Appendix A - Local authority employer results - February 2024

Introduction

LGA Consultation on teacher's pay 2024 – Evidence for the school teacher review body

January 2024

LA Employer results

Consultation conducted online with one response allowed per organisation

Deadline: 10am on 29 January 2024

The Government published the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) remit late on 20 December, asking for pay recommendations for all teachers and school leaders in 2024/25.

The remit highlighted that the aim should be to promote recruitment and retention whilst noting the ‘historically high pay awards’ last year across the pay review bodies. The STRB was reminded to consider the government’s affordability position and the cost pressures that schools faced. 

The STRB also invited to offer a view on the potential benefits and challenges, in principle, i.e. not for implementation in 2024, of ‘targeting remuneration by subject in the future in order to address subject-specific teacher shortages’. 

Therefore, the following survey questions aim to extract evidence (including anecdotal evidence) to inform the NEOST response back to the STRB with the aim of influencing the STRB recommendations for teachers' pay and conditions in 2024/25.

Throughout this survey we will be using the term ‘organisation’ to represent the employer responded on behalf of Academy Trust (AT) or Local Authority (LA).

Only one submitted response per organisation to the online survey was accepted. The survey responses are intended to be reported on an anonymous basis,

Deadline: 10am on Monday, January 29, 2024

Total number of responses taken into consideration
Total number of responses taken into consideration Total
Local Authority Responses 66

Questions 1 - 2 asked respondents for their organisation and email addresses. 

Recruitment challenges

Primary recruitment

Where 1 is Not Difficult to Recruit and 5 is Most Difficult to Recruit to

Q3 Are primary schools in your local authority area currently experiencing difficulties with recruitment of Heads, Senior Leadership, Experienced Teachers, Early Careers Teachers
  1 2 3 4 5
Heads  3 responses (5%) 5 responses (8%) 12 responses (19%) 23 responses
(37%)		 20 responses
(32%)
Senior Leadership 4 responses (7%) 12 responses  (20%) 17 responses (28%)  25 responses (41%)   3 responses
(5%)
Experienced Teachers 2 responses (3%)   10 responses (16%) 18 responses (29%) 20 responses (32%) 12 responses
(19%)
Early Careers Teachers 7 responses  (11%) 17 responses (28%) 21 responses (34%)   11 responses (18%) 5 responses
(8%)

Secondary Recruitment

Where 1 is Not Difficult to Recruit and 5 is Most Difficult to Recruit to

Q4 Are secondary schools in your local authority area currently experiencing difficulties with recruitment of Heads, Senior Leadership, Experienced Teachers, Early Careers Teachers?
  1 2 3 4 5
Heads  5 responses  (9%) 5 responses  (9%) 15 responses  (28%) 18 responses
(34%)		 10 responses
(19%)
Senior Leadership 5 responses  (9%) 9 responses  (16%) 18 responses  (33%) 19 responses  (35%) 4 responses
(7%)
Experienced Teachers 2 response  (4%) 6 responses  (11%) 14 responses  (25%) 22 responses  (39%) 13 responses
(23%)
Early Careers Teachers 6 responses  (11%) 14 responses  (25%) 16 responses  (29%) 17 responses  (30%) 3 responses
(5%)

Retention challenges

Primary Retention

Where 1 is Not Difficult to Retain and 5 is Most Difficult to Retain

Q5. Are primary schools in your local authority area currently experiencing difficulties with retention of Heads, Senior Leadership, Experienced Teachers, Early Careers Teachers?
  1 2 3 4 5
Heads  5 responses (8%)   15 responses (24%) 16 responses (25%) 18 responses
(29%)		 9 responses
(14%)
Senior Leadership 4 responses (6%) 17 responses (27%) 27 responses (44%) 11 responses (18%) 3 responses
(5%)
Experienced Teachers 3 responses (5%) 10 responses  (16%) 28 responses (44%) 15 responses (24%) 7 responses
(11%)
Early Careers Teachers 4 responses (6%) 15 responses (24%) 19 responses (31%)   20 responses (32%) 9 responses
(6%)

