Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to apply national pay settlements to teachers working in academy schools.

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

As academies have freedoms and flexibilities to set the rate of pay for their teachers outside of the national pay arrangements, it is up to them to determine whether, and in what circumstances, to pay any annual uplift or performance-related pay.