As a statutory consultee, ASCL has submitted a response to the consultation on the draft School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) 2026, the
STRB's 36th Report and the Secretary of State's response.
In our response, we welcomed the multi-year pay award of 3.5% for September 2026 and 3% for September 2027, while reiterating that further progress is needed to improve the competitiveness of teacher and leader pay, address recruitment and retention challenges, and tackle the growing divergence between school teacher and further education pay.
We were pleased that the Secretary of State rejected the STRB's recommendation to reduce the salary safeguarding period and reaffirmed our view that the current arrangements remain fit for purpose. We also welcomed the greater focus on leaders' workload and work-life balance but expressed concern that elements of the draft STPCD do not fully reflect the STRB's intentions, particularly in relation to weekend working, holiday cover and uninterrupted breaks.
We raised concerns about the proposed introduction of non-consolidated awards, arguing that the draft STPCD lacks the safeguards envisaged by the STRB and risks creating inconsistency, reducing transparency and reintroducing performance-related pay through another route.
We also acknowledged the government's 16 September funding announcement but reiterated our concern that national funding assumptions do not necessarily translate into affordability for individual schools and colleges. We therefore continued to call for fully funded pay awards that are deliverable at individual school and college level, and greater alignment between policy on pay and funding policy.
Finally, we repeated our long-standing call for business leaders to be brought within the scope of both the STRB and the STPCD alongside their leadership colleagues.
You can read our
response here. Following the consultation, the DfE will consider responses before finalising the STPCD and laying the Pay Order before Parliament. Employers should avoid finalising pay policies until the statutory process has been completed and the final STPCD has been published.
Joint union response to STRB 36th Report and Ministerial Response
In conjunction with Community, NAHT and NEU, ASCL has also submitted a joint response to the consultation on the STRB's 36th Report and the Secretary of State's response. The response highlights the importance of continuing to address recruitment and retention challenges through improvements to pay, workload and working conditions, and raises concerns about the affordability of pay awards for some schools and trusts. You can read the
joint response and press release here.