School Teachers Pay and Conditions 2018 Update

Please visit this link to the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) 2018 which was published on 14^th September 2018.

The main amendment in response to the School Teachers Review Body is recommendation of the following:

• A 3.5 % uplift to the minima and maxima of the main pay range (MPR) and of the unqualified teacher’s pay range;
• A 2 % uplift to the minima and maxima of all upper pay range, the leading practitioner pay range and all allowances across all pay ranges;
• A 1.5% uplift to the leadership pay ranges (including headteacher groups).

This is detailed within the document and this is the recommendation you can follow in accordance with the statutory guidance. It is at the discretion of the school through their Pay Policy as to what decision is made with regards to other pay points and allowances. 

As stated in our previous bulletin in July 2018, Schools and Academies will be supported by the government to implement the award through a new teachers’ pay grant of £187m in 2018-19 and £312m in 2019-20 from the existing DfE budget. The amount is lower for 2018-19 as it covers 7 months from September 2018 to the end of the financial year, March 2019. This additional funding will be made available later in the autumn. The 2019-20 budget covers the full financial year.

The grant is allocated based on a per pupil (aged 2 to 19) basis. For schools with fewer than 100 pupils, funding will be allocated as if they had 100 pupils. The funding has been calculated by taking the overall annual pay bill for teachers, including additional costs such as pensions and national insurance, and applying the average percentage uplift of the announced 2018 to 2019 pay award. The 1% that Schools may have been planning, in line with the previous public sector pay cap has been subtracted, therefore, you may need to pay 1% towards the rise.

The grant has not considered the financial cost of teachers in individual schools and the approach of using pupils to calculate an average could mean this decision is either beneficial or detrimental to your annual budget.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) will pay the funding for maintained schools to local authorities, who will need to pass the funding directly on to the schools at the rates published. They will pay the funding for academies directly to the academy. Additional information can be found in the Teachers’ Pay Grant methodology document.

Further information on allocation of the grants will be published in October.

As you may be aware, the STPCD now only prescribes pay ranges with minimum and maximum points. The DfE no longer publishes any pay scale points for reference, either in the STPCD or in Departmental advice documents. The STPCD continues, however, to permit the adoption of fixed pay scale points as the basis for teachers’ pay progression, including by continuing to use previous STPCD pay scale points uprated as appropriate.

You should consider the above guidance when reviewing your Pay Policy this September. If you need any advice regarding the above, our team of Human Resources professionals will be able to assist you.