Dismay at pay report and ongoing teacher pay freeze

Voice Community – the education section of Community Union – has reacted with dismay to publication of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) report and Government response.

Deborah Lawson, Community Assistant General Secretary (Voice Community section), said:

“Failure to recommend a pay increase for most, and small increases which don’t even equal inflation for some, is a body blow for an already demoralised and exhausted profession crushed by the ongoing weight of workload and the huge demands made of them, both at the height of the pandemic and to deliver education recovery.

This is meagre reward for being critical workers. Sneaking it out in the evening after most schools have closed for the day and the summer holidays only reinforces that impression.

The Government appears to have no appetite to commit to restoring pay levels which were eroded by austerity measures a decade ago, and which the STRB’s recommendations only reinforce.

Teachers and leaders deserve a proper pay increase, not what is effectively an ongoing pay cut on the back of years of austerity, and is inadequate recompense for teachers – whose salaries that are almost 10% below where they were a decade ago.

We would also have liked to have seen an increase in teachers’ planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time.

Voice Community’s recent report, The Future of Education, raised fears of a mass exodus from the teaching profession, with 22.39% of education and early years staff surveyed indicated that they planned to leave within the next three years. The main reasons given for leaving were the pressures that accompanied the role, high administrative workload and low pay.”

In its submissions to the STRB, Voice Community called:

“for all salary points to be increased by not less than the rate of inflation, which is currently 1.21%”; and on the Review Body to “look again at the Pay and Conditions Document and to consider increasing the basic amount of PPA time for classroom teachers to 20%”

If you are a member of Community and need help or advice, please contact us at help@community-tu.org or on 0800 389 6332.