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 29th March 2023
Good afternoon,
I want to update you on the outcome of my intensive discussions on pay and conditions with trade unions. You will have seen commentary about the offer we have made, and I am writing to set out the detail of this offer and clarify how we are funding it.
Firstly, I understand that this has been a challenging time for you, and you’ve worked hard to ensure children and young people are at the centre of everything you do. Young people have suffered more disruption to their education than any generation that's gone before, and it's the vital work of teachers that is helping them to get back on track. The last thing I want to see is anything that would risk undoing that progress, which is why it is critical that we solve this trade dispute.
Whether you have engaged in industrial action in recent months or not, I know all of you care deeply about your pupils and giving them the best possible support, particularly for those who are anxiously approaching exams.
The pay offer
Following a week of discussions, we came to an in-principle agreement with the NEU, NASUWT, NAHT and ASCL to put an offer to members. On pay, this offer would give teachers and leaders:
- a one-off payment of £1,000 for the current academic year, equivalent to 2.4% of average pay for 2022-23, in addition to the previously agreed average pay award of 5.4%; and
- an average 4.5% consolidated pay rise for 2023-24, which would be equivalent to a pay rise of at least £1,880 (4.3%) for experienced (U3+) teachers and leaders, and £2,000 (7.1%) for new teachers (outside London).
How funding works for teacher pay
To ensure schools can afford this offer, I am providing further funding on top of the £2 billion already announced in the Autumn Statement. We have looked at school budgets from 2022 to 2024, including the additional £2 billion provided as part of the Autumn Statement, to work out what is affordable and what needs extra funding. We publish details of schools’ funding and costs each year (Schools' costs 2022 to 2024 note), and have identified that schools will have total headroom of £2.4 billion, across the two years from 2021-22 to 2023-24.
Our judgement in February was that a 3.5% average award for teachers would be manageable within budgets, and a higher pay award might be affordable depending on what happened to energy costs. This is what underpinned our evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body. Since then, we have continued to update our forecasts. Our latest assessment assumes a circa 8% pay award for support staff in 2023-24 (in line with the current offer to local government staff), which will cost £1,100m, and that schools’ energy costs will not, in fact, rise as much as we thought that they might – they will be £750m higher in 2023-24 than they were in 2021-22. This means a 4% teacher pay award (costing £550m) in September 2023 would be affordable from current budgets, as shown by the graphic below.
 To ensure the pay offer is fully funded, we will provide further funding of around £620m in 2023-24 for the additional 0.5% and the £1,000 one off-payment. We will also provide a further £150m in 2024-25 to schools to cover the on-going costs of the pay increase. I am pleased the Institute for Fiscal Studies has come to the same conclusion – stating that “after accounting for the new pay offer in 2023, we estimate that school funding is still growing faster than school costs”.
The wider offer
I know there are issues beyond pay that also need to be addressed to support the teaching profession, which is why our offer also includes:
- the removal of the statutory requirement for schools to use performance related pay, reducing bureaucracy and allowing schools to decide how to progress teachers up the pay range;
- a commitment to set up a new workload taskforce to reduce average teachers’ and leaders’ working time by 5 hours a week as measured by the Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders survey;
- Ofsted offering greater clarity on when schools should expect their next inspection;
- reinserting into the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) a list of tasks which teachers should not ordinarily be expected to do (and having similar language for leaders);
- an intention to align the School Teachers’ Review Body process with the school budget cycle; and
- reviewing complaints procedures for parents, as well as Ofsted’s complaint procedures for schools.
What happens next
All four unions are now putting this offer to their members to vote on. If members reject the offer of more pay, the process for deciding teachers’ salaries will revert to the School Teachers’ Review Body – who will make a recommendation to me as the Education Secretary on pay for 2023-24 in the usual way. This will not include 2022-23, on which they have already reported. As such, the School Teachers’ Review Body do not have a remit to recommend increases for 2022-23 (including the £1,000 currently offered, which would, as a consequence, no longer be available). Teachers who want to accept £1,000 this year and 4.5% next year should vote in favour of this deal.
I firmly believe this is a fair offer that addresses the concerns raised by teachers and leaders through their representatives. It recognises the vital importance of your work and commits to a substantial pay rise in 2023-24, at a time when inflation is predicted to fall to 2.9% by the end of the calendar year and to average less than 1% next year. This offer balances what is possible for schools without increasing the country’s debt further or exacerbating inflation – I hope teachers and leaders across the sector will vote to support this offer.
I would like to thank you for your continued important work in providing our children with the best education. I know there are no great schools without great teachers – your knowledge, experience, and dedication are central to shaping the lives of children and young people.
Yours sincerely,
 The Rt Hon Gillian Keegan MP
Secretary of State for Education
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