Ministers have told the teacher pay body to make a multi-year recommendation and advise on whether to reduce salary safeguarding and allow maintained schools to pay bonuses.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has also ordered a review of directed time, which she said is “potentially creating a constraint on schools’ deployment of teachers”.
The Department for Education has issued the School Teachers’ Review Body with its next remit letter.
Phillipson told chair Dr Mike Aldred: “I know how important budget certainty is when making strategic decisions – especially in the context of the wider ask on the public sector to maximise value from every pound spent.
“I want to help schools plan to spend their money as effectively as possible to provide every child with the high-quality education they deserve.”
Multi-year recommendations sought
She has asked the STRB to make formal recommendations for pay awards for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 academic years, “as well as an indicative pay award for the 2028-29 academic year”, which would be “confirmed or reconsidered in a future remit”.
Earlier this year, the government accepted the STRB’s recommendation of a 4 per cent pay rise for this coming September, but said schools would have to meet some of it from their own budgets.
And Phillipson said that at the recent spending review, “the department’s settlement was predicated on the basis that no additional funding will be made available for pay awards, in any year of the multi-year spending review period.
“We will continue to support schools to drive better value from every pound as we expect schools will need to continue to contribute to the costs of future pay awards and ensure spending is maximised to deliver for children and young people.”
Salary safeguarding could reduce
The government’s children’s wellbeing and schools bill will require academies to observe minimum pay rates.
In her letter Phillipson said that, “to begin laying the groundwork for increased flexibility, in this year’s remit I would value your expert advice on some initial changes” to salary safeguarding and the ability to offer “non-consolidated payments” including bonuses.
Salary safeguarding means teachers whose pay is due to decrease due to a change in circumstances, school restructure or move to a different school under the same employer have their pay topped up to its old level for three years after the change.
Phillipson said: “We understand that the existing salary safeguarding period of three years can be a barrier to schools making workforce changes.
“I invite you to provide recommendations on whether the salary safeguarding period should be reduced to enable employers to deploy their workforce most effectively, whilst ensuring that teachers are still protected from sudden drops in their salary.”
Bonuses for maintained schools?
Phillipson also noted maintained schools cannot currently make non-consolidated payments to their teachers, “whilst academy schools can use them to recruit, retain or reward their staff”.
“I am seeking your recommendations on whether to introduce the option for maintained schools to offer non-consolidated payments (including bonuses) to reward teachers, separate to and above any pay progression arrangements and the annual STRB recommended pay uplift.”
Review ‘benefits and drawbacks’ of directed time
Directed time is a rule in teachers’ pay and conditions that stipulates they cannot be “directed” to work more than 1,265 hours across the school year. In reality, teachers’ average working hours are much greater.
Phillipson said workload “is a commonly cited reason for teachers leaving the profession and our evidence tells us that teachers and leaders often work long hours.
She said directed time was “also an unusual contractual provision, potentially creating a constraint on schools’ deployment of teachers, other than what is best for pupils and staff”.
“However, I also recognise that a change to the current system of directed and undirected time could bring substantial complexities and unintended consequences to the system, and any such change would need careful consideration.”
She asked for the STRB’s views “of the benefits and drawbacks of the current working hours arrangement within the STPCD, considering both directed and non-directed time for teachers, and working hours for leaders.
DfE seeks to speed up pay process
After gaining power last year, Labour committed to moving the pay-setting process earlier in the year to give schools more certainty. Under the last government, it had become normal for schools not to have pay rates for September confirmed until July.
Phillipson pointed out the government was launching this pay round “two months earlier than the previous pay round, and five months before the previous government commenced the 2024-25 pay round”.
She asked the STRB to “support an earlier pay announcement by submitting your recommendations for the pay award at the earliest point that allows you to give due consideration to the relevant evidence, which I understand to be the end of February.
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