The Secretary of State issued the remit for the STRB’s 32nd report on 17 December 2021. The remit covers the following matters for recommendation:

• An assessment of the adjustments that should be made to the salary and allowance ranges for classroom teachers, unqualified teachers and school leaders to promote recruitment and retention, within the bounds of affordability across the school system as a whole and in light of the government’s views on the need for an uplift to starting salaries to £30,000.
• As part of this, recommendations for the pay awards for both 2022/23 and 2023/24.

How did we respond?
Our evidence submission (links below) includes robust information to demonstrate the need for a significant above inflation increase for all teachers and school leaders. We do not support differentiated pay awards and therefore it is our view that any increases to starting salaries must be applied to all points within all pay ranges and allowances.

We also give our views on multi-year awards and call for the removal of performance-related pay.

Why have we taken this view?
Our evidence highlights the severe issues relating to recruitment and retention across the profession, and how the increases seen in applications for Initial Teacher Training in 2020 and 2021 were clearly due to the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic, and that they are already falling, to pre-2019 levels in some areas.

We modelled the real terms impact on school leaders’ pay since 2010 as a result of public sector pay caps/freezes which produced some stark results. The government must take urgent action to address this.

Teachers and school leaders deserve to be remunerated appropriately and fairly for the crucial role they fulfil in society, as has been made even more clear since the onset of the pandemic. Read the press release and joint statement here.


Full response to consultation

Appendix 2