Pay review body recommends 4% pay rise for teachers - government screwed

[noblegiraffe]

It is being reported that the teachers independent pay review body has recommended a pay rise of close to 4% for teachers. The government told it to recommend 2.8%. Schools can afford about 1.3% with funding increases, anything above that will have to come out of budget cuts.

If the government reject the 4% and go for 2.8%, both main teachers' unions have said that they will immediately start balloting for strike action. If any pay rise is unfunded, strike action is also on the cards.

This is not 'teachers demanding more money', this is the independent pay review body saying that teachers need to be paid more because the profession is underpaid and in crisis.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/strb-recomments-teacher-pay-rise-close-to-4-reports/

That's not happening either though. The govt has said that children with SEN need to be catered for within mainstream schools.

They are paid for by the schools in real money though

Not a teacher, but I am a TA and many of my family, including one of my dcs, are teachers. Sadly, most non - school staff will not understand that at least part of the reason for any industrial action, is because the money, or at least a significant part of it, will he e to come from existing budgets. Budgets which are already stretched to breaking point. For many schools, the solution will be to make staff redundant and most of those will be support staff. One effect of that will be that teachers' will have ever more heavy workloads and there will also be children who have less support than previously, that's if they get any support at all.
I also don't think that most people realise quite how much support TAs give. The days of putting up displays and just listening to children read are long gone. I plan and run interventions in maths and English, as well as phonics and EAL. I am expected to be able to deliver speech and language programmes as well as being responsible for several children who have health conditions that have to be monitored/ managed, such as diabetic children. I could go on, but it would take too long. The point is, when schools have to lose staff to pay the pay rises that teachers fully deserve, it is people like me who will be lost along with the support I give.
During the election campaign, I expressed concern about how education didn't seem to be a priority for any of the main parties. I was told that of course education was a priority for Labour. Unfortunately, I think I have been proven to be correct.

Taxing unrealised gains is complicated. What are the taxes on unearned income you mention? I agree NI for pensioners is an easy win (but won’t happen as politically unpopular).

I actually think everyone, down to those on minimum wage, need to be taxed more. If we want comprehensive services, everyone needs to pay.

I’m a specialist TA, I work with children with visual impairment. Hopefully I’ll have a job next year but have been warned there maybe major cuts. I can go and work in Sainsbury’s for more money than I get as a level 1 TA, but the students will be the ones who will majorly affected.

TA’s haven’t had a proper pay rise in years, we keep being granted a ‘one-off’ payment that doesn’t carry over to the next year. So by the time the tax man has taken a chunk and UC drop benefits the following month because of the higher salary there isn’t much left.

The role of a TA is becoming more specialised in many schools due to the higher level of needs in mainstream, however I can see the role disappearing entirely due to budget cuts. Which will just add stress onto the teachers.

If they paid 10 million a year I wouldn't go back.

And so they should.

The pensions are outstanding, as is the death in service cover. Pension contributions of eg/ £100k in the private sector provides £3K annual pension roughly, same £100k in teachers pension will get you around £9k per annum pension - in addition, you will have personally paid maybe 40-50% of the £100k private contribution vs personally paying around 24% of the TP contributions in the public sector (100/(8+28.68%)=3 x 8%), it’s a fantastic pension scheme, regardless of the mechanics of pension pots/funded by current members.

The pension is only good if you can afford to pay into it in the first place.

Agreed. Pity the teachers won’t accept a redistribution from the employer pension contribution to fund extra cash in their pockets now.

Have a look at the 50% option.

And if you actually last longer than a few years in the job.

It's also nowhere near as good as it was before Gove made massive cuts to it.

I don’t think teachers have a lot of say in the contributions expected, but yes maybe a rethink of pay vs pension would help.

And? When you reach the top of the scale, you sit there for years with a stagnant salary without any increase at all apart from the annual one. Are you really suggesting experienced staff should be put in a position where they are not rewarded for their years of experience?

As for pensions - where is your figure from? I hear this a lot of about public sector pensions, and they are not that much better than private companies when i have looked at it.

As for pensions - where is your figure from? I hear this a lot of about public sector pensions, and they are not that much better than private companies when i have looked at it.

Really?!

Can you give examples?

Not at all, just stating for clarity as all part of the discussion, the fact is that in the early years teachers do receive two pay awards per annum. Teachers pension employer contributions increased from 23.68% to 28.68% last year (they were 16.8% around 8 years ago), multiply by eg/60 Secondary teachers, it’s a high additional cost for schools which hasn’t been fully funded, again raises the question why are salaries problematic whilst pension payments are so high, rethink needed?

When you reach the top of the scale, you sit there for years with a stagnant salary without any increase at all apart from the annual one. Are you really suggesting experienced staff should be put in a position where they are not rewarded for their years of experience?

What do you think happens in other industries?

Stop allowing teachers to hold the country to ransom.
If they don't like the pay, 13 weeks holiday and massive pensions then they can leave and work in the private sector.
I would rather give the pensioners heating than award another payrise to teachers.

🤦‍♀️

Kids currently going into their GCSEs don't have teachers for all their subjects. What do you want to do about that?

by having a new economic system or we let mi5 / mi6 use agents to play the stock markets

we basically take the whole education system private,

When I started over 22 years ago I was paid 26K. I was over the moon because I had never earnt so much. Today a starting salary is 31K.

18 years ago I bought a house for £140K and in 2022 it sold for £270K

In addition due to how teachers are funded - it’s a profession where the more experienced you get, the more qualifications you achieve - the smaller the pay increments and the more vulnerable you are to redundancy for being expensive.

Ive had a pay cut this month. Ups3. No chance of a pay rise ever again. And now a pay cut. More work. All the time. More more more with no time to do it. SEN numbers through the rough with no adequate support. Well over DT budget but nobody can do anything about it.

I thought they had just had quite significant pay rises these last 4 years. Am I wrong?
must have missed what is considered significant pay rises for a profession that requires four years training and cpd every year. And still thousands below what I should be on if cost of living pay rises werent abolished.

What a stupid comment. Be embarrassed. Really.

When i worked in HR for a number of multinationals, people got pay awards every year. There were no upper limits that you reached and sat on.

In the public sector, the bands may not have many spine points, meaning after a few years, the only uplift in pay you get is the annual review.