Independent pay review body recommends 6.5% pay rise for teachers

[noblegiraffe]

In recognition of the terrible state of teacher recruitment and retention, and against the government input that suggested teachers should get 3%, the teachers' independent pay review body has recommended a 6.5% pay rise for teachers from September.

This is far higher than the 4.5% offered to teachers by the government as a result of recent strikes, and which was rejected by all teaching unions.

After that offer was rejected, Gillian Keegan said that the matter now rested with the independent pay review body.

Now that they have made a far higher recommendation, will the government accept it? The Treasury will be absolutely furious if they are asked to shell out more money for schools, and they have argued that a higher pay offer would fuel inflation - teachers getting 6.5% would also bolster strike action in other public sector jobs.

If the government do accept it then given that they made a lot of fuss about the 4.5% offer being funded although only 0.5% was new money, they would be hard pressed to argue that they shouldn't at least fund the extra 2% with new money.

All four teaching unions are currently balloting for strike action in an argument about whether the 4.5% offer was affordable to schools (even the government admitted that many schools couldn't afford it), so will strikes continue if the government accept the 6.5% recommendation but only fund 2.5% with new money?

And would teachers accept 6.5% next year but nothing extra for this year?

Cat among the pigeons.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/75a3316c-f735-11ed-8aec-1014d109ef78?shareToken=b7505a1ee17a27ba5362b0c1f5a12f89

The govt aren’t interested in education because the electorate aren’t interested. Any poll will show that it just isn’t a priority and the Govt direct resources towards the electorate priority because they want your vote.

These aren’t new problems - recruitment targets for teachers have not been met for 9 out of the last 10 years. 1 in 3 teachers have been quitting with 5 years of qualifying for a decade. The Govt only “cares” about whatever the electorate care about and in this country, the electorate do not care about education. The only time people “care” is when teachers are unavailable to provide the child minding service required by the electorate. And when that happens (covid, strikes), the electorate universally condemn the teachers and never the govt. So of course the govt don’t care - why should they? They are here to ‘serve’ the will of the people

*within

Zipi it's sad but you're so right. Even the odd post from people on this thread esr that out... and the average mumsnet thread shows perception of teachers and this is on a mostly educated page.

It is really worrying for the future of schools. People will miss it when it's gone!

@EllandRd
Attitudes like yours and the contempt it shows for the profession is why we cannot recruit or retain teachers.

Actually @EllandRd teachers got a zero pay rise in 2021.

They got a pay rise in 2022, and given the shit they're dealing with post-Covid they bloody deserve one in 2023.

This is the independent pay review body going against government advice to say that we need a better pay rise than the one the government offered.

It turns out that teachers were right to reject it.

Can I add to this thread?

I see that today …

‘Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, Steve Barclay, the health secretary, Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, and Suella Braverman, the home secretary, are all pushing Sunak to back the review bodies.’ (The Times)

And that their intent is for additional funding rather than paring back existing budgets.

How can the PM possible decline the recommendations of the STRB and his own ministers at this point? And why are they waiting so long to announce?

The PM has "Treasury Brain" where the aim is to spend as little as possible on public services.

He doesn't understand that we desperately need investment in teachers and education. He truly believes that screwing over teachers is the correct course of action.

… but this is taking a turn now. All the ministers for the relevant departments are supporting the recommendations of the review bodies.

Gillian Keegan is supporting it and asking for additional funding.

This is surely because it is the right thing to do? Those are senior ministers. Ben Wallace and Alex Chalk are very popular ministers.

Even the comments below the article about it in The Times are supportive of upholding the review bodies’ recommendations on pay.

So why are we waiting? Is it so that schools can’t plan their budgets for next year? Who is that helping?

So why are we waiting?

Because this government are fucking incompetent. Literally can't do their jobs. They mainly seem to spend their time lurching from one scandal to another.

That's a u turn from keegan no?

I don't think Keegan ever said that they would ignore the independent pay review, in fact she specifically told teachers that they were now at the mercy of it.

The suggestion of ignoring independent pay review bodies has always been coming from Sunak, as far as I can see.

If they didn’t want children to lose out on education, why didn’t they announce before the strikes this week?

Sunak can’t keep his ministers in this position. It is appalling treatment of them. And to whose gain?

This isn't a functioning government. They can't come up with policy, and when they do come up with policy, they can't implement it (see Rwanda).