NAHT evidence to School Teachers Review Body

The evidence submitted by the National Association of Head Teachers to the School Teachers Review Body (STRB) is available here:

Response from NAHT

Response from Joint Unions (including NAHT)

Background

The Secretary of State for Education wrote to Dame Patricia Hodgson DBE – Chair of the School Teachers Review Body on 21 February 2012, to ask her to report on the following:

• how the pay framework for teachers should best be made more market facing in local areas;
• how the pay scales, including the main and upper scales, should be reformed to more effectively link pay and performance, including arrangements for progression;
• what other reforms should be made to teachers’ pay and conditions in order to raise the status of the profession and best support the recruitment and retention of high quality teachers in all schools.

The teaching unions met and agreed (with the exception of NASUWT) that they would submit a joint response to the question of “market facing pay in local areas” but that they would submit separate responses to the remaining two questions. The NAHT worked closely with ASCL in the preparation of the individual responses as there is much common ground between us.

Current Position

The STRB has now received all the submissions and we are now required to share our evidence with the other consultees.  We will have three weeks in which to prepare supplementary evidence in response to the submissions made by others. It is likely that the joint unions will want to submit supplementary evidence relating to local pay.
In addition each of the consultees will be given an opportunity to attend an oral evidence session where they will be questioned on their evidence by the Review Body.  This is not likely to take place until the end of June 2012.

Russell Hobby has released a press statement which is available here.

Next Steps

The Review Body will prepare its report based on the written submissions and oral evidence sessions and submit it to the Secretary of State by the end of September 2012. The Secretary of State will consider the report and return with a subsequent remit to provide further advice, including on the matter of the pay award for teachers in 2013.