Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of impact of performance-related pay for teachers on (a) performance and (b) educational outcomes.

The Department believes that teachers should be paid on the basis of their performance rather than the number of years they have been in the profession. We believe that the best teachers should be paid more and that the most successful should be able to progress faster than was previously the case.

The reforms to teachers’ pay introduced in September 2013 gave schools the flexibility to exercise their judgement as to how they reward their staff and to more closely align pay and performance. This enables them to attract and retain those teachers who have the greatest impact on their pupils’ achievements. This also means that schools are free to determine for themselves the salary, within the relevant national pay range, that they wish to offer on appointment.

Non-maintained schools, including academies and free schools, are responsible for determining the pay and conditions of their staff themselves. Such schools are not obliged to follow the statutory arrangements set out in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, although they may still choose to do so.