Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 125 of the report, UK Poverty: Causes and Solutions, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on 6 September 2016; if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of the recommendation to pilot a teacher pay premium to incentivise high-performing teachers to move to challenging schools.

Teachers’ pay and conditions in local authority maintained schools are determined on the basis of recommendations made by the independent body, the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), who consider a wide range of factors. In academies, we know that the majority also choose to mirror these national arrangements.

The reforms to teachers’ pay introduced in September 2013 give schools the flexibility to exercise their judgement as to how they reward their staff and to more closely align pay and performance. Pay flexibilities, including the use of recruitment and retention allowances, have given schools greater freedom to develop local offers which enable them to attract and retain the good teachers they need, and reflect local circumstances.

We know that while we are recruiting the teachers we need at the national level, despite the challenges caused by an improving economy and rising pupil numbers, some schools are facing significant challenges. We are working with key stakeholders to ensure greater support for pupils in deprived areas, which will include supporting schools to ensure teacher recruitment and retention challenges are addressed.

We are continuing to allocate additional funding to schools through the pupil premium to help them improve the progress and attainment of their disadvantaged pupils. Schools have flexibility over how they use the funding to benefit those pupils for whom it is intended – and this can include putting financial incentives in place to attract and retain high-performing teachers.