Gillian Keegan has rejected union calls to restart pay talks and immediately publish the independent pay review body’s recommendations on teacher pay, in a letter seen by Tes.
The education secretary has told union leaders that she “sincerely” hopes that they will “collectively rethink” the decision to pursue strike action in the autumn.
Her letter comes after all four of the main education unions - the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the NAHT school leaders’ union and the NEU and NASUWT teaching unions - wrote to her last month, calling for the government to formally publish the recently leaked pay recommendation made by the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) and to urgently restart negotiations in the dispute over teacher and leader pay, and the funding of pay awards.
The unions’ letter was in response to reports that the STRB had recommended that teachers should receive a 6.5 per cent pay increase for 2023-24.
In Ms Keegan’s letter sent to all four unions this week, and seen by Tes, she did not meet the demand to restart negotiations. On the issue of next year’s pay award, she said: “The issue of teachers’ and leaders’ pay will now be determined through the usual STRB process.”
The letter also stated: “The government intends to publish the [STRB] report once it has considered its response, as it does each year.”
DfE ‘considers’ STRB teacher pay recommendation
And while Ms Keegan said she could “confirm” that she had received the report and its recommendations, she said government would “not comment on this speculation whilst it considers its response to the report”.
Tes understands that the DfE is not expected to publish its final decisions soon.
Ms Keegan, in her letter to the unions, added: “As we begin the final half-term of this academic year, I know you will agree with me that the focus should be on supporting pupils through their exams and celebrating their achievements.
“I sincerely hope that you will collectively rethink your decision to take further strike action in the autumn, a move which would cause further disruption to parents, families and to the education of thousands of children and young people.”
Responding to this letter, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL, said: “We hope that the public sees the government for what it is - utterly unreasonable. We have asked the secretary of state to return to the negotiating table to agree a meaningful settlement, to publish the report that she already has from the STRB, and to guarantee that every school will have the money it needs to fund pay awards.
“These are all requests which most people would feel are entirely sensible and moderate. However, the government prefers to play politics rather than doing the right thing by schools, staff and children.”
All four education unions are balloting members this term on strike action and have stated their intention to coordinate any resulting action in the autumn term.
The NEU, the biggest teachers’ union, already has an existing strike mandate for this term and has held a series of teacher strikes. In a separate letter to Ms Keegan, this union had said that if she does not reply to its calls for talks to resume and for the STRB recommendations to be published by tomorrow, the union’s decision-making executive will discuss launching more strikes from 3 July.
After a period of intensive talks in March, the Department for Education made all four teaching unions the offer of a £1,000 non-consolidated payment for 2022-23 and an average 4.5 per cent rise for 2023-24.
But school leaders voiced concerns about the affordability of the government offer after it was revealed that just 0.5 per cent of the overall 4.5 per cent pay award for next year, plus the £1,000 one-off payment for this year, would come through new funding.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “As part of the normal process, the independent School Teachers’ Review Body has submitted its recommendations to government on teacher pay for 2023-24. We will be considering the recommendations and will publish our response in the usual way.”