Secondary Retention

Where 1 is Not Difficult to Retain and 5 is Most Difficult to Retain

Q6. Are secondary schools in your local authority area currently experiencing difficulties with retention of Heads, Senior Leadership, Experienced Teachers, Early Careers Teachers?
  1 2 3 4 5
Heads  8 responses (15%) 10 responses  (19%) 19 responses (36%) 9 responses
(17%)		 7 responses
(13%)
Senior Leadership 4 responses (7%) 12 responses (22%)   26 responses (48%) 11 responses (20%) 1 response
(2%)
Experienced Teachers 2 responses (4%) 7 responses (13%)   20 responses (36%) 20 responses (36%) 6 responses
(11%)
Early Careers Teachers 3 responses (6%) 11 responses (20%) 20 responses (37%) 17 responses (31%) 3 responses (6%)

General recruitment and retention challenges

Where 1 is Not Significant and 5 is Most Significant

Q7. How significant are the following factors for recruitment and retention challenges for schools?
  1 2 3 4 5
Level of Pay  2 responses (3%) 12 responses  (19%) 19 responses (30%) 23 responses
(36%)		 8 responses
(13%)
Workload 0 responses (0%) 1 responses  (2%) 3 responses (5%) 26 responses
(41%)		 34 responses
(53%)
Wellbeing 0 responses (0%) 3 responses  (5%) 10 responses (16%) 27 responses
 (42%)		 24 responses
(38%)
OFSTED 1 responses (2%) 8 responses  (13%) 13 responses (20%) 26 responses
(41%)		 16 responses
(25%)
Levels of Deprivation 5 responses (8%) 23 responses  (36%) 24 responses (38%) 10 responses
(16%)		 2 responses
(3%)
Pupil Behaviour 1 responses (2%) 3 responses  (5%) 25 responses (39%) 25 responses
(39%)		 10 responses
(16%)
Parent Complaints 3 responses (5%) 11 responses  (18%) 17 responses (28%) 20 responses
(33%)		 10 responses
(16%)
SEN levels 1 responses (2%) 3 responses  (5%) 15 responses (25%) 20 responses
(33%)		 22 responses
(36%)

Where 1 is Not Significant and 5 is Most Significant

Q8. How significant are the following geographical factors for recruitment and retention challenges for schools?
  1 2 3 4 5
Coastal Towns  20 responses (53%) 3 responses  (8%) 5 responses (13%) 3 responses
(8%)		 7 responses
(18%)
Rural Communities 7 responses (16%) 6 responses  (13%) 9 responses (20%) 11 responses
(24%)		 12 responses
(27%)
Urban/Inner City 8 responses (16%) 13 responses  (25%) 13 responses (25%) 10 responses
(20%)		 7 responses
(14%)

School finances affordability

The following questions focussed on impact, affordability, and budgeting.

Q9. What is your LA recommendations for schools to budget (expressed as an overall percentage uplift) – in respect of any estimated 24/25 teachers’ pay award?
0% 0 responses (0%)
0-0.99% 0 responses (0%)
1-1.99% 0 responses (0%)
2-2.99% 11 responses (17%)
3-3.99% 25 responses (38%)
4-4.99% 13 responses (20%)
5% + 11 responses (17%)
Don’t know 4 responses (9%)
Q10. What would your LA generally consider to be affordable for all schools in your area (expressed as an overall percentage uplift) in respect of any estimated 2023/2024 teachers’ pay award?
0% 10 responses (15%)
0-0.99% 8 responses (12%)
1-1.99% 13 responses (20%)
2-2.99% 14 responses (21%)
3-3.99% 8 responses (12%)
4-4.99% 0 responses (0%)
5% + 1 responses (2%)
Don’t know 12 responses (18%)
Q11. In the context to your answer to Q9, how significant an impact on your budgets would any higher percentage uplift in relation to the teachers’ pay award for 2024/25 be?
Significant impact 59 responses (89%)
Moderate 5 responses (8%)
Little impact in 2024/25 due to the option to use of “one off” reserves 0 responses (0%)
No impact 0 responses (0%)
Don’t know 1 responses (2%)
Left blank 1 responses (2%)

