE said that a 6.5 per cent pay award over 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29 would be “appropriate”, as this will “maintain the competitiveness of teacher pay and provide a real-terms improvement over the parliament”.

A 6.5 per cent award over the next three years, when combined with the increases from the past two pay rounds, would mean teacher pay rising by nearly 17 per cent across the parliament, it said.

Using the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecasts for the Consumer Price Index, this would be a real-terms increase of almost 4.5 per cent over the five years.

The DfE specified that the award should be weighted towards the latter part of the remit, as this would provide schools with the “time and flexibility to plan and deliver sustainable approaches to managing their resources”.

Why is the government offering three years, not one?

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson asked the STRB for its recommendations on the pay and conditions for teachers and school leaders for 2026-27 and 2027-28, as well as an indicative recommendation for 2028-29.

The department said that providing a multi-year pay award would help schools plan their budgets.

What evidence did the DfE provide for its pay award?

The government said that graduate starting salaries have shown slower growth after the pandemic than earnings in the wider economy, and the initial data from 2025 shows this trend continuing.

“The median graduate starting salary in the UK’s leading graduate employers increased by £1,000 or around 3 per cent in 2025, lower than whole economy average earnings growth in the year to date,” it states.

According to its submission, the DfE suggests that an award for teachers that maintains competitiveness may be “below the average earnings growth for the whole economy”.

The DfE also says that schools will have to find additional savings to deliver the pay offer.

“The department expects that most schools will need to implement plans to realise and sustain better value from existing spend in addition to the funding being provided through the core schools budget to deliver the pay awards,” its submission states.

The government also urged schools, trusts and local authorities to “continue to proactively drive better value from their budgets across the next three years”.

It also said that it expects schools’ capacity to make and implement plans to maximise their use of resources will increase with time; it is “confident that this will contribute to improved affordability”.

According to its submission, there is also “significant potential in under-utilised assets” across the school sector, including sizeable financial reserves and physical assets such as land and buildings.

The DfE adds that it will establish a new programme to help schools and trusts “seize opportunities to maximise the most value from every pound”.

It will provide an expanded level of support in the form of benchmark data, toolkits, commercial offers, capability building, case studies and investment in areas such as technology.

When does the STRB have to respond?

The education secretary has asked the STRB to provide its final recommendations by February 2026.

Tes has asked the DfE when it needs to confirm its final pay offer.

What has been the reaction to the pay award?

Education unions share major concerns about the recommended pay offer and have provided a joint statement.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, called the proposals “extremely disappointing” and described the suggested pay award as “inadequate”.

Both he and Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, warned that it could result in a “real-terms pay cut”.

Unions also criticised the government for expecting schools to find efficiencies.

Meanwhile, Jack Worth, the NFER’s education workforce lead, said that the proposed pay award would “act to maintain pay competitiveness at its current level”.

However, he added that while it could help to contain the cost pressures on school budgets, it would be “very unlikely to contribute to improving teacher recruitment and retention”.

When will the government provide 6,500 new teachers?

The government also provided additional details on how it will deliver its 6,500 teachers pledge.

It has already been confirmed that this target only includes secondary and further education teachers, rather than primary, as this is where the supply challenges are most pronounced.

According to its submission, the DfE says that the rates of teachers leaving state-funded schools have decreased this year, with the overall leaver rate now at 9 per cent.

Census data also shows that there are already 2,350 more teachers in secondary and special schools in 2024-25 than there were in 2023-24.

It attributed the improvements to the improved pay offer over the past two years.

What else is the STRB looking at?

The department has also asked the STRB to make recommendations on non-consolidated payments, including bonuses, which will allow leaders to reward their staff on a one-off basis.

Some academies offer non-consolidated payments or bonuses to their staff, such as a “golden hello” for new staff, rewards for staff who have delivered long service in their particular school and one-off payments to reward exceptional performance.

However, maintained schools are not able to make payments like this to their staff.

The STRB will also look at how the DfE can improve access to flexible working and review the salary safeguarding period.

The submission also calls on the pay review body to consider how any of the DfE’s views or recommendations may impact those with different protected characteristics.

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