The unions welcome the 5.5% pay increase for this year but are clear that this must be only the first in a series of urgent steps to reverse the pay cuts against inflation inflicted on teachers and school leaders between 2010 and 2023. With recruitment targets being missed by huge amounts, teacher shortages across the curriculum and experienced teachers leaving the profession in droves, the Government must act quickly to restore the pay lost and repair the competitive position of teaching against comparable graduate professions. It must also work with the unions to implement a fair and transparent national pay structure to replace unfair PRP and fragmented pay arrangements. Targeted pay should play no part in the core pay framework. 
  
Alongside the pay improvements, the new Government must work with the unions on effective improvements to workload. Significant reductions in workload and improved flexible working are, along with improvements to pay, essential to solving the recruitment and retention crisis. 
  
The unions want to work with the new Government on the solutions to the many problems caused by the underfunding of education and undervaluing of educators. But the unions are clear that the major repairs needed to pay and conditions cannot be secured within the existing inadequate school funding envelope. The Government must fully fund the improvements needed to value, recruit and retain the teachers and school leaders needed to deliver our vital education service. 
  
Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:  
 “The government has made a good start with this year’s pay award and we must now work together on a workforce strategy that addresses the growing recruitment and retention crisis. This needs to consider how workload can be reduced and include a plan to reverse years of pay erosion. We need to develop a pay structure which is competitive when set against similar graduate professions that can offer greater flexibility, and reasonably recognises the value of all teachers and school leaders.” 
  
Helen Osgood, Operations Director of Community Union, said: 
"This year’s pay increase is a welcome starting point, after decades of cuts and decline, and we look forward to working with the Government and fellow unions to build on this to create a longer term strategy on teachers’ pay that will address the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis affecting our profession. 
  
“Reducing workload, increasing planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time and improving flexible working must also be at the heart of a better deal for teachers.” 
 
Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of school leaders’ union, the NAHT, said: 
 “The 5.5% pay increase is a welcome first step towards pay restoration, but more now needs to be done to restore the competitiveness of teaching as an attractive career in the graduate marketplace and reverse over a decade of real-terms pay cuts. Addressing the workload crisis is just as crucial - teachers and leaders are overburdened. We urge the government to make a career in teaching an attractive proposition by devising a plan to restore the value of professionals’ pay, reduce workload and work with unions to implement a fair, transparent pay structure that works for all teachers, regardless of subject, phase, or location.” 
 
Patrick Roach, General Secretary of the NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said:  
“We welcome the decision by the new Government to fund an above-inflation pay award for teachers after fourteen years of real-terms decline in teachers’ pay and pay competitiveness under the previous Conservative government.  
  
"Measures to resolve the teacher recruitment and retention crisis will require investment in the fabric of our public services and those who work in them.  
  
"We now need to see progress in securing a national workforce plan and a national commission on teachers’ pay to fix the foundations and restore the status of the teaching profession.” 
  
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:   
“The Government was elected on a mandate for change, and this must include the significant additional investment to secure a major correction in teacher and school leader pay, and effective action to tackle sky-high workload. Anything less will fail not only teachers and school leaders but also the education service on which pupils, parents and our economic future depend.” 

Additional notes
34th report of STRB, 29 July 2024

Government response, 29 July 2024

The Government’s deadline for the statutory consultation period to respond to the proposed pay award was at noon on 7 October 2024.