Joint Advice on School Teachers’ Pay in England 2026-27

This is joint advice by Community, NEU, ASCL, NAHT and NASUWT.

The Government has accepted the STRB’s recommended 3.5 per cent pay increase from 1 September to all school teacher pay points and allowances in England.

The unions are clear that the Government must invest to support the urgent restoration of the real value of teacher pay against inflation and to repair the competitive position of teaching in the graduate labour market.

The increase of 3.5 per cent to all pay points and allowances is effective from 1 September 2026. These proposals are subject to formal consultation ending on 23 September, with all pay increases backdated to 1 September.

This is our joint advice on the pay scales to be adopted for the school year 2026-27.

Consultation on pay policies

Formal consultation should take place with teachers and their union representatives before pay policies and pay scales for September 2026 are finalised. This should happen at the start of the new academic year, as soon as the pay proposals are formally confirmed, in order to comply with the requirement for meaningful consultation.

We believe that it would be helpful for local authorities, school governing bodies and academy employers to announce as soon as possible whether or not they intend to adopt the advice set out here.

Pay scales for 2026-27

The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) continues to permit the adoption of fixed pay scale points as the basis for teachers’ pay and progression.

The STPCD includes advisory pay scale points for the main and upper pay ranges and unqualified teacher pay range. These were restored to the STPCD in 2020 (main and upper pay ranges) and 2021 (unqualified teacher pay range) and reflect the values of the long-standing advisory pay points published jointly by our unions.

The recommended pay scale points set out in this advice are the advisory pay points in the STPCD plus in addition recommended pay points for the leadership pay range.

The decision to restore advisory pay points to the STPCD and align their values with those recommended in joint union advice underlines the appropriateness and importance of using the pay scales set out in this and previous editions of this joint pay advice.

In previous years teachers and school leaders should, as they have been in many schools, have been paid at least at the pay levels set out in the union advice. Where schools are still paying below the pay points in this advice, pay for teachers and school leaders in those schools should be increased to the values in this document.

The pay levels set out below should be a minimum, so where schools are paying above the value of the relevant point the teacher should be paid on the next highest point above the teacher’s current pay level. This should be uprated in future years in line with the relevant pay increase.

The principles supporting the use of national pay points for the main and upper pay ranges apply equally to the pay points for leaders set out in this advice. We will continue to call for the restoration of the national pay structure with the mandatory pay points as a minimum entitlement.

Pay progression for 2026-27 and beyond

Political choices made by successive administrations between 2010 and 2023 included the imposition of performance-related progression (PRP).

PRP is fundamentally unfair, contributes to the existing recruitment and retention problems and damages morale. There is no evidence that PRP impacts positively on pupil outcomes, and growing evidence that it has a negative impact on retention and workload. Recent research suggests that PRP does not work in schools in the same way that it does in business. Linking pay to performance, which is difficult to effectively and accurately measure in an increasingly subjective accountability system, can actually demotivate teachers. In addition, the bureaucracy involved in linking performance to pay impacts negatively on workload for both the school leaders operating the system, and the staff being appraised.

The unions urge all schools and academies to drop PRP immediately.

The decision taken in 2024 to remove the requirement to operate PRP makes it even more important that annual pay progression is the norm and default position, including for teachers on the Upper Pay Range. All eligible teachers and leaders must benefit from this decision and they should all receive pay progression.

All of our organisations believe that PRP is damaging and should be removed, with pay progression for eligible teachers and school leaders as the norm and default position, and applied separately and in addition to pay increases arising from the revalorisation of pay scales for cost of living purposes. This is the only way to ensure that the profession returns to a competitive position in the graduate market place.

The 2026 STPCD Guidance will continue to provide at Section 3 that “schools must determine – in accordance with their own pay policy – how to take account of the 3 uplift to the national framework in making individual pay progression decisions.” Even where schools decide to continue with PRP, this should not preclude pay increases which are made as a result of the implementation of annual uplifts of pay scales set out in the school’s pay policy.

TLR Payments for part-time teachers

In 2025 the Government accepted the STRB’s recommendation that TLRs be paid to teachers based on the proportion of the responsibility they carry out, rather than their contracted hours. All of our organisations welcomed this change, which will improve equality of opportunity for part-time workers, but under the previous STPCD it was not a requirement. Under the new STPCD all schools must now make this change. With effect from 1 September 2026, the value of any existing or new TLR1 and TLR2 payment must be determined based on the proportion of the TLR the teacher is undertaking.

Non-consolidated recognition awards

All of our organisations are completely opposed to the introduction of non consolidated recognition awards. This proposal is a recipe for unfairness, would reduce transparency, and would produce discriminatory outcomes. Schools should not use such awards.

You can see a full break down of the joint union teacher pay scales in England, from 1 September 2026 here.

Read our supplementary evidence, written evidence, and official response to the 36th STRB report.