School teachers pay award 2020

The legislative order for the school teachers pay award and pay and conditions document (STPCD) 2020 is now laid before parliament.

This comes into force on 14 October 2020, with provisions backdated to 1 September 2020. The new document can be seen on this link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...

In summary the new document accepts the school teachers’ review body (STRB) recommendations in full:

• Minimum of the main pay range (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
• Advisory pay points are reintroduced on the MPR and upper pay range (UPR) from September

Maintained schools and those academies that adopt and follow the STPCD have to implement these mandatory changes and have to determine, in accordance with their own pay policies, how the increase will apply to teachers who are not on the minimum or maximum of a pay range. In previous years, schools in Ealing have applied the pay award to the vast majority of teachers and we would recommend that (subject to your own pay policies) this award is applied consistently to all staff.

For your information the % increases that would apply to staff on various points of the pay scale are:

• M1 - 5.5%
• M2 - 4.95%
• M3 - 4.4%
• M4 - 3.85%
• M5 - 3.3%
• M6 - 2.75%
• U1 - 2.75%
• U2 - 2.75%
• U3 - 2.75%

This year the government has reintroduced advisory pay scales for the main and upper pay ranges. These new advisory points will correlate to the reference points used by Ealing in previous years.

Schools should consider and are recommended to adopt the advisory points for the MPR and the UPR and update their pay policies accordingly. For most schools this would not create any issue as they will have been using the reference points previously published by Ealing and can just switch now to the advisory scales set out in annex 3 of the STPCD 2020.

However, the new advisory points do not have a point 6a and point 6b. For clarification the new advisory point 6 equates to old point 6b. Some schools will need to decide whether they maintain a point 6a or migrate in full to the new advisory points. If they decide on the latter of these options then those staff who are currently on point 6a would receive a larger % increase as they move to the new advisory point 6.

This will be a decision for individual schools to make and I would draw your attention to the following extract from joint trade union guidance issued in September 2020:

“ Where a school has previously used pay points for the main and upper pay range with lower values than our recommended pay points, we jointly advise that the STPCD advisory pay points should be adopted and individual teachers paid appropriately, even where this involves a higher increase than above.”

To confirm that we in HR support this advice, recognising that it will ensure that all schools in Ealing would be consistent in the way they are paying teachers. As stated above it is a matter for individual schools (who are affected) to make a decision on.

With regards the leadership pay scale you should note that the reference points that were published in previous years showed that some points on the scale had two values. So those with an asterix 18*, 21*, 24*, 27*, 31*, 35*, 39* and 43 are the salary figures for headteachers at, or moving to, the top of the school group ranges only.

You will have noted that those with an asterix had a lower value (so for example 18* is a lower figure than 18). 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. The new STPCD does not provide a new advisory leadership pay scale, so we are relying on the reference points that are published by the Local Government Association (LGA) and the position set out in this paragraph remains.

The joint trade union guidance has advised as follows on this point:

“We jointly advise that the statutory maxima should only be used where they are the maximum point of a headteacher’s individual range and the discretion to exceed the maximum of the range has not been exercised.”

In terms of next steps our colleagues in payroll will shortly be contacting those schools who use the payroll service and confirming that they propose to apply the pay award with the November pay run. Payroll will also confirm if they propose to adopt a default position (and what that is) which they will apply unless schools ask them not to.

If you do have any query please do not hesitate to contact us in the schools HR consultancy team.

Contact:

Mark Nelson, Schools HR consultancy team
Email: mnelson@ealing.gov.uk(link sends e-mail)
Tel: 020 8825 9478