Commenting as Welsh Government announce their pay recommendation for teachers and school leaders today, Laura Doel, National Secretary of NAHT Cymru, said:

“While we are relieved that the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body has listened to the evidence put forward on behalf of leaders about the challenges with recruitment and retention, we are concerned that the Welsh Government’s counteroffer of 4% seeks to ignore the recommendations of the review body due to affordability.

“Welsh Government has attempted to lump together two years’ worth of uplifts, but the IWPRB were well aware of the uplift last year and still have made a recommendation of 4.8% this year. To group together to give an overall picture for two years gives a false impression.

“For over a decade we have been campaigning for pay restoration, trying to combat below inflation and partly funded pay awards, which has put teachers and leaders significantly behind other graduate professions when it comes to their pay and up to 20% behind where they pay would be had it consistently gone up in line with inflation.

“Pay and workload are two key areas that would help with recruitment and retention and if we are serious about raising standards, dealing with challenging behaviour, tackling attendance, supporting children with ALN – to name just a few government priorities – we need significant investment to put the people in place we need to deliver.

“We also question what fully funded will look like in reality, given previously fully funded support was based on many variables which meant there were winners and losers in additional funding.

“By not properly funding the pay award school leaders will be forced to make incredibly difficult decisions about how to balance the books. This means they will be looking at what can be cut, including support and resources for pupils, and having to make redundancies or not replacing staff when they leave. Ultimately this cannot help but negatively impact the quality of education and opportunities available for children, as well as making it harder to get the best people in front of them. It’s shortsighted and counteractive to the aim of improving schools.

“For Welsh Government to say that paying teachers and school leaders what they are worth would put increased pressure on school budgets is an unfair position to put leaders in. They shouldn’t be expected to choose between providing for their learners and being paid what they are owed. Other professions are not made to feel guilty in this way and leaders should not be either.

“We will consult our members on the offer but have no intention of recommending anything that seeks to coerce our members into accepting less than they deserve and that would compound the recruitment and retention crisis we face.”