Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to fund the two per cent pay increase for teachers in 2019-20; and what assessment he has made of the effect of that pay increase on school budgets.
The School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) is responsible for reviewing and making recommendations on teacher pay. The STRB is currently considering the appropriate pay award for the 2019-20 academic year and is expected to make its recommendations at the end of May 2019.
In January 2019, the Department submitted written evidence to the STRB. In this it was noted that a 2% increase in teachers’ pay, in line with forecast inflation, is affordable nationally within the overall funding available to schools for the 2019/20 financial year.
Alongside this evidence the Department published an assessment of teacher pay affordability in a schools’ costs technical note. This note provides information on costs for schools in the financial years 2018/19 and 2019/20, and can be found here on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-costs-technical-note.
It is important to note that the effects of the 2018 pay award will continue to be supported through the £321 million Teachers’ Pay Grant in 2019/20.