“By replacing management allowances with teaching and learning responsibility payments, we will have a much fairer pay system, that will directly reward teachers who are making a difference to pupils’ and their colleagues’ progress in learning.
“The new framework brings transparency to the system. In each school, after consultation with the unions, the changes will be put in place and published so that the entire staff will know exactly what responsibilities go with what TLR payment.
“All teachers affected by these changes will have their salaries protected for three years. They will ask why their salaries could not be safeguarded permanently. This was never an option - and would have left schools open to equal pay and discrimination claims. Some staff would be paid for jobs that have long been obsolete and this would entrench the inequalities in the system.
“We should remember that this will not be the only route to pay progression. Experienced teachers, primary and secondary, can now aspire to earn Pounds 35,000 without management responsibilities through the excellent teachers’ scheme.
“And all of this needs to be see in the context of the workforce agreement, which will free teachers from administration tasks and provide them with time for planning, preparation and assessment.”
Mary Bousted is general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers
