Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the accuracy of the analysis provided by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the teachers' pay award announced in July which states that “about 60 per cent of teachers will receive below-inflation awards of 2 per cent, or in the case of school leaders 1.5 per cent".

For all pay awards, the government considered the wider pressures on public spending and the need to ensure they were fair for both public sector workers and the taxpayer. The government provided for a significant uplift in starting salaries to focus on raising pay for the lowest paid teachers at the start of their careers.

43.5% of the teacher workforce, or the 199,000 teachers currently on the Unqualified Teacher and Main Pay Range ranges will see an uplift of 3.5% to their pay range. The remaining 56.5% will see an increase to their pay ranges of between 1.5% and 2%.

Arrangements for teachers’ pay have been fundamentally reformed over the last four years following recommendations from the School Teachers’ Review Body. The freedoms the government have given headteachers over pay mean that there are no restrictions on increases within the minima and maxima of the national pay ranges. Schools are able to choose to give teachers a higher pay rise where this is appropriate to their particular local context and budget, subject to performance.