The general secretaries of school leaders’ union NAHT, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Community and the National Education Union (NEU) have today issued a joint statement after their unions wrote to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) to express their very serious frustration and disquiet after the Department for Education confirmed it would miss today’s deadline for submitting its evidence on this year’s pay award.

They said: “When our industrial dispute with the government was resolved last summer Gillian Keegan gave us an undertaking that she would do everything possible to deliver a timely pay settlement this year.

“This pledge has fallen at its first two hurdles. First an extremely late remit letter, sent to the STRB just days before Christmas, and now another delay. It is simply unacceptable that the Department for Education has again apparently missed the deadline for submitting its evidence to the STRB and delayed the process, something which has happened frequently in recent years.

“We have written to the STRB to express our disquiet in the strongest possible terms. At best, it shows a complete and utter disregard for the dedicated professionals working in our schools who have faced a decade of real-terms pay cuts.

“This makes it even more important that the government comes up with a fair proposal on pay, which takes seriously the demands of working in schools and the severe recruitment and retention crisis, addresses the pay cuts against inflation, and ensures our members do not face any delay in receiving this year’s award.”

Signed

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT

Geoff Barton, general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL)

Roy Rickhuss, Community general secretary

Daniel Kebede, general secretary at the National Education Union (NEU)