In addition to the usual pay related issues, the 4th remit of the IWPRB asked consultees to put forward their views on a number of specific, more strategic, issues related to pay and conditions for school teachers and leaders in Wales. You can see the full remit here.

Access the consultation response here

We were keen to stress that a strategic approach was needed to ensure that the significant decline in pay for teachers and school leaders over the last 12 years is reversed. Also, that there is a need for the demands placed on ASCL members, and the consequences of this for health and wellbeing, to be recognised and addressed. 

We have become increasingly frustrated with some aspects of the pay review process (not least the late reporting of the findings of the IWPRB, often in the last week of the summer term) and we made a number of recommendations to improve the efficacy of the process for future years.

In our summary, we suggested the following be taken:

1. A long-term commitment to funding over a number of years in order that the significant real term decline in pay rates can be reversed together with the re-establishment of previous differentials between pay scales.
2. Additionally, that pay increases be fully funded through the allocation of school budgets with additional funding provided should pay awards be higher than anticipated when the budget was set.
3. An immediate tri-partite review of the gender pay gap to establish its prevalence and measures needed to address it.
4. An immediate tri-partite review of flexible working arrangements across schools in Wales to promote and facilitate access and uptake of flexible working across all roles.
5. A commitment to assess the impact on school teachers’ and leaders’ working hours before progressing new initiatives across schools in Wales.
6. Drawing the investigation into school term times to a swift close and establishing that the arrangements which have endured for decades should continue.
7. The implementation of guidance for relevant bodies on implementing pay arrangements in schools together with the commitment that pay is best determined at local level for school leaders.
8.  Additions to STPC(W)D to establish fair and reasonable arrangements in terms of working time, breaks and leave for school leaders.
9. Supply teachers to be brought under the auspices of STPC(W)D.
10. An immediate tri-partite review into the workings of the IWPRB process, including:

i.    Identifying how timescales and submission/reporting dates can work efficaciously for all parties.
ii.    Assessing the data currently available to support the process and how this can be improved.