Commenting on the remit letter issued by Gillian Keegan to the STRB on the 2024/25 teachers’ pay award, Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of the NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union, said:

“The timing of issuing the remit letter to the pay review body is yet another illustration of a lack of leadership at the heart of this Government.
 
“In the last few weeks, the NASUWT was forced to lodge a formal dispute with the Government over the delays to the pay review body process. Finally, Ministers have allowed the pay review process to commence and that is to be welcomed.
 
“However, the Secretary of State in her letter to the STRB clearly wants to insist that the pay review body should hold back in its central recommendations on the teachers’ pay award for next September. After 14 years of real terms pay cuts, and a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention which is getting worse by the day, teachers will expect the pay review body to do its job, free from any interference or intimidation, and to demonstrate their independence.
 
“The Government’s continuing failure to address a central demand from the STRB in their last report to scrap the system of performance related pay remains a key outstanding concern for our members, alongside the lack of any commitment from the Government to pay restoration.
 
“We are also concerned that Ministers have once again denied the pay review body the opportunity to consider the teacher workload crisis that is overwhelming our schools and driving record numbers of teachers out of the profession.
 
“Today’s publication of the STRB remit letter illustrates a Government that is playing for time and that is signally failing to face up to the big issues ahead of the general election.”