School Teachers Pay and Conditions Documents 2021 changes

This statutory document applies to schools in England only. Welsh schools have been excluded from updates since 1st September 2019 and schools in Scotland have never been within scope.

As a reminder, STPCD applies to all maintained, foundation and aided schools. There is no requirement for this to apply to Academies, although these provisions would normally transfer for TUPEd staff and in practice many Academies and MATs choose to be bound by it for new appointments.

Download the goverment guidence document School teachers’ pay and conditions document 2021 and guidance on school teachers’ pay and conditions here 

The recommendations of the School Teachers Review Body’s 31st Report, 2021, reflects the Chancellor’s announcement that there will be a public sector pay freeze, with some limited exceptions.  

Consolidated award of £250 for lower earning teachers.

A consolidated award of £250 will be paid to all teachers whose full-time equivalent basic earnings are less than:

·        £28,681 in Inner London

·        £27,419 in Outer London;

·        £25,194 in the Fringe;

·        £24,000 in the rest of England.

As all qualified teachers’ earnings are above these Full Time Equivalent earnings levels, this will only apply to certain unqualified teachers whether located on a published pay point or not and should be independent of any progression considerations

Any part-time teacher whose full-time equivalent basic earnings meet the eligibility criteria must receive the award on a pro-rata basis according to their contracted hours.

You should assess whether you have anyone who meets these criteria and make arrangements to pay them the uplift, backdated to 1st September 2021 as soon as reasonably practicable.

Advisory pay scale for unqualified teachers

In addition to the above, there is an advisory pay scale for unqualified teachers which hasn’t appeared in previous versions of the STPCD: See annex 4, page 64.

Payment mechanism for tutoring to address learning disruption following the Coronavirus pandemic

The document also introduces a payment mechanism for TLR 3 allowances for tutoring delivered by main pay range and upper pay range teachers to address learning disruption as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

There are no further pay recommendations made in the document for pay for other teachers and leaders.

Provision of additional Bank Holiday for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

One notable addition which applies to the STPCD 2021 and will be applicable for one year only is a change in the number of days and hours that teachers must be available to work as a result of the additional Bank Holiday on Friday 3rd June 2022 to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

In essence, teachers will teach one less day for the academic year 2021/22, down from 195 to 194 (including INSET days), or down from 190 to 189 (excluding INSET days) across 1,258.5 hours as opposed to 1,265 hours of directed time. An extra day of holiday will therefore need to be allocated.

If you have not already done so, schools will need to find an extra day of holiday for teachers when the additional bank holiday falls in their half term which it will for most.

If you need any assistance or advice in relation to the above and how it may impact your Pay Policy please contact Penny Walters – Senior HR Consultant PennyWalters@StoneKing.co.uk 0113 302 4709.