PROTECTING SCHOOL
TEACHERS
NUT BRIEFING ON SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PAY
This briefing looks at the key issues in the Government's plans to dismantle the
national framework for teachers’ pay and impose performance related pay progression
on every teacher.
For details of the NUT campaign against these proposals and the Government’s other
attacks on teachers, please go to www.teachers.org.uk/campaigns/protect-teachers
The Threats to our Pay
The Government is dismantling the national pay system for teachers. It has ended prescribed pay
scale points, extended PRP to all pay scales and is implementing school-based pay determination.
The changes threaten much greater inequality and discrimination in teachers’ pay, with pay
progression decisions taken on the basis of factors outside teachers' control and unrelated to
actual performance, such as school funding levels or simply whether or not a teacher’s face fits.
The NUT has worked to ensure that LAs and governing bodies adopt pay and appraisal policies
which protect teachers against the worst effects of these changes. The NUT/NASUWT model pay
policy and pay checklist can support action on pay matters at school level alongside our continuing
national campaign. They can be accessed at www.teachers.org.uk/paychecklist
September 2014 sees the first decisions on pay progression under the new provisions, based on
appraisals at the end of the 2013-14 cycle, and teachers are also beginning to lose out as a result
of the abolition of portability. For that reason we must continue to be vigilant at school level as
well as continuing our national campaign against the proposals.
Summary of the Changes
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No more mandatory fixed pay scales - schools can determine their own pay scales within the
minimum and maximum values for what are now the Main and Upper Pay Ranges
An end to pay portability - the right to keep your existing pay entitlements (including post
threshold status) when moving schools
No more incremental progression for Main Scale teachers based on length of service
All pay progression to be based on performance and the outcomes of appraisal - schools are
able to set their own criteria for pay progression, with potentially tougher criteria for
progression on the Upper Pay Range and for "threshold progression" from the Main to the
Upper Pay Range
Corresponding changes to leadership pay scales and pay progression
A range of other changes affecting other parts of the pay structure such as TLR payments
Ofsted told to hold head teachers and governors to account over "managing and rewarding the
performance of teachers in the interests of pupils".
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Key Changes in Detail
Pay Ranges
 Mandatory fixed pay scale points, in place for almost a century, have been abolished removing the framework supporting pay progression.
 A Main Pay Range has replaced the former 6-point Main Pay Scale. Only minimum and
maximum values for payments on the range are specified (equal to previous points M1 and M6
for the four pay areas). There are no other prescribed scale points and schools are now able
to determine how teachers progress and by how much. Provisions on how points should be
awarded for teaching and non-teaching experience have also been removed.
 An Upper Pay Range has replaced the former 3-point Upper Pay Scale. Again only minimum
and maximum values (equal to previous points U1 and U3) are specified. There are no
prescribed points and schools can establish as many scale points as they choose.
 Non-binding reference points - based on the previous fixed scales - now appear only in DfE
guidance and may not be published at all by DfE in future.
 The AST and ET grades have been abolished and replaced by a Leading Practitioners Pay
Range for teachers whose job is to “model and lead improvement of teaching skills".
 An Unqualified teacher pay range replaces the previous 6-point scale, with the minimum and
maximum equal to the lowest and highest points of that scale.
 Leadership pay has similarly changed, with a new leadership pay range with no fixed pay
spine points but with broad “pay bands” linked to pupil numbers for head teachers and
performance related pay progression for all leadership teachers.
Pay Portability
 Portability of pay points has been abolished. Pay increases are only permanent where the
teacher remains in the same school. Schools have the discretion to pay teachers at any
specified pay point when they move schools.
 Even those who have achieved Upper Pay Range status could lose this if they change school.
That will hit recruitment and retention and penalise teachers moving schools or taking a career
break - with major equality implications.
Pay Progression
 The first pay decisions based on the new pay progression provisions, requiring all pay awards
to be based on performance, will be made for September 2014.
 Governing bodies will decide whether to increase the pay for teachers on the Main and Upper
Pay Ranges and, if so, by how much. Decisions must be related to teachers' performance,
based on appraisal outcomes and have regard to appraisal reviewers' recommendations on
pay. Criteria for progression can be set by the governing body - and can be more demanding
than the previous UPS pay progression criteria. Previous guidance on pay progression has
been entirely removed from the STPCD.
 The school pay policy should set out the process and criteria for taking pay decisions. The
NUT/NASUWT pay policy and checklist set out (and the joint NUT/NASUWT policies) provides
guidance on setting criteria which are fair and comply with NUT policy, while still meeting the
requirements of the STPCD.
