The Government must fully fund the pay rise for teachers in England to prevent cuts to pupil support, activities and staffing, unions have urged.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been warned that investment in improving school staff’s pay and conditions is “vital” to tackling the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
In May, the Government accepted the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) to boost the salaries of teachers and school leaders in England by 4% from September.
Ms Phillipson said schools would receive an additional £615 million of funding this financial year to help cover most of the costs of increased pay awards.
But she said schools would have to find around 1% of the pay awards themselves “through improved productivity and smarter spending”.
In a joint response to Ms Phillipson, four education unions have set out their “united view” on the need for the Government to provide additional investment to fully fund the pay increase for the next academic year.
The National Education Union (NEU), the NAHT school leaders’ union, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and Community said: “Investing in the improvements needed to teacher and school leader pay and conditions is vital to tackling the recruitment and retention crisis.
“In the interests not only of teachers and school leaders but of parents, pupils and the wider economy, we need a major pay correction to reverse the real terms pay cuts and repair the competitiveness of pay.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at NAHT, said financial pressures on schools mean that finding the money for a pay uplift for school leaders and teachers “is becoming more difficult.”
He said: “Any so-called easy savings have long since been achieved after years of under-investment under previous governments, so the Government must avoid creating a false trade-off between professionals’ pay and reductions in support for pupils, curriculum resources and activities.
“Ensuring schools have the dedicated teachers and leaders they need requires sustained Government investment to properly fund further above-inflation pay rises – as well as action to tackle intolerable levels of workload, support flexible working, and implement more far-reaching reform of damaging high-stakes Ofsted inspections.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the ASCL, said: “We urge the Government to provide the funding in full that is needed to cover the cost of the 2025-26 pay award, as the partial funding provided leaves many schools having to make cuts to bridge this shortfall.
“This means reductions in staffing, which has a knock-on effect on the workloads of remaining staff, which in turn affects retention.
“It is a vicious cycle which we must break. This can only be done by ensuring that pay awards are both sufficient and fully funded.”
In April, both teaching unions – the NEU and the NASUWT – threatened to take strike action if schools did not get extra funding to pay for salary increases for teachers.
It came after the Department for Education (DfE) previously suggested in its written evidence to the STRB in December that a 2.8% pay rise for teachers in 2025/26 would be “appropriate”.
In May, the NEU, the largest education union in the UK, threatened to “register a dispute” with the Government unless it fully funded the pay rise for teachers.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “The Government must respond to the clear evidence and the united voice of the profession.
“To protect our education service and tackle the recruitment and retention crisis, the Government must put in the investment needed to properly value teachers and school leaders.”
Helen Osgood, director of operations at Community, said: “The Government has shown that it is on the side of teachers by supporting the STRB’s recommendation of a 4% pay increase from this September.
“Ministers now need to back this up by ensuring that appropriate funding is provided to support the increase.
“This is the only way we can ensure that teacher pay keeps pace against inflation, and that the profession remains competitive within the labour market.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “Since day one, the Education Secretary has made it her priority to back teachers, announcing pay awards of almost 10% over two years, and has committed to tackle high workload and poor wellbeing, including encouraging schools to offer more flexible working opportunities.
“We are already seeing early progress, with 2,300 more secondary and special schoolteachers in classrooms this year, as well as 1,300 fewer teachers leaving the profession – one of the lowest leave rates since 2010.
“Alongside significant investment, we will continue to support schools to the get best value from their funding through initiatives to help them slash the costs on things like energy and recruitment alongside better banking solutions so every penny is invested on delivering opportunities for young people.”
