Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he plans to take to improve pay for (a) school staff, (b) teacher agency staff and (c) all other education and school workers.

As set out in the 2020 Spending Review, there will be a pause to headline pay rises for the majority of public sector workforce this academic year. This is in order to ensure fairness between the public and private sector wage growth.

To protect the lowest earners, the School Teachers’ Review Body has recommended a pay award of £250 for all teachers earning less than £24,000 (full time equivalent), with recommended equivalent values for those in the London pay areas, plus the reintroduction of advisory pay points on the Unqualified Teacher pay range. The Government has proposed accepting these recommendations.

Academies have the freedom to set their own pay policies.

The Department will assess the pay policy ahead of the 2022 pay round once the economic recovery is established and the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the wider labour market is clearer.

The Department remains committed to increasing the teacher starting salary to £30,000 to make teaching an attractive graduate option. Whilst pay restraint means that progress towards this commitment will be slower, the steps taken in recent years, including the 5.5% uplift to pay in September 2020, have already made a substantial difference to the competitiveness of early career pay.

The rate of pay depends on who employs a supply teacher. State maintained schools or local authorities who directly employ supply teachers must pay in accordance with the statutory arrangements for teachers laid down in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document. If a supply teacher is employed by a non-maintained school, a multi-academy trust or agency, the employer can set the rates of pay and conditions of employment.

The Government gives schools the freedom to set terms and conditions for teaching assistants according to their own circumstances. Most local authority schools and academies choose to use the local government pay scales to pay their support staff in conjunction with National Joint Council terms and conditions, known as the green book. Given there is no requirement to do this, there is some variability in pay and conditions across the country.

The Government encourages employers to pay their workers more than the statutory minimum where they can afford to, although we recognise the ability to do so will vary across different sectors.