 The right to apply for "threshold progression is now open to any qualified teacher, not just
those on the top of the Main Pay Range.
 The right to be paid on the Upper Pay Range, however, will in future usually only apply while
the teacher continues to be employed in that same school.
Leadership pay
 Similar changes to leadership pay will be implemented from September 2014. The fixed pay
spine will be replaced by a single pay range for all leadership teachers. Governing bodies will
be able to determine individual pay ranges within that range. For head teachers, broad pay
bands linked to school group size will guide pay decisions.
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Pay progression provisions will be amended to match those for other teachers, requiring
decisions to be linked to performance and (from September 2015) to be taken according to
revised criteria set by the governing body.
There will, however, continue to be substantial pay flexibility to pay head teachers beyond the
normal pay bands and pay discretionary allowances worth up to 25% of basic pay as now.
Other pay changes
 Fixed-term TLR payments ("TLR3 payments") can now be established, valued at between
£500 and £2,500 and linked to "clearly time-limited school improvement projects" or "one-off
externally driven responsibilities". The £1,500 differential between other TLR payments within
schools has been abolished. The provisions on SEN allowances are unchanged.
 R&R payments are retained largely unaltered for classroom teachers but may in future be
made to leadership teachers only for relocation and housing expenses.
 The Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) and Excellent Teacher (ET) designations ended on 31
August 2013. The new Leading Practitioners range applies to posts "whose primary purpose is
to model and lead improvement of teaching skills". Its minimum and maximum values are
equivalent to the previous AST scale. Progression on the LP range will follow the same system
as the Main and Upper Pay Ranges.
 Pay safeguarding has not been changed - the STRB reaffirmed that the current provisions
should be retained, despite Michael Gove's attempts to have them reduced or removed.
 The STPCD pay guidance is much reduced. DfE Departmental advice includes some helpful
advice published as a result of talks between DfE and the teachers unions but also includes a
very unhelpful model pay policy and advice on possible criteria for pay progression.
NUT Commentary on the Government’s Pay Changes
Ending portability - the obligation to match existing pay when moving schools
 Teachers seeking new jobs may be forced to compete with other teachers by agreeing to start
at less pay than they are currently on. This will have a particular impact assessment on
women teachers who are more likely than men to take career breaks for family reasons. Some
teachers have already found that schools are unwilling to honour the pay progression
entitlements which they have earned in their previous posts.
Abolition of mandatory pay points within the pay scales for classroom teachers
 This is a level of flexibility that most schools and academies have shown they do not welcome.
The defined points on the Main and Upper Pay Scales give a degree of certainty - and the vast
majority of schools and academies have retained the previous structure.
 In schools where this position changes, however, serving teachers could take many more
years to reach the scale maximum, while potential recruits would realise that already poor
levels of pay progression in early career had become far less secure.
Removal of Main Scale incremental progression based on length of service
 Annual increments have existed in teaching since the 1920s and continue to be an integral
part of many other graduate pay structures. They give some certainty to career progression
which is vital to support the recruitment and retention of new graduates.
 Now this certainty is at risk of being replaced by arbitrary and inconsistent decision making
based on factors outside teachers' control.
Performance related pay progression linked to annual appraisal for all teachers
 The NUT has been opposed to PRP in teaching since the day it was founded in 1870. There
are three basic reasons for this:
- measuring teachers' individual contributions is next to impossible - our profession is based
on teamwork and every teacher contributes in some way to every student's development
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there is no evidence that linking pay to performance motivates teachers in any case - but it
will destroy the value of appraisal as a process supporting professional development
- decisions are going to be subjective, unfair or even discriminatory - they will be based on
head teachers' personal likes and dislikes, the funding position of the school and a host of
other reasons that aren't based on "performance" at all.
The evidence shows that performance related pay systems fail in most situations - and schools
are a particularly difficult place to make them work. Teachers in different schools would be
treated very differently for the same performance. Individual schools in financial difficulties
could withhold progression or pay teachers less than the proper rate for the job. Rapid
promotion for some will only happen at the expense of others. An appraisal system meant to
allow a professional discussion about teaching and development will, in very many schools, be
fatally undermined by a link to pay and become an even more fraught process which
undermines relationships between heads and teachers.
You can read more about the NUT's case against performance related pay in schools at
www.teachers.org.uk/campaigns/protect-teachers/pay
Support the NUT's Campaign to Protect our Pay
For more details and to join the NUT's campaign against the Government’s attacks on
teachers, go to www.teachers.org.uk/campaigns/protect-teachers
National Union of Teachers
September 2014
Z:\Salaries\Public\School Teachers\Protecting School Teachers’ Pay – NUT Briefing (Sept 2014)