Pay and conditions of employment has been a devolved responsibility of the Welsh Government since 2018. This means that teachers are employed under the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions (Wales) Document (STPC(W)D) with pay determined through the recommendations of the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body (IWPRB).
Whilst teachers in Wales are covered by the STPC(W)D, which is distinct from the English STPCD, teachers in both England and Wales are also covered by the Burgundy Book arrangements. The two Documents tend to be updated annually in order to ensure pay remains competitive. Other remit items related to working conditions are added at the discretion of the relevant Minister. The Burgundy Book was published in 2000 and there was a technical update in 2023; it covers teachers’ contractual arrangements.
After six years of devolved pay, there are now some significant differences compared to England. For example, pay rates are marginally higher in Wales, performance-related pay has already been removed from the Document and the STPC(W)D references all leadership pay points (unlike the English equivalent that only references group minima and maxima). The most up-to-date STPC(W)D can be found
here.
This year, ASCL has been working closely with ASCL Cymru to respond to the Minister’s Remit to the IWPRB. Our case has focused on the following key issues:
- Any agreed pay settlement should be fully funded by the Welsh Government and schools should not be expected to use their reserves.
- There should be a continuation of ‘no detriment’ to ensure Welsh teachers and leaders are not paid less than those in England.
- There are significant concerns around teacher recruitment and retention.
- These are a result of the erosion of pay since 2010 along with poor work/life balance.
- The ALNCo should be a senior leadership role to support the growing demand for additional learning support in mainstream schools as well as ensure that better pay and conditions are available to those in these key positions.
- There should be a review of administrative and clerical tasks in order to reduce bureaucracy and workload for teachers along with additional protection for school leaders to ensure their workload and wellbeing is supported.
Our full response to the IWPRB can be found
here and our responses to other consultees can be found here (
part 1 and
part 2).
ASCL attended an oral session with the IWPRB on 26 April following which the IWPRB submitted their report to the Cabinet Secretary for Education. We expect to hear the outcome of this early July 2024. The process should not be delayed due to the General Election as education is devolved to the Welsh Government.
Strategic review
The IWPRB has also been consulting on a strategic review of pay and conditions (
here). This report was submitted to the previous Cabinet Secretary in December 2023 but it was not made available until 22 March 2024. This delay meant that the strategic review was not synchronised with the IWPRB 5th remit. Moreover, within the report, there are 26 recommendations of which the Cabinet Secretary has accepted all but states that the financing of these changes should come from existing budgets.
ASCL, and other statutory consultees, met with the Pay and Conditions Partnership Forum on 15 April to share our concerns regarding the funding and timing issues. Since then, the Welsh Government has proposed that deadlines cited in the strategic review are rescheduled and delayed. We are currently considering this and will update members once we have submitted our response. We have also written separately to the Cabinet Secretary regarding our significant concerns about funding these changes.
We will update members more fully in due course.