School teachers and leaders will receive a fully-funded 5.5% pay award, reflecting the vital contribution they make to children’s life chances.

The decision means the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) have been accepted in full.

Schools will receive almost £1.2bn in additional funding to cover their costs, fully funding the pay award for teachers and support staff in financial year 2024-25 at a national level.

The investment marks an important step on the path towards the Government’s pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers.

As the Chancellor has set out, the poor position of the public finances means a number of programmes must be cancelled across government – including the Advanced British Standard.

Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said: “The Chancellor has laid out a grim picture – our public finances are in a devastating state and tough choices need to be made to help rebuild the foundations of the economy.

“But, while the impact teachers have on children and young people’s life chances can’t be measured in pounds and pence, those working in education must be in no doubt about their value.

“Teachers lay the foundations of children’s lives. An investment in them is an investment in the next generation, and this government is determined to make sure every child – whatever their background – has the opportunity to succeed.”

The Education Secretary recognised the delay in confirming pay and funding arrangements for next year due to the timing of the General Election.

The 5.5% award will apply from 1 September and is equivalent to an increase of over £2,500 for the average teacher, which would take the median salary for 2024/25 to over £49,000.

The pay award applies to maintained schools, with academies continuing to have freedom over their pay and conditions.

The Government is also today announcing further steps to reduce teachers’ workload, reset relations with the sector and make teaching an attractive profession again.

Alongside the pay award, the requirement for schools to use the performance-related pay (PRP) system – which can lead to schools and teachers going through an overly-bureaucratic process to agree individual teachers’ pay rises – will be removed from September.

The Government will also clarify that teachers can carry out their planning time at home, improving flexible working for staff.

Today’s award builds on the Education Secretary’s work to reset the relationship with education workforces since taking up post, including a letter to all education workers in her first week in the role, a reception with almost 200 stakeholders, and a webinar with up to 14,000 front line staff.

Commenting on the announcement, Joana Cardim Dias, senior researcher for school workforce at the Education Policy Institute (EPI), said the Government needed a more-long-term approach to pay increases, adding: “A decade of declining pay competitiveness has contributed to continuing struggles to recruit and retain teachers.

“Today’s announcement, which follows a 6.5% pay award for in 2023-24, is a positive step towards restoring the pay competitiveness of the teaching profession.

“Importantly, the pay award is supported by a £1.1bn grant to schools.

“We also welcome the Government’s decision to allocate this new grant based on a combination of a per-pupil allocation, a lump sum and a considerable weighting for disadvantaged pupils.

“The previous Teacher Pay Grant did not acknowledge the extra staffing costs often faced by schools with more disadvantaged pupils, and so this is an important correction.

“Nevertheless, this grant is only for 2024-25 and the Government has rightly acknowledged that it will not cover the full years cost of the teacher pay award.

“In order to support schools to plan effectively, the Government needs to provide them with a longer-term funding settlement.”

Everything you need to know about teacher pay

 

Are teachers getting a pay rise this year?

The STRB recommended a pay award of 5.5% and this has been accepted in full by the Education Secretary, reflecting the vital contribution teachers make to children’s life chances.

The 5.5% award would see pay packets increase by over £2,500 for the average classroom teacher, which would take the median salary for 2024/25 to over £49,000 a year.

 

Will teachers at all schools receive the pay award?

The pay award applies to maintained schools, with academies continuing to have freedom over their pay and conditions.

However, in practice most academies follow the recommendations of the STRB.

 

Is the pay award fully funded?

Yes. Schools will receive £1.1bn in additional funding to cover their overall costs in financial year 2024-25, including fully funding the pay award for teachers at a national level.

This matches what we have calculated is needed to fully fund the teacher pay award and the support staff pay offer, at the national level, on top of the available headroom in schools’ existing budgets.

The Government is also providing an additional £97m for schools delivering post-16 education (£63m) and early years (£34m) provision.

Taken together, this is an increase of almost £1.2bn.

The pay award impacts both financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26. This additional funding only covers the financial year 2024-25 portion of the award.

 

When will teachers receive their pay rise?

Teachers will start receiving their new salary in the autumn, after a new pay order is laid in Parliament and comes into force.

Pay will be backdated to 1 September 2024.