Is Labour’s 5.5% teacher pay rise a magic bullet… or does it miss the mark?

For now, it seems, both parents and schools can breathe a sigh of relief. A long, chilly autumn of predicted strikes and pay disputes looks set to dissolve into an Indian Summer of business as usual following the new Labour government's move to boost teacher and leader pay by 5.5%.

But is that really enough to ease the crisis in teacher recruitment?

Wait, what’s happened?

The government has proposed a 5.5% increase to all allowance ranges, based on the recommendations of the School Teachers Review Body’s 2024 Report . It’s come at a good time: the four teaching and leadership unions have responded positively, and this likely heads off the potential for strike action this Autumn.

It’s seen as the first step in easing the heavy recruitment and retention problems plaguing the education sector for over a decade.

How much are teachers going to be paid now?

One figure the press has zeroed in on is that this brings the median teacher and leader salary to over ￡49,000. That is a real figure quoted in the government press release, but the reality is that it’s a middle point on a long scale. Salaries for most classroom educators are nowhere near that high— TES gives us a good idea of what new salaries are going to look like.

Can schools afford it?

The STRB predicts that this increase will cost about ￡1.65 billion. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has committed to a governmental supply of ￡1.20 billion to cover it until the end of the financial year, at which point funding to support it will be rolled into the national funding formula.

Schools are going to have to put some of their own cash into the deal, but a school costs technical note published earlier in 2024 cited a ￡660 million “headroom” in school budgets that provides a margin to support this.

That said, we’re in the middle of a ‘cost-of-learning' crisis... so quite a few critics have pointed out that ￡660 million has a lot of demand on it right now.

Is every teacher getting the boost— and what about SEND and school support staff?

No. It excludes those already paid above their band, and notably, college teachers haven’t been included in the pay rise. Association of Colleges CE David Hughes outlines that current FE funding rates aren’t high enough to match the offer for schools … meaning FE recruitment struggles might continue.

The second point of note regards school support staff, and by extension, SEND.

Why?

School support staff and unions are currently in the middle of a salary debate of their own .

They’re not included in this boost. In May, they were offered a pay increase of at least ￡1,290 from local government employers, but there’s been widespread dissatisfaction with the increase— even after a pay rise last year, a lot of these salaries only come in at ￡22-￡25k pro rata, and many take home well under ￡20,000 a year for these vital, often very stressful roles.

School support staff and TAs are some of the most important people in our schools, and alongside SENCOs, they’re the frontline support for anybody with SEND or who is neurodivergent. We already don’t have enough of them, and if recruitment and retention dip any lower, we’re going to see even greater ratios of SEND learners to support staff— which will hugely negatively impact their comfort, progress and learning potential.

Is it enough?

In 2022, 1 in 10 teachers reported needing a second job to make ends meet . Some are having to resort to using food banks . These are professionals who work a 52-hour week, so it surprises nobody that recruitment and retention levels are low.

A 5.5% pay increase has been welcomed as a shift in the right direction… but critics cite that significant improvements have to be made to workload, mental health support, training funding, and support staff provision too. And many simply ask the all-important question: will these salary boosts be enough to get new teachers and support staff through the door— and what happens to a generation of learners and SEND students if not?

Teacher, SENCo, support worker or external observer, we’d love to hear your take on the news in the comments below. ??