Today’s joint evidence submission to the STRB is by the education unions ASCL, Community, NAHT and NEU. The evidence, which is attached, represents the united view of the unions on the key issues.
 
The STRB must not be constrained by the current inadequate school funding levels.  With recruitment shortfalls and a deepening crisis in retention, the damage to our education service is plain to see.  The recruitment and retention problems are at critical levels, driven by pay that is too low and workload that is too high.
 
Even after the above inflation pay increase of September 2024, teacher and school leader pay is over a fifth lower in real terms against RPI inflation than it was in 2010.  Pay cuts for teachers and school leaders have been significantly greater than for other professions.  Excessive workload for teachers and school leaders has reached crisis point, contributing to the recruitment and retention crisis.  A major pay correction, significant improvements in workload and job quality are all essential to tackling the recruitment and retention crisis.
 
The unions are also calling for the mandatory removal of performance-related pay, and the implementation of a fair national pay structure.  Fairness in pay is also vital to securing healthy levels of recruitment and retention.
 
To recruit, retain and value the teachers and school leaders our education service needs, we need to see urgent and fully funded improvements in pay and conditions.
  
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 
“While this year’s teacher pay award was welcome, it only started to address cuts in the real value of teacher and leader pay since 2010. The STRB recommendation for next year must build on this further by reversing long-term pay erosion, making salaries in teaching more competitive, and addressing the severe and ongoing recruitment and retention crisis. This will require a significant uplift in pay – and it is crucial that the government provides the funding to ensure this is affordable for all schools.” 

Community's National Officer for Education and Early Years, Helen Osgood, said:
“Community Union urges the STRB to act on teachers’ pay, to ensure that pay remains at levels that give the profession a chance to flourish, and become a profession that graduates aspire to belong to and teachers want to remain in. 
 
“For too long, pay in education has suffered from austerity. Community Union urges the STRB to give education a chance, and ensure that education professionals are paid at a level that helps restore pay to where it should be at, if pay had kept pace with inflation.
 
“Retention is key – not supporting our education professionals means that we are running the risk of empty classrooms up and down the country, and this will only serve to deepen the crisis in education.  Education professionals put children first every day of their lives, nurturing and developing them. Community urges the STRB to put education professionals first. "

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the school leaders’ union, the NAHT said: 
“Even with last year’s welcome uplift, the pay of school leaders and teachers has fallen far behind other graduate professions. At the same time, schools are taking on ever-increasing responsibilities, and we have serious concerns about workload and burnout. 
 
“The education secretary will only meet her pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers if pay is competitive enough to recruit and retain graduates. After more than a decade of neglect, in our evidence to the pay review body we are urging that education must be prioritised in next year’s spending round.” 

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: 
“The STRB must respond to the clear evidence and the united voice of the profession.  Significant, across-the-board improvements in pay and conditions are vital if we are to solve the recruitment and retention crisis, recruit 6,500 new teachers and ensure every child is taught by a suitably qualified professional.  Teachers and school leaders expect the pay awards needed to be fully funded, to protect school from further cuts to provision after 14 years of austerity. Our members care deeply about the education of our children and young people. We will not stand idly by."