Jeremy Miles – 2022 Statement on the Teachers’ Pay Award in Wales
The statement made by Jeremy Miles, the Welsh Minister for Education and the Welsh Language, on 14 November 2022.
I can announce today there will be an uplift of pay for our highly skilled and hardworking teachers in Wales.
On 21 July, subject to consultation with key stakeholders, I agreed in principle to accept all of the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body’s recommendations for 2022/23 including an uplift of 5% to all statutory salary points on all pay scales and for all allowances from September 2022. I can confirm today that we will be accepting the Review Body’s recommendations.
The new starting salary for teachers will therefore be £28,866 and the salaries of more experienced classroom teachers will increase by £2,117 to £44,450. Additionally, all allowances will also be uprated by 5%.
I accept that some may be disappointed that a higher award could not be provided and recognise the legitimate right of all workers to seek a fair and decent pay rise during this challenging time of inflation and cost of living rises.
However, as additional funding has not been made available by the UK Government, we are not in a position to further address these issues over and above what has previously been considered. The Welsh Government’s budget will be worth £4bn less over the three years of the current settlement – £1.5bn lower next year. This is before the much touted further budgetary cuts the UK Government claims it will make imminently. Within this context, it is simply unaffordable, and would be irresponsible, to propose higher pay rises. We repeat our calls for the UK Government to finally do the right thing and act urgently to restore Wales’s budget so that we can support our public services.
Members will recognise that there is a huge amount of ongoing financial uncertainty.
In relation to future pay awards from September 2023, no compelling evidence was provided to alter my earlier proposal for the IWPRB recommendations to be kept under review and be used as a planning assumption, subject to such a review.
I also welcomed the IWPRBs recommendations on improvements to some key terms and conditions of teachers, notably in relation to remuneration of part-time teachers for TLR allowances; and the need to review the remuneration of ALNCos. I thank both employers and teacher unions for working alongside us on these matters to further improve terms and conditions for teachers in Wales. In particular, I welcome the agreed revisions to the required methodology for calculating TLR allowances for part time teachers which will improve the transparency and fairness for those part time teachers carrying out these roles from now on.
Consequently, I will today make the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions (Wales) Order 2022 which gives effect to the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions (Wales) Document 2022.
The pay award will be backdated to 1 September 2022. Timing of the implementation of the award will be a matter for employers. Initial discussions with local authorities have been positive, with the aim to arrange for back pay to be passed on as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of December.
Moving forward, I welcome the opportunity to continue to work together with stakeholders on a comprehensive review of the structure of teachers’ and leaders’ pay and conditions. This will provide us with further opportunities to improve and enhance the system and, where we can, make it fairer and more transparent for all teachers. Such partnership working will also help to promote teaching as a profession of choice for graduates and career changers.
