HC Deb 13 November 2001 vol 374 cc719-20W
Mr. Brady

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will guarantee funding of threshold payments to schools beyond 2004.[14563]

Mr. Timms

Crossing the threshold gives teachers a substantial and permanent pay increase by moving them to an upper pay scale. The Government have always accepted that this means a substantial and permanent increase in the overall cost of teachers' pay. Our financial planning will continue to take account of that.

Mr. Brady

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills in what proportion of cases the threshold assessment made by a head teacher has been overturned.[14564]

Mr. Timms

Verification of threshold assessments involves professional dialogue between heads and assessors about assessment methods and individual applications. Assessors overturn heads' judgments only when it is impossible to reach agreement. In the first round of threshold applications this happened in only 0.2 per cent. of cases—a clear indication that the system worked.