Performance-related pay for teachers will begin from September, the education secretary, Michael Gove, has confirmed, a move unions warned would demoralise the profession and be as more likely to produce salary cuts as increases.
Gove said late last year he was minded to just accept recommendations from the varsity Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) that headteachers take delivery of more freedom on deciding pay, something he argued would reward good staff and help schools in disadvantaged areas recruit and keep the very best teachers. a last decision was delayed pending a consultation period for unions and others to submit their views at the idea.
Gove has now written to Dame Patricia Hodgson, the chair of the STRB, to make sure the change, with a view to affect schools in England and Wales.
He wrote: “i’m clear that these changes will give schools greater freedom to develop pay policies which are tailored to their school’s needs and circumstances and to reward their teachers in step with their performance.” There has been, he added, “further work to be done” in deciding the way to implement the recommendations.
The new system will end teachers’ automatic progression to new national pay points in response to length of service, linking it instead to annual appraisals, as happens already with some senior staff. While the broader pay bands would be maintained as a general reference, the set points between them would be abolished, with heads given the ability to make your mind up what in the scale a teacher is paid. Higher pay bands for London and surrounding areas shall be kept in place.
The NASUWT teachers’ union called the consultation a “sham”, pointing to a niche of just six days between the deadline for submissions and Gove’s decision.
The union’s general secretary, Chris Keates, said: “To any extent further the one pay existing teachers can expect is the salary they’re on. New entrants to the profession can aspire no higher than their starting salary.
“At a time of severe economic austerity and where there may be already stark evidence that colleges are using existing pay flexibilities to disclaim teachers pay progression however well they perform, the claim that these recommendations will lead to good teachers being paid more is risible.”
The other main teaching union, the NUT, which with the NASUWT represents around 90% of rank-and-file teachers, has argued that predictable pay scales are probably the most main attractions for brand new entrants to the profession.
Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, said: “Some 25,000 schools deciding their very own pay structures is a true distraction from the teaching and learning that are meant to be the point of interest of schools’ work. Individual pay decisions will cause unfairness and not more mobility within the teacher job market.”
She added that performance-related pay was “fundamentally inappropriate” for teaching. “Contrary to Department for Education claims, there isn’t a evidence that linking pay to performance increases results.”
While both main unions representing headteachers and other senior staff, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and Association of college and school Leaders (ASCL), broadly support the change, they warn that it needs considerable planning and shouldn’t be rushed through.
In the NAHT’s submission to the STRB, the union’s general secretary, Russell Hobby, called one of the vital ideas “too far, too soon”. He said: “We accept that basing pay progression on performance would bring classroom teachers into line with both headteachers, where it already operates, and with most other sectors.
“To get the appropriate from the recent system, however, it should be introduced sensitively and contain a robust emphasis on professional development. For teachers to appreciate that this can be a constructive process that works of their interest in addition to pupils’, it must never be in keeping with crude targets.
“Nor should or not it’s implemented in a hurry without adequate training being given to college leaders and governors who may be monitoring staff progress and infrequently having to make difficult decisions and judgments.”
Gove said: “These recommendations will make teaching a more attractive career and a more rewarding job. They’ll give schools greater flexibility to reply to specific conditions and reward their best teachers.
“It is necessary that teachers is additionally paid more without needing to go away the school room. This may increasingly be particularly important to high schools inside the most disadvantaged areas because it will empower them to draw and recruit the appropriate teachers.”
