Independent pay review bodies recommend 5.5% pay rise for teachers and NHS

[noblegiraffe]

Well, this will be interesting.

There's no money available to fund a 5.5% teacher pay rise (1-2% was planned). The projected drop in pupil numbers has been downgraded from 6% to 3% so the wiggle room that would have brought is basically gone.

If the new Labour government don't honour the recommendations then they will be facing potential strike action.

https://x.com/steven_swinford/status/1814393887177200069?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g

Is the NHS not getting a cost of living annual increase this year? It’s nearly the end of July and there doesn’t seem to have been any news on this given it would have been due for April. Aren’t negotiations normally done by now and any back pay sorted?

I know that Gillian Keegan refused to release the independent pay review body recommendation for teachers before the election, holding up the entire process, headteachers are going to be told something in the summer holidays that will potentially fuck up their budgets for September.

This is going to be a massive headache for the government. They have made a big deal about wanting to recruit 6500 extra teachers (details unclear) so rejecting an independent pay review wouldn't be a good start.

The junior doctors are still demanding their 35% too.
Hard to see the government doing much about waiting lists with all the strikes that will ensue.

Minimum wage went up 10%.

It's better than I thought!

My guess is they will honour it and offer the same to the doctors. No one gets 35% in an industrial negotiation. It will be interesting to see what the flip side is.

If they honour it, how will they pay for it?

Since when did the NHS get an annual cost of living increase?

Every year the nhs gets a small raise in line with rising costs. In theory it should be in line with inflation but in fact it’s been lower than inflation for well over 10 years now.

No mention of civil servants yet who got less than all public sector workers last year.

Most of our admin staff are on NMW more or les and roles we can't fill because the NHS equivalent includes pay progression which we don't have.

Has the STRB report been released? I thought they weren’t releasing it this week? The link won’t open for me.

Improving pay will improve retention and hence reduce the use of agency staff, endless recruitment and training of new staff etc so won't necessarily increase costs by the headline percentage.

They could also do away with all the lucrative contracts to supply goods and services to public sector organisations, which mean we pay far more than we need to for just about everything we buy because it includes a hefty profit to a private sector supplier.

The only people that get independent recommended pay awards are MPs. People that perform such valuable jobs like teachers, NHS, firefighters etc never get them.

Last year's 6.5% pay rise for teachers ended up being paid for by the DfE who then have had to make cuts to teacher recruitment initiatives such as subject knowledge enhancement courses and relocation payments for international recruitment - further damaging teacher recruitment.

So I'm a bit worried that they are going to announce that it is going to be paid for by 'efficiency savings' when there are literally no savings left to be made, only cutting services.

Also waiting to hear about support staff pay increases. Recruitment is so difficult

A reply on same twitter thread said its unconfirmed and the Times are jumping the gun as usual. Probably to prompt a response? I'd love newspapers to actually do their job instead of trying to run the country...

There's money to pay for it. And I think the government know if that's not honoured the likelihood will be more strikes and increased waiting lists.

Public finances are in a terrible state, why do you think there is money to pay for it?

I've become used to getting my education news from Times headlines because the last government used to make all their policy announcements through leaks to their friendly press rather than the proper channels.

I guess this current government could be different. They had better make the announcement soon though, because headteachers really need that info.

Academy Trusts are still finalising their budgets. If not funded this will cause huge issues

It's always months late isn't it? I think last year it was either August or September.

My NHS trust has said it is delayed due to the election.

No decisions could have been made in the pre election period. Do wonder whether this was one of the reasons for the timing of the election. Passing the buck

noblegiraffe they seem to have money to spend and waste on plenty of things.
Two groups of people had increases in April out of the public funds and they were over 5.5%.
This government made a pledge to bring down waiting lists and he can't do that if staff are striking or leaving or recruitment is poor both in health care and in education.

they seem to have money to spend and waste on plenty of things

They've been in power for a fortnight?