The DfE published the
STRB’s 36th Report and the
written response to it, on Wednesday 1 July.
For September 2026, the STRB recommended a 3.5% increase to all pay ranges and advisory points for classroom teachers, unqualified teachers (with 5% to the minimum of the unqualified teacher pay range) and school leaders, and a 3.5% increase to allowances.
For September 2027, the STRB recommended a 3% increase to all pay ranges and allowances. The Secretary of State accepted the recommendation in full and announced details of some additional funding to support the implementation of the award (see
details here).
For September 2028, an indicative award of 3% was recommended, however, given the considerable time between the STRB submitting its report and the September 2028 increase, it anticipates that the indicative assessment of this increase to be subject to a future remit.
We are very pleased that the independent pay review body has again recognised that teacher pay must be significantly improved to support recruitment and retention, and that the government has fully accepted their recommendation. This will go some way to addressing the erosion of pay that has taken place over the last decade and builds on the pay awards in more recent years.
It is reassuring once again to see that the review body shared the view of the joint trade unions that the 6.5% increase across three years recommended by the DfE was neither appropriate nor sufficient, saying that it would "
reduce competitiveness of teacher pay and … the likely consequences of that to be a problematic deterioration in teacher supply. This could have a very negative impact on the student learning experience, make teaching a less attractive profession (further compounding the supply problem) and require very costly long-term remediation actions. It is also, in our view, inconsistent with meeting the Government’s commitment to recruit an additional 6,500 teachers."
There are a series of other changes to the STPCD for September 2026, and these include:
- arrangements for part-time TLRs that were voluntary last year become mandatory from September 2026.
- the introduction of non-consolidated payments – "modest non-consolidated awards to recognise exceptional contribution or achievement".
- flexibility around the organisation of INSET days, meaning that they can be delivered on a time-equivalent basis, so schools could use twilights or half-days.
- the salary safeguarding period will not be changed, so remains at 3 years. There will be some streamlining of the guidance around safeguarding in the STPCD.
- clarity around the expectations on working hours and working time for school leaders, including headteachers. This confirms that leaders should only be expected to work at weekends in exceptional circumstances, such as urgent or unforeseen issues that cannot wait until the normal working week. Relevant bodies should work with headteachers to ensure that emergency and safeguarding duties are shared fairly and do not place an excessive burden on any one leader during weekends or school holidays. Relevant bodies should also support headteachers, deputy headteachers and assistant headteachers to have uninterrupted periods during school holidays where they are not expected to be contactable, wherever practical. In addition, relevant bodies and headteachers should ensure that leaders can take their contractual and statutory breaks without interruption.
Full details of the STRB’s recommendations and uprated pay scales can be found in the report.
ASCL Pay and Conditions Specialist, Louise Hatswell, has recorded a
policy snapshot giving an overview of the changes.
The publication of the Department’s response to the report, along with the publication of the draft STPCD and draft 2026 Pay Order, signals the start of a 12-week period of consultation ending at midday on 23 September. Due to the number and complexity of changes this year, this period is longer than normal, but the DfE will get the STPCD published as soon as possible.
Because of the number and complexity of changes and the funding implications for schools, Louise Hatswell and
ASCL Deputy Director of Policy Julia Harnden, in conjunction with ASCL Professional Development, will be holding a
webinar at 3.30pm on 9 July to go through the changes in detail and provide practical advice for leaders on what they mean in practice and the steps schools need to take to implement them effectively. There will also be opportunity to raise questions and explore key issues in more detail through a Q&A session.
ASCL is a statutory consultee and as such will be submitting our response on behalf of members in due course. If you have any immediate views or comments on the STRB report or the Secretary of State’s response to it,
please email them to ASCL’s Conditions of Employment Specialist: Pay, Louise Hatswell as this will help to inform and strengthen our response.
Once the consultation closes, the DfE will then consider the responses, finalise the drafts and lay the Pay Order in Parliament. This normally takes 21 days before it comes into effect.
Please remember that the pay uplifts recommended by the STRB remain provisional until the pay award consultation and Pay Order are finalised. Therefore, employers should not finalise changes to their pay policy until after the Pay Order has been laid and the final STPCD has been published.