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There will be a “floor but no ceiling” on teacher pay and conditions when academies are brought into the same framework as maintained schools, the education secretary has told MPs.

Speaking to the Commons Education Select Committee this morning, Bridget Phillipson said there has been “some confusion and some worry” about schools and trusts having the freedom to pay above the national framework.

“Today, I want to be absolutely clear that all schools will have full flexibility to innovate with the floor but no ceiling,” she said.

“We all know the challenges that schools across the country are facing at the moment around recruitment and retention. That innovation, that flexibility, that excellence - much of which we have seen within the academy system - I want to be available to all schools.”

Ms Phillipson was responding to concerns raised after the publication of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that it was unclear how the move to put academies on the same framework would affect trusts paying above that framework.

She later clarified that heads will still be able to pay a member of staff above the maximum threshold for their pay band.

Mainstream inclusion legislation

In response to a question from the committee over whether the Department for Education could legislate in future to improve inclusion in mainstream schools, the education secretary said the department is looking at whether legislation may be required as part of any of the reforms it intends to bring forward.

“But I think that slightly gets ahead of the thinking that we have underway in the department,” she said. “I think we just need to take a step back from the system that we have inherited.”

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Ms Phillipson said the DfE will be setting out more on its direction of travel around special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms this year.

Permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood added that the DfE has been looking at international examples of good practice on this.

Decisions on council statutory override

Many local authorities are facing huge high-needs deficits, but a statutory override is currently in place to keep these off their books.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee called on the government today to develop a plan no later than March 2025 for a solution when the statutory override expires in 2026.

The secretary of state said she could not give a timeline at the moment on when the government will make a decision on this, but that the government appreciates “the need to put local authorities on a more sustainable footing”.

New Ofsted report card

One of the members of the committee asked how confident the education secretary is that the new Ofsted report card will not create the same high-stakes system as single-word judgements.

Ms Phillipson said the report card, which is currently expected to be unveiled in January, is intended to give a “much clearer sense” of what is going on within a school and what is required to drive up standards.

Ms Acland-Hood added: “It is a high-stakes system. It should be a high-stakes system, because it’s high-stakes for children.”

Mechanisms for future school funding

The education secretary also addressed concerns raised by another MP about the disparity in funding received by schools through the National Funding Formula (NFF).

“I’ll be frank, it would be impossible to find a system that delivers what everyone wants all of the time in every area, and I appreciate that often what people want is more money in the school system,” she said.

“We are investing more, but this does remain a challenge. We are looking at this area and what the mechanism might be for determining school funding in the future. That work is underway.”

Ms Phillipson said she could not provide a timescale for this work.

Mental health teams in schools

The government has set a target of having 50 per cent of pupils covered by mental health teams at their schools by the end of March this year.

MP Jess Asato asked about progress on this and Ms Phillipson said the department is “working as quickly as we can on this”.

She added the department wants to make sure there is a “clear relationship” between in-school mental health provision and wider, ongoing support.

Mobile phone guidance for schools

The former government published new guidance saying schools should ban the use of mobile phones, but stopped short of making this guidance statutory.

Asked if she supported a ban on phones in schools, Ms Phillipson said she believes “the guidance we have in place at the moment is being followed by schools”.

Ms Acland-Hood added that schools implement the guidance in different ways owing to practicalities at their individual settings.

Removing RAAC from school buildings

Finally, when asked about the condition of school buildings and the DfE’s plans to address this, Ms Acland-Hood outlined how more than 100 schools have received grants to remove reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) from their buildings.

In response to a parliamentary question from the Liberal Democrats, minister Stephen Morgan confirmed in December that so far, 30 schools that received grant funding had permanently removed RAAC.

Ms Acland-Hood said that many schools will be waiting for the holidays to do significant building work.

“For quite a lot of those schools, when they looked at the plan, they chose to do that this coming summer rather than last summer,” she added.
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