“Unfair barriers” stop teachers advancing to the upper pay range, a report has warned, as school staff reported goalposts “shifting all the time”.
In England, pay scales for classroom teachers comprise nine points: a six-point main pay range (M1 to M6), and a three-point upper pay range (U1 to U3), also known as the upper pay scale.
Outside London, MPR advisory salaries range from £32,916 to £45,352, while UPR salaries range from £47,472 to £51,048.
Any teacher can apply to move to the upper pay range. But data collected for the National Education Union found teachers faced obstacles leading to a bottleneck, as well as slow progression once they reached the UPR.
An Incomes Data Research survey gathered responses on the UPR from 2,300 union members, across primary and secondary.
Of them, 52 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that “unfair barriers are put in place” to prevent teachers reaching the UPR.
Examples included inconsistent criteria between schools, financial constraints and “excessive” evidence requirements.
Slower pay progression on upper pay range
Once teachers reached the UPR, around three-quarters said they experienced slower pay progression, with many reporting negative effects on morale and retention.
Female teachers and primary teachers were particularly scathing. They were less likely to say the current speed of progression “fairly reflects” their experience and contribution. They were also 10 percentage points less likely to find expectations of UPR teachers “reasonable and achievable”.
NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said the findings “underline” concerns around equality in teacher pay and conditions.
“Those with family commitments, caring duties or other roles outside of school are likely to find inflated expectations of work intensity insurmountable,” he said.
Overall, thirty-seven per cent of respondents said expectations of UPR teachers “are not reasonable or achievable”, often involving “significant” extracurricular responsibilities, or additional work like CPD, mentoring and admin.
The union believes the current structure should be replaced by a single six-point scale for classroom teachers, with automatic annual pay progression.
Kebede said the “unfair pay and unreasonable expectations” associated with the UPR “make a significant contribution to the exodus of talented and experienced teachers”.
Department for Education guidance states teachers may apply to move onto the UPR “at least once a year”.
Applications should be accepted where teachers are “highly competent in all elements of the relevant standards” and make a “substantial and sustained” contribution to their school. However, this guidance is non-statutory.
‘Goalposts kept shifting’
One special school teacher who spent 10 years on the first point of the upper pay range told Schools Week: “Every time I was asking to move up, they were giving me new targets.”
Frequent changes in line managers exacerbated the situation.
“I’d get a new one, and they’d say… ‘I haven’t seen you do these things, so you need to demonstrate them’.”
She felt her experience was also affected by taking maternity leave twice.
“The goal post basically was shifting all the time, and every line manager [said]…. ‘you’re going to need to show us the evidence again’.”
After nearly a decade, she was told progression would have to wait until a new national pay policy was published. “That’s kind of what broke me,” she said.
She added her headteacher appeared to have “a total lack of accountability”, with benchmarks being set without “any kind of empirical evidence”.
She has since left, and is now on the UPR at a different school. There, she moved onto UPR2 after two years “without having to demonstrate meeting any targets or taking on a new area of responsibility”.
Wider evidence
Research by Teacher Tapp suggests such experiences are not unusual.
In December, more than 10,000 teachers were asked whether their school’s process for progressing to the UPR was fair.
Just under half (49 per cent) said it was, while almost a third said they did not know what the process was. Seventeen per cent said it was unfair.
Fifty local authorities now provide teachers on the UPR with annual pay progression, it is understood.
This month, West Sussex County Council confirmed progression on the UPR could now be annual, replacing its previous approach that allowed two-year progression unless in “exceptional circumstances”.
Tom Chitty, joint assistant secretary for the NEU’s West Sussex Branch and District, stressed the UPR “is not a promotion, but in practice it has been treated as one, with progression slowed, blocked or made conditional on factors that have nothing to do with classroom teaching”.
Last year’s School Teachers’ Review Body’s report to ministers highlighted “inconsistent approaches to pay progression decisions” and a “lack of clarity on the purpose of the upper pay range”.
The DfE did not respond to a request for comment.
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