Responding to the government's announcement of a 3.5% pay award for teachers and school leaders for 2026/27, followed by 3% in 2027/28, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“We are pleased the review body and government have listened to NAHT and other unions, agreeing that an above-inflation pay uplift is required.

"Although there remains some way to go to achieve our aim of restoring the value of pay to 2010 levels, this represents another step in the right direction so long as we don’t see a big spike in inflation.

“The big drop in real-terms salaries since 2010 has coincided with increased responsibilities and pressure - putting this right is essential if we are serious about ensuring our children have the first-rate teachers and school leaders they deserve.

“It is helpful that the government is bringing some additional funding to support schools, but we need to be clear that this is not a fully-funded award and it will mean more pressure on already stretched budgets. There is very little headroom in existing budgets and talk of ‘maximising value’ is deeply unhelpful.

“We welcome the commitment to better protect school leaders' working time, including the right to uninterrupted breaks and expectations that weekends and, public holiday should ordinarily be preserved as non-working time for leaders. This is something NAHT specifically called for in our evidence and is long overdue.

“As we always do, NAHT will seek the views of our members on today’s announcement.”

NB: Based upon CPI inflation, school leader pay has fallen by 16% in real-terms since 2010.