School Teachers’ Review Body: 21st report
Written ministerial statement by the Secretary of State for Education on the School Teachers' Review Body's 21st report of 5 December 2012.
The 21st Report of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) is being published today. Its recommendations cover the issues that were referred to it in February 2012. These were about reforming teachers’ pay in order to raise the status of the profession and contribute to improving the standard of teaching in our schools.
I am grateful for the careful consideration which the STRB has given to these important matters and fully support the guiding principles that it has used as the basis for its recommendations. Copies of the STRB’s 21st Report are available in the Vote Office, the Printed Paper Office and the libraries of the House, and online on www.gov.uk and the Office of Manpower Economics.
The STRB has made recommendations on a pay framework that seeks to raise the status of the profession, support professional development, and reward individuals in line with their contribution to improving pupil outcomes, enabling the most successful teachers to progress faster than at present on the basis of annual appraisal. It proposes greater autonomy for schools to set teachers’ pay within that broad national framework, alongside increased accountability for high professional standards and contribution to pupil progress.
I am grateful to the STRB for these recommendations and, subject to the views of consultees, I intend to accept all the key recommendations. I also intend to accept the more detailed recommendations and the consequential recommendations, but wish to give notice that there are some areas to which I will wish to return in a future remit for further consideration by the STRB. This will include the application of a 1% pay uplift for the 2 years following the end of the pay freeze, as set out by the Chancellor in the 2011 Autumn Statement. The statutory minima and maxima for classroom teachers’ pay will be uprated by 1% in each year 2013 to 2014 and 2014 to 2015. Schools are free to determine the extent of pay uplifts to teachers within the statutory minima and maxima, and will be able to provide an uplift of 1%, in line with any overall uplift in pay in the public sector, if they so choose.
As regards the recommendations on implementation, I broadly accept these in principle, but will want to consider them further before reaching firm conclusions on whether they represent the most effective and practical way of implementing the key recommendations.
My detailed response contains further information on the matters.