CHAPTER 2

Major changes in teachers' pay and career structures

Pattern of change

14. Teachers' pay and career structures are in a period of far-reaching reform. The following changes have been or are in the course of being introduced (all of the figures mentioned are before the increases which we recommend later in this report with effect from April 2001):

for classroom teachers

• a main pay scale rising to nearly £24,000 relating, as in the past, to qualifications and experience, but with new scope to reward excellent performance through the award of double increments;
• the additional opportunity, once at the top of the main pay scale (normally after seven years' service or sooner) to cross a performance threshold and receive a £2,000 salary uplift;
• scope thereafter to progress further on a new upper pay scale based on performance to a salary of some £30,000;
• additional allowances from some £900 to almost £9,600, in place of the previous system of extra salary spine points, relating to management responsibilities, special educational needs teaching, and recruitment and retention considerations; and

for leadership group teachers

• new pay arrangements for heads, deputies and assistant heads, offering considerable scope to meet local circumstances and reward performance on an overall pay spine, catering for schools of all sizes, which includes ranges for heads reaching over £44,000 for typical primaries and almost £76,000 for the largest secondaries.

15. The new pay opportunities - additional to new incentives for trainees and new entrants described in Chapter 3 and the regular adjustment of pay levels - will significantly increase average earnings in the profession and greatly improve the financial attractions of teaching as a career. They are to be complemented by new arrangements for performance management with the aim of structuring and supporting teachers' development and informing pay assessments. These new arrangements were introduced with effect from September 2000 in England; subject to decisions by the National Assembly for Wales, we understand that similar arrangements will be introduced in Wales.

Challenge of change

16. The common characteristic of the structural changes taking place, and of others which we address this year, is the scope they provide for schools to recognise individual contribution or address local supply problems. Much more responsibility is falling on heads and governors to use flexibilities in the context of their local situations. However, it has been a cause of concern - as documented in our reports and illustrated in Figure 2 - that limited use has been made of previous pay flexibilities to tackle recruitment and retention problems, to reward excellent classroom teaching and to award performance-related salary progression for heads and deputies.

Figure 2: Use of previous pay flexibilities for heads, deputies and classroom teachers

The Review Body's Teachers' Pay Survey for 1999 found that: less than 2 per cent of classroom teachers nationally, and 10 per cent in London, were in receipt of any recruitment and retention pay spine points; only about 1,000 classroom teachers, accounting for less than half a per cent of the total, were in receipt of an excellence point; and only 30 per cent of heads and 28 per cent of deputies who had remained in the same post over the previous year were awarded performance-related salary progression with effect from 1 September 1999.

17. There is concern among teachers that the extension of variable pay will be unfair or divisive in the school setting. A sufficient degree of consistency will have to be achieved if such fears are to be dispelled. The challenge is considerable in the light of the scale, diversity and degree of devolved management of the school system in England and Wales. As we have noted many times before, there are some 25,300 schools which differ greatly in size and circumstances. Few organisations have to cope with implementing a pay system in such a context. The statutory School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document provides a broad framework of mandatory and discretionary provisions on which guidance is provided primarily by the DfEE and LEAs. The use of available resources for pay and other purposes in individual schools is, with advice from heads, the responsibility of the 350,000 people who serve on their governing bodies.

Implementation

18. We continue to give full support to the thrust of the changes taking place. The new scope for variable pay, and the greater rewards which this offers, are in line with much current practice within and beyond the public sector. At the same time we believe that it would be easy to underestimate the challenge of the period of introduction for the new arrangements. The change to current practice is considerable as the emphasis moves from applying rules to using flexibilities imaginatively. This will take time to achieve fully and will need effective management with support and training on a substantial scale. The performance management arrangements, which also have to settle in, will provide a focus; but recognising the progress and contribution of individuals requires more than the simple application of an annual performance review procedure - the new approach needs to be used effectively. Many teachers have still to be convinced that the changes can be implemented in ways which they will feel to be fair. It will greatly assist the core pay and career structure reforms to become established and accepted if there is a period of general stability in schools.

19. The changes are driven from the centre but have to be implemented in individual schools. Many schools will need help, particularly in thinking through the application of new concepts to their particular circumstances. Such support currently comes from threshold assessors, advisers for heads' performance management, LEA officers, and the growing network of TTA recruitment strategy managers to help address local teacher supply problems. It may well be necessary for this fragmented pattern of support on human resource matters to be reviewed in order to bring about a more co-ordinated approach.

20. At the same time, it will be important that guidance and support both centrally and locally are not inappropriately prescriptive or too detailed. The essence of the new flexibilities must be that the areas of scope for local implementation are defined as simply as possible. The national framework of teachers' pay and conditions of employment must be easily understood and straightforward to apply. Linked to this is the recommendation we made in our special report last October that all teachers should be provided each year with a clear and simple statement of the pay structure, along the lines of the leaflet which was produced annually by the DfEE a few years ago. The Department will be producing the first of the new statements during the course of the coming summer term.

21. The greatest prerequisite of success, however, is adequate funding allied to good financial management in schools. Our next chapter identifies and welcomes planned increases in general funding. This and specific funding for the new flexibilities will be crucial to their success. Overall increases in funding above the level needed to meet the cost of general pay increases will continue to be necessary as the new scope for variable pay is progressively used.

We welcome your comments on this site. Prepared 1 February 2001