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/

The starting salary for an M1 classroom teacher in England in 2003 appears to to have been £18,000 - were you on some sort of enhanced starting salary?

£2.3bn rings a bell - I seem to remember Jeremy Hunt announcing an additional £4.6bn for schools over two years in November 2022.

It was 2004 and I was so quick into being a head of department so I might be misremembering by a few thousand..it’s possible..it was a long time ago!

2004 looks like £18,558.

It definitely wasnt that high when i started in 2002. I lived in Reading. It didnt go very far there but i loved the school.

Thank you for your research I said 26K when it was probably around £22/23K when I first stated. I moved up quickly and got a 2K pay rise every year at the start.

But it's not a race to the bottom.
Teachers can agree this is shit for FE staff and also be pissed off about their own issues.

If it’s a choice between paying rent and bills and pension payments which would you pick.

It would be completely possible to reform the TPS further for people who haven’t yet retired. Anyone mid-40s and under has over 20 years to work pre-pension.

It's not just the conditions.
I'm vastly underpaid for what I do (SEND teacher)

Teacher's current pension contributions are not being put in a pot for their future pension, they are being used to pay current teacher pensions.

So if teachers reduce pension payments to increase pay, where does the money to pay current teacher pensions come from?

Not a race to the bottom but some gratitude that in a landscape of no money, teachers in school have been given some.
Fe teachers have never had anything near school teachers and in some ways I agree as Fe teachers don't have to have a teaching qualification however they aren't given anything like the recognition and rises school teachers have had From an eternally empty pot

I am an ed psych

We had 2.5 percent last year which is the first pay rise above 1 percent in the last 15 years.

We have to complete at least 7 years training to enter the profession. SEN is in crisis and there is a huge shortage of EPs.

Our salary now ranges from 42 to 65k (outside of management) - to get the 65 you have to demonstrate excellence and advanced practice. When I started 25 years ago I was on 26k.

So I think other professions need a first boost before teachers get another.

I’m aware of how the cash flows work for the TPS but thats a different issue to whether the TPS needs reform.

And with regard to where the money comes from, it comes from the government now, just in a convoluted way via schools and teachers benefits.

I think there’s an extremely limited number of training places for Ed Psychs too which is madness given how much we need them (same as doctors I guess).

Absolute solidarity with those working in FE and SEN in their fight for better wages and working conditions. 💪

It doesn’t solve the problem of how to afford a pay rise for teachers though. It’s a red herring in that respect.

An apparently valid argument but without teachers no one is educated sufficiently to enter other professions.

So I think other professions need a first boost before teachers get another.

I fully support any profession whose independent pay body review recommends a particular pay rise.

Our pay review body last year recommended RPI plus 5% but we had to reluctantly accept 2.5 percent.

https://www.aep.org.uk/system/files/2024-05/Soulbury%20Pay%20Claim%202024%20FINAL.pdf

Nevertheless, the minimum starting salary for a newly-qualified classroom teacher outside of London in 2004 was £18,558 so you obviously started with an enhancement/higher up the scale.

That's your union submission, do you have an independent pay review body for
Ed Psychs?

Google says you went on strike in 2023 and got an improved pay offer 💪 do you think you will be balloting for strike action again?

Our pay body is Soulbury, that's the summary of the claim. The improved offer was the 2.5 percent :(

Absolutely. I started in 2002 and was on £18k. £1033 a month take home.

I'd be interested to know what bus drivers were starting on back then, because apparently now (as advertised on the backs of buses as I'm driving to work), their starting salary is the same as teachers.

Google is suggesting it wasn't that dissimilar to the starting salary for teachers in 2002 as well, but there isn't a national rate as lots of different companies operate buses.

Bus drivers had a recent increase because there was a huge shortage of hgv drivers and salaries there were soaring. The conversion from bus to hgv licence was quite easy and there is no annoying public to deal with. So bus drivers were leaving in high numbers to become hgv drivers during that shortage.