The Cabinet Secretary for Education issued the 6th remit letter to the IWPRB on
27 January. On 5 February, the IWPRB commissioned written evidence submissions from statutory consultees.
The timeframe for this year’s pay round has started much later than it should have, and even later than last year. As a result, the remit has a very narrow focus, with just two items included. The first is the September 2025 pay award which the IWPRB will submit a report on to the Cabinet Secretary by 21 May 2025. The second item is "
What adjustments should be made to Leaders’ Conditions of Service and in particular the consideration of whether guaranteed working hours (or limits on) as well as protected holiday entitlement and weekends for leaders be included in the STPC(W)D."
Members will be aware that this was also a remit item last year, but due to time constraints the IWPRB did not make any recommendations other than to push this item into the 6th remit.
We do have some concerns over this, as no timeframe has been issued as yet, we have simply been informed that the IWPRB will advise on the submission of evidence and consultation process for this matter at a later date.
We will continue to make representations to ensure that this item does not get pushed further back.
As a statutory consultee, ASCL has now submitted written evidence for the 6th remit, which you can read
here.
There will now be an opportunity for us to submit supplementary evidence based on the evidence from other consultees. The deadline for this is 21 March. We will then attend an oral evidence session with the IWPRB during the week beginning 7 April.