The Department for Education has confirmed that teachers will receive an overall 1 per cent pay rise in September. 

The school teachers’ pay and conditions document for 2017 rubber-stamps last month’s decision by the education secretary, Justine Greening, to accept the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body to:

• Raise by 1 per cent the minimum and maximum of all pay ranges and allowances in the national pay framework, except 
• The main scale where the minimum and maximum of the main pay range will rise by 2 per cent.

The publication of the pay and conditions document shows that the government has formally accepted the STRB recommendations after a three-week consultation period.

Teachers’ pay review body ‘compromised’

Local authority schools are obliged to follow the rules set out in the document, though many academies also choose to base their pay policies on it.

The government has rejected a call by six education unions during the consultation period for all teachers on the main pay scale to be guaranteed a 2 per cent pay rise. Only teachers at the bottom of pay ranges will receive automatic rises, with the rest down to the discretion of schools.

Unions have also claimed that the independence of the STRB was “compromised” by an instruction from the DfE that it had to make its recommendations within the 1 per cent public sector pay cap.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said there “must be no cherry-picking” in the implementation of the STRB recommendations. 

“The pay review body has rightly reminded schools that pupil achievements are dependent on schools maintaining a strong cadre of teachers and that ‘this will require school leaders and governing bodies to make best use of their people and give the necessary priority to teachers’ pay within their schools’ budgets.’ 

“However, the evidence confirms that to date teachers have not had any protection as a result of the government’s 1 per cent pay cap, and increasing numbers of teachers are reporting real financial hardship for the first time in decades.”

Ms Keates said that NASUWT would be “writing to all employers to put them on notice” that all teachers should receive an uplift in line with the minimum recommended for their pay range. 

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