The Department for Education (DfE) has now published the 2020 School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD).
School teachers’ pay 2020/21
The Department for Education (DfE) has now published the 2020 School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) which comes into force on 14 October 2020 (backdated to 1 September). The final document does not move significantly away from the draft shared during the consultation process – therefore the information we shared in our Pay Circular dated 4 August (where we refer to the draft STPCD) largely stands, with the notable exception of paragraph 26 (see below.)
The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions (England) Order 2020
- Made 21st: September 2020
- Laid before Parliament: 23rd September 2020
- Coming into force: 14th October 2020
The provisions set out in Section 2 of the Document have effect on and after 1st September 2020 for the purposes of determining:
(a) the remuneration of schoolteachers;
(b) other conditions of employment of schoolteachers which relate to their professional duties or working time.
As a reminder, the STPCD 2020 indicated the Government accepted the STRB’s recommendation in full.
- Minimum of the MPR is increased by 5.5 per cent.
- Maximum of the MPR and the minima and maxima of all other pay and allowance ranges for teachers and school leaders are uplifted by 2.75 per cent.
- These uplifts apply to all four regional pay bands.
- Advisory pay points are reintroduced on the MPR and UPR from September 2020.
NEOST is pleased to note that the proposed change to the STPCD for ‘additional payments’ at paragraph 26 ‘Additional Payments’ has been dropped from the final order. Our stakeholders had informed us that this proposed change to STPCD (widening the exclusion of additional payments for teachers on the leadership range) would reduce the pay flexibilities for a significant number of schools whilst increasing the unnecessary bureaucracy around the current freedom that many schools use to reward Assistant Head Teachers and Deputy Head Teachers who agree to temporarily work across schools to e.g. drive up educational outcomes for pupils.
The following paragraphs were contained in the LGA Pay Circular published August 4, but we replicate them here for ease:
Since 2014 when greater flexibility was introduced into the pay arrangements for schoolteachers, it has become more difficult to issue national guidance that is straightforward. You will recall that in 2014 we last issued joint guidance on reference points with the teaching unions. From 2015 onwards our aim for this circular is set out issues that will influence local decision-making and then to ‘do the maths’ on what we think are likely to be the most common models.
It is recognised that some authorities and schools will have local pay structures, which have not followed the most “common models” over recent years. You will also note that the proposed advisory pay points do not include the structure of points 6a and 6b, which have been used by some local authorities and schools and have been a feature of the LGA modelled pay scales, for several years. The STPCD does not contain guidance on how assimilation onto the proposed advisory pay points should be managed in these cases, and local authorities and schools will need to determine, in consultation with the unions and staff representative bodies, an appropriate methodology and timescale where they chose to move to the published advisory pay points.
The NEOST view based on feedback from our stakeholders is that the majority of schools do still want a consistent pay spine produced by the LGA for them across all the pay ranges which they can use to manage the required performance-related progression at school-level. School pay policies for 2019/20 will have set out the basis for determining the level of any pay progression for the school’s teachers, including the head teacher, from 1 September 2020. There remains broad support within the sector for not conflating cost of living and performance awards.
For avoidance of doubt, we are not recommending any particular approach be taken.
The Appendix contains, the STPCD advisory pay spine for the MPR and UPR for 2020. For other ranges, the figures are more straightforward and have been uprated in line with the proposed 2.75 per cent increases.
However, Points 18*, 21*, 24*, 27*, 31*, 35*, 39* and 43 on the Leadership Pay Range are the salary figures for head teachers at, or moving to, the top of the school group ranges only. These different figures are a legacy of the 2015 STPCD which provided for no uplift to the maxima of the eight head teacher group ranges.
All the information relating to 2020 Teachers pay and the STRB process can be found on the LGA website.
Yours faithfully,
Selena Lansley
Senior Adviser (Workforce and Negotiations)
Appendix