The Secretary of State issued the remit for the STRB’s 35th report on 30 September 2024. The remit covers the following matters for recommendation:

A.    The adjustments that should be made to the salary and allowance ranges for classroom teachers,        unqualified teachers, and school leaders in 2025/26.

B.    An assessment of any changes to TLR payments concerning the existing pro-rata rule.

C.    How the current pay framework can best support teachers from all backgrounds and with protected characteristics, including by promoting flexible working. 

On item C, the STRB also said: ‘We anticipate that our work in this area will result in a number of observations aimed at supporting teacher recruitment and retention. While we will not be making formal recommendations for immediate implementation, our observations would be inputs for further work. We therefore encourage consultees to share any relevant evidence and ideas that could be effective in this area." 

How did we respond?
Our evidence submission (links below) includes robust information which clearly demonstrates the need for a significant above inflation increase for all teachers and school leaders, along with a longer-term strategic plan to restore the real-terms value of teacher and school leader pay.

In our submission we make a series of recommendations on pay, recruitment and retention. These include that:

• A fully funded pay increase that at least keeps pace with inflation (RPI) is awarded across all pay ranges for September 2025.
• There should also be a further element towards restoring the real-terms value of teacher and school leader pay.
• An additional increase to compensate for the lack of flexible working opportunities compared with other sectors.
• Once the real-terms value of pay has been restored, that annual uplifts must continue to be fully funded and must at least keep pace with RPI each year.
• Sufficient funding to be provided to ensure that schools can afford to implement these commitments. 
• The scope of the STRB and the STPCD to be broadened to include those working in business leadership roles to ensure that they receive the recognition and remuneration for the crucial roles they hold and which support other school leaders to deliver their core functions.

We also provided evidence on the disparity in pay and funding which is a major issue for our members working in the further education sector, and on the significant recruitment and retention challenges this creates.

On part-time TLRs, we said that it is our view that the existing arrangements within the STPCD are inflexible and that they should be amended to allow TLR 1 and 2 to be paid at a different proportion to the contract where this is appropriate and mutually agreed between the employer and the teacher. This includes allowing a full TLR allowance to be paid to a part-time teacher where they carry out the full responsibilities associated with the allowance.

Why have we taken this view?
Our evidence highlights the severe issues relating to recruitment and retention of teachers and school leaders including the ongoing poor recruitment to ITT targets. We also include significant evidence around the erosion of pay as a result of real terms pay cuts since 2010.

Teaching needs to be a financially rewarding career, with whole career salaries which are competitive and comparable with other graduate professions, in order to be attractive. Furthermore, there are significant recruitment and retention challenges across the profession that need to be addressed at a national level.

Business leaders must be recognised and remunerated for the vital roles they carry out and the level of responsibility and accountability that those roles hold. Our recent pay survey shows that this is clearly not the case and also shows that 50% of respondents intend to leave the profession within the next three years.
Moreover, workload and wellbeing are significant issues for all teachers and school, trust and college leaders and the Department must take action to address this.

ASCL evidence to STRB 35th remit

Annex One - calculations for 35th remit