Please select three options

Q12. If there will be a moderate or significant impact in reforecasting of budgets, what changes are likely to be considered to balance the school’s budget?
Reduction in administrative roles 13 responses (7%)
Reduction in teaching assistant roles 36 responses (19%)
Reduction in teaching roles 17 responses (9%)
Reduction in pastoral support roles 13 responses (7%)
Reduction in staffing – too early to say which roles 39 responses (20%)
Reduction in curriculum offered to pupils 9 responses (5%)
Reduction in out of hours service (e.g. breakfast/after school clubs) 7 responses (4%)
Reduction in enrichment activities 26 responses (14%)
Reduction in estate investment/IT/logistical budgets 29 responses (15%)
Left Blank 3 responses (2%)
Q13. Which, if any types of schools are experiencing the greatest difficulty?
Primary 27 responses (41%)
Secondary 4 responses (6%)
Smaller schools 24 responses (36%)
Special schools 8 responses (12%)
Alternative provision including Pupil Referral Units 0 responses (0%)
Left Blank 3 responses (5%)

Pay policy

14. Affordability notwithstanding, does your organisation agree with the principle of having additional targeted remuneration to address subject-specific teacher shortages?
Yes   25 responses (38%)
No 18 responses (27%)
Don’t Know 30 responses (30%)
Not applicable 3 responses (5%)
Left blank  0 responses (0%)
15. Do your schools use existing STPCD pay flexibilities to target subject-specific teacher shortages?
Yes, all of them 2 responses (3%)
Yes, some of them 38 responses (58%)
No 11 responses (17%)
Don’t Know 12 responses (18%)
Not applicable 3 responses (4%)
16/17. Which flexibilities do your schools use? (Q.17 was an opportunity for the respondents to supply the other categories)
Recruitment & retention financial allowance (stpcd 27.1) 30 responses (25%)
Higher staring salary than for teachers in non-shortage subject areas 21 responses (18%)
Accelerated annual salary progression 15 responses (13%)
Awarding teacher and learning responsibilities 36 responses (31%)
None 5 responses (4%)
Other 5 responses (4%)
Left blank 6 responses (5%)
18/19. Why do your schools not use the existing flexibilities? (Q.19 was an opportunity for the respondents to supply the other categories)
Not applicable – our schools use the existing flexibilities 20 responses (22%)
Affordability challenges 28 responses (30%)
Negative impact on the morale of the overall teaching workforce 14 responses (15%)
Difficult to review/remove in the future 11 responses (12%)
I am not persuaded that a targeted remuneration policy delivers in the longer term 5 responses (5%)
Other 5 responses (5%)
Left blank 10 responses (11%)
20/21.  Should the 2024 pay award be applied to all ranges equally i.e. a uniformed percentage uplift - chose 1 option only (Q.21 was an opportunity for the respondents to supply the other categories)
Yes, applied equally to all ranges 58 responses (88%)
No, it should be targeted towards early careers teachers 1 response (%)
No, it should be targeted towards experienced teachers 0 responses (2%)
No, it should be targeted towards senior leadership team 0 responses (0%)
No, it should be targeted towards head teachers 1 responses (2%)
Other 4 responses (6%)
Left blank 2 responses (3%)
22. From an employer perspective would your LA/AT want these changes in the STPCD?
Ability for Upper Pay Range teachers to voluntarily move back to the Main Pay range within the school they are currently working 54 responses (82%)
A review and reduction of salary safeguarding from 3 years   48 responses (73%)
A review of performance related payments providing greater flexibility and/or guidance 37 responses (56%)
Left blank 4 responses (6%)

23. Respondents were asked to indicate if there were other changes that they would like to see in future STPCDs, not covered by the question above. - these have been supplied separately

24. Further information: Respondents were asked to provide any other financial data or comments - these have been supplied separately

Further information