The government plans to table an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to clarify there will be no ceiling on pay and conditions.
Currently, the bill contains a provision to bring academy teachers onto the same pay and conditions framework as teachers in maintained schools.
Schools minister Catherine McKinnell told the bill committee this afternoon that she recognises the provision as it stands is not clear.
“We want to create a floor with no ceiling enabling healthy competition and innovation beyond that core framework to improve all schools and that’s what we intend to deliver,” she said.
“I have heard the feedback from the sector. I have listened very carefully to the evidence that’s been given today,” she told MPs.
She accepted that the government’s ambition for pay and conditions should be clearer and said this clause will be amended to clarify its intention.
The announcement follows concern in the sector over how the bill will affect academy freedoms, and an interview with Tes in which Ms McKinnell declined to guarantee that teachers would not see a paycut under the bill.
All state schools to follow minimum pay bands
The amendment will have two parts, McKinnell said.
“It will firstly set a floor on pay that requires all state schools to follow minimum pay bands set out in theSchool Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.”
“And secondly, it will require academies to have due regard to the rest of the terms and conditions intheSchool Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document and in doing so we make clear that we will deliver on our commitment to create a floor but no ceiling.”
The education secretary last week sought to reassure leaders that the bill already provided for a“floor but no ceiling” on teacher pay and conditions, but this had failed to quell concern in the sector.
The Confederation of School Trusts had called for a clarification on the pay and conditions part of the bill and proposed an amendment for schools and trusts to have regard to national frameworks in its policy statement on the bill last week.
Shadow education minister Neil O’Brien had that would clarify the provision would still allow schools and trusts to pay above what was stated in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.
Giving evidence to a committee scrutinising the bill this morning, the Association of School and Colleges (ASCL) senior director of strategy, policy and professional development services, Julie McCulloch, said the union was “not entirely convinced” that this provision was worded as being “about a floor and not a ceiling”.
She added she would welcome the committee putting through an amendment to make this clear. The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) had also called for this to be clarified.
United Learning CEO Sir Jon Coles also told the committee that pay and conditions freedoms were his top concern, as multi-academy trusts (MATs) “really need those freedoms” to attract the teachers needed to turn around failing schools.
