Pay cap threatens schools, May told
Warning from official review body as rises for teachers are frozen at 1pc again
THE future of the education system is at “substantial” risk because of the public sector pay cap, the official review body for teachers warned yesterday as Theresa May announced another year of austerity for the profession.
Ministers announced that pay rises for teachers will remain capped at 1 per cent, meaning an effective pay cut for more than half a million teachers in England and Wales.
The School Teachers Review Body, which advises the Government over pay, said it was “deeply concerned” that schools were struggling to retain and recruit teachers as their pay failed to keep pace with other professions.
It came amid reports that ministers are considering scaling back a programme to build hundreds of free schools to help meet a manifesto pledge over increasing the education budget by £4billion.
Mrs May is facing a Cabinet split over the pay cap issue with Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, and Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, among those calling for it to be lifted.
However, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, has said that voters need to consider the “serious question” of whether they are prepared to accept higher taxes to ease austerity after “seven years of hard slog”.
The intervention by the pay review body will add to mounting pressure for Mr Hammond to ease the pay cap in his Budget later this year, while Mrs May is likely to face challenges from her MPS.
Johnny Mercer, the Conservative MP for Plymouth, said: “This is a stark warning to the Government from teachers and reflective of the concerns of voters in my constituency.
“In my view the Government has to listen to what’s being said today.”
Teachers’ pay has been capped for seven years in succession, with unions stating they have suffered an effective cut in their wages as inflation has risen.
Last night ministers said that the Government’s decision to continue with the cap was in line with the pay review body’s recommendations.
However, the review body said it was recommending an overall rise of 1 per cent for teachers only because the Government had made clear that it would not give schools any extra money to fund a bigger increase.
It said that while there was a “strong case” for a pay rise for teachers, doing so within existing budgets would require “some school leaders and governing bodies to take difficult decisions”.
On the issue of teachers leaving the profession and schools struggling to recruit enough graduates the report said: “We consider that this presents a substantial risk to the functioning of an effective education system.”
It added that a “high workload” and “strict accountability” were deterring people from being teachers, and that pay was also an “important factor”.
It said: “The evidence shows that, on average, starting pay and the prospects of pay progression are worse for teachers than for those joining other graduate professions. This makes it more difficult to attract suitable graduates to
join, and remain in, the teaching profession, particularly while the graduate labour market offers increasing opportunities.”
The body recommended that, while overall levels of pay must not increase by more than 1 per cent, lower paid teachers should receive an automatic rise of 2 per cent. In a clear warning to ministers the report concluded that pay rises of above 1 per cent will be needed in future “to continue to enhance the status of the teaching profession and make pay more competitive for teachers at all stages of their careers”.
Kevin Courtney, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “This is a missed opportunity which the Government will come to regret as the teacher recruitment and retention crisis gets worse… The pay being offered to newly qualified teachers would be over £3,500 higher if the pay cap had never been applied and schools would have far fewer difficulties in recruiting new graduates.”
Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, said: “Following previous reforms, schools already have significant flexibility, within the pay ranges, to set pay for individual teachers, taking account of performance and retention.”
A Department for Education spokesman said the new policy had leeway “allowing heads to give some teachers up to a 2 per cent pay uplift – alongside generous training bursaries and competitive starting salaries”.
He added: “The number of new teachers continues to outnumber those who retire or leave and more teachers are returning to the profession. The core schools budget is set to rise to a record £42billion and we have consulted on ways to make school funding fairer.”