The teachers’ pay award falls far short of what is needed to resolve the recruitment and retention crisis and safeguard children’s education, NASUWT-The Teachers’ Union, has warned.

NASUWT has called on the Education Secretary to agree to urgent discussions on a long-term solution to school funding and real-terms pay cuts for teachers.

In its response to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) report on pay, the Union has argued that the 3.5% pay award for 2026/27 fails to protect teachers against rising inflation and or to begin the process of pay restoration after years of real-terms pay cuts.

Furthermore, the Union’s letter highlights that the announcement last week of £500 million for the pay award from savings made to the Local Government Pension Scheme does not represent additional funding for school budgets and the impact is not uniform across schools.

NASUWT is calling on the Education Secretary to:

• Implement a fair and binding pay review mechanism with clear triggers for reopening consideration of the 2027/28 pay award. RPI inflation is forecast to reach 4.2% by the end of the year and a 3% pay award is proposed for 2027/28;
• Remove performance-related pay progression in all state-funded schools and academies and halt plans to introduce discretionary bonuses;
• Directly reinvest savings from the reduction in employer contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme in April 2027 into teacher pay and core school budgets;
• Take steps to reduce unpaid excessive teacher workload, including by fundamentally reforming inspection regimes, making flexible working a contractual right and reinstating mandatory consultation with staff and unions on teaching timetables, directed time and INSET days in schools.

Matt Wrack, NASUWT General Secretary, said:

“Teachers have endured 16 years of pay erosion and the result has been years of missed recruitment targets, dwindling numbers of new recruitments to the profession and high attrition rates.

“To fix teacher supply and safeguard the profession for the future, we believe the Government must commit to pay increases significantly above inflation to tackle historic pay erosion and make salaries competitive with other graduate professions.

“Of equal importance is action to strengthen contractual protections to bring down excessive workloads. Together with action on pay this would help to make teaching a sustainable, attractive long-term career choice and tackle the high drop-out rate from the profession.

“Addressing pay and workload must be part of a wider commitment to a long-term substantial increase to education funding, in order to ensure every child can receive a world-class education.”