Teachers in England get two-year 6.6% pay rise but schools to foot part of bill

Teachers in England will receive a 3.5% pay rise from September and a further 3% next year, with extra school funding to meet most but not all of the higher wage bill, the government has announced.Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said the government would accept the pay recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which were substantially higher than the government’s initial proposals.The Department for Education said state schools would be given an extra £1.8bn over two years to partly fund the pay rises for teachers and for support staff, who have been offered a 3.3% pay rise back-dated to April.Phillipson said: “This multi-year deal, backed by significant additional investment, shows the immense value we place in our teachers, while giving schools and colleges certainty over pay and their budgets.”Phillipson had asked the STRB to support a 6.5% award spread over three years, from 2026-27 to 2028-29. But the independent committee instead recommended the equivalent of 6.6% over two years.Education unions said they were happy to see teachers’ pay rise above forecasts for inflation but were concerned that schools needed to fund nearly a third of the wage increases from existing budgets.Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Schools are being asked to find £460m from budgets already at breaking point. This is the equivalent of 8,300 school staff – 3,900 teachers and 4,400 support staff. Ministers cannot claim to want more teachers while overseeing such a drastic reduction in numbers next year.”The NEU said it was considering its options over industrial action. In May the union voted to hold a strike ballot in the autumn unless the government committed to a fully funded, above-inflation pay award.The DfE noted that school teachers would have a cumulative 17% pay increase since the last election, with the average school teacher salary rising to more than £52,800 from September, and more than £54,400 from September 2027.The government said it would also give an extra £485m to colleges and other further education providers over two years for staff retention.David Hughes, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “We had feared that we were heading towards a potentially very low or even zero pay award recommendation. It shows that the government has been listening to the case we made as a sector and recognises that its funding decisions are critical for ensuring colleges can address the cost of living crisis their staff face.”The DfE confirmed that academy executive pay would be subject to new curbs including a cap of £174,000, with higher salaries requiring government approval. About 1,000 multi-academy trusts already pay more than £200,000 salaries to senior staff.The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) criticised the move, saying it would add a “slow, bureaucratic process to recruitment, harming the ability of trusts to recruit and retain strong leaders”.Leora Cruddas, the CST’s chief executive, said: “We should be empowering trusts and local leaders to do what their communities need, not assuming the Department for Education knows best.”