School Teachers' Review Body: 21st report - 2012 and draft STPCD 2013

The Secretary of State wrote a letter to schools on 15 May 2013 following circulation of a NUT/NASUWT pay policy checklist into schools. The Secretary of State enclosed information to schools about where he considers the NASUWT/NUT checklist fails to meet statutory requirements.

On 21 February 2012, the Secretary of State for Education asked the independent School Teachers' Review Body (STRB) to review current provisions for teachers’ pay with a view to raising the status of the profession and contributing to improving the standard of teaching in our schools. The STRB’s 21st report is in response to that remit.

Following the acceptance of the recommendations in the STRB's 21st report of 5 December 2012, the government has now published the draft School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document 2013 (STPCD) together with departmental advice, which has been produced to assist schools in reviewing and revising their approach to teachers’ pay.

The STPCD 2013 will come into effect from 1 September 2013. This version is being issued now to give schools and employers advance notice of the changes to the system that will come into effect so that they can review and revise their pay policies during the summer term. We will be revising the document at a later stage to reflect the outcomes of the STRB’s 22nd remit relating to the 2013 pay award. Following publication of the 22nd report, the department will lay a pay order before Parliament that will give the 2013 STPCD statutory force.

You can find the 21st report in our publications section. You can read the remit letter and the government’s response to the 21st report and find a link to the Q&A about the 21st report and STPCD 2013 on this page. You can also read a fact sheet setting out what this means for teachers. We have also produced a myths and facts document that responds to several issues that have been raised with us in correspondence.

The key recommendations in the STRB’s 21st report were:

• replacement of increments based on length of service by differentiated progression through the main pay scale to reward excellence and performance improvement
• extension to all teachers of pay progression linked to annual appraisal (which is already established for more senior teachers). Appraisal should be against a single set of teaching standards, and individual objectives, with a strong emphasis on professional development
• abolition of mandatory pay points within the pay scales for classroom teachers, to enable individual pay decisions, but with retention at present of points for reference only in the main pay scale, to guide career expectations for entrants to the profession
• retention of a broad national framework, including the higher pay bands for London and fringe areas and an upper pay scale as a career path for experienced teachers who make a wider contribution to the school
• replacement of the unnecessarily detailed threshold test for progression from the main to the upper pay scale, with simple criteria based on one set of teacher standards. This will create a consistent progression path from graduate entry to the top of the upper pay scale and allow schools to promote the best teachers more rapidly
• local flexibility for schools to create posts paying salaries above the upper pay scale, enabling some of the very best teachers to remain in the classroom and lead the improvement of teaching skills
• more discretion for schools in the use of allowances for recruitment and retention and freedom to pay fixed-term responsibility allowances of up to £2,500 a year for time-limited projects
• reinforcement of the responsibility of headteachers to manage staff and resources and of governing bodies to hold school leaders to account for managing and rewarding the performance of teachers in the interests of pupils
• on the basis of the above, a much simplified School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document, including a brief guide to the national framework and the flexibilities open to schools

The Secretary of State invited consultees who contributed to the STRB process to comment on the STRB's report and the proposed government response by 4 January 2013. He then considered consultees' comments prior to confirming the government's response in a letter to the Chair of the STRB.

A further period of consultation on the content of a revised School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) was held with the Statutory Consultees prior to its publication.

Next steps

On 17 January 2013 the Secretary of State issued a further remit letter to the STRB regarding the application of the 1 per cent pay uplift for 2013. The Department submitted its evidence to the STRB on Monday, 18 February.

Following the publication of the recommendations of the STRB’s 22nd report, the STPCD 2013 will be updated to reflect the pay award for September 2013 and formally published with statutory force.

On 17 April 2013, the Secretary of State issued another remit letter to the STRB. The Secretary of State has asked the review body to put forward its recommendations on leadership pay, teachers’ non-pay conditions of service, allowances and salary safeguarding. They have been asked to submit their report and recommendations by 10 January 2014.