School Funding (London) (Hansard, 23 January 2002)

§ Mr. Timms

The information requested is contained in the table. Expenditure in running these authorities was affected by schools becoming grant-maintained during the early part of this period, and by the return of grant-maintained schools to LEA-maintained status in 1999–2000.

In making their recommendations, the Review Body were required to have regard to: the principles of good school leadership, incentives for excellence, a strong culture of professional development and better support for teachers to focus on teaching; the Government's priorities for delivering a higher quality education service; local government funding levels, from which all service improvements and pay settlements must be funded; the Government's inflation target, which required responsibility in all pay settlements; 897W the need for schools to recruit, retain and motivate sufficient teachers and members of the leadership group of the required quality to deal effectively with the challenges they face; any prospects there may be of making the pay structure simpler and more flexible; and the cost of registration with the General Teaching Councils for England and Wales.

I have considered the report carefully against these considerations and am satisfied that they are met. Accordingly I have decided to accept the Review Body's main statutory recommendations subject to consultation. They are in line with the Government's prudent and disciplined approach to public spending and their commitment to deliver high quality public services and low inflation.

My proposals, which will take effect from 1 September 2002 except where stated otherwise, are as follows:

General pay increase With effect from 1 April 2002, the values of the pay spine and scale points and allowances for qualified and unqualified classroom teachers, members of the leadership group and advanced skills teachers should be increased by 3.5 per cent.; London allowances other than the inner London Supplement should be increased by 3.5 per cent.; and a sum of £33 should be added to all spine and scale points for qualified teachers in recognition of the cost of General Teaching Council fees.

Main pay scale for classroom teachers The main pay scale for classroom teachers should be shortened from nine points to six, and the distinction between good honours graduates and others abolished so that all newly qualified entrants will be eligible to apply for the performance threshold after five years.

Upper pay scale The Review Body have asked that sufficient resources be made available to ensure that teachers who meet the performance criteria for progression on the upper pay scale can in fact progress. This is not a statutory recommendation, because funding is not part of teachers' statutory conditions of employment. I do not propose to increase special grant funding. The special grant is no more than a contribution to funds already available in school budgets, to encourage headteachers and governing bodies to award points as appropriate. Upper pay scale points should remain an entitlement when teachers transfer between schools and also that there should not be scope for voluntary forfeiture.

Leadership group pay Governing bodies should have the authority to change the headteacher's individual school ranges (ISR) at any time in order to attract or retain a headteacher. The existing provision for the governing body to set, in exceptional circumstances, an ISR to extend beyond the school group maximum should be available for retention as well as for recruitment purposes. The justification for such a decision should be required to be recorded in writing. Up to two performance points should be available to be awarded in any one year to members of the leadership group when the governing body considers such action to be justified. Where headteachers are given a temporary ISR in circumstances where they are seconded to turn around a failing school, and do not receive one or more performance points because they revert to their main posts, such points should be paid as a lump sum. Two extra points should be added on top of each school range, including the creation of extra spine points L42 and L43, to allow such an extension for group eight, in order to provide adequate scope for setting and reviewing ISRs.

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The performance threshold Monitoring should continue in order to ensure any patterns of disadvantage among applicants for the performance threshold are quickly detected and their causes remedied. External assessors should visit schools and local authority services/units with applicants on a selective rather than universal basis. Teachers reaching the top of the main pay scale in September 2002 should be eligible to apply for threshold assessment in autumn 2002 as well as teachers reaching the top of the pay scale in September 2001. The Department should monitor the impact of guidance on threshold standards during the third round of threshold assessment and hold further discussions with the parties on the wording of the standards themselves if significant concerns remain. The Department should consult the interested parties on the issue of recognition of sixth form college professional standards and make a decision accordingly. The Department, in consultation with the parties, should ensure that effective feedback arrangements are implemented and efforts continue to improve and simplify the application process. The Department should ensure that the review process operates more quickly in future. The above proposals should take effect as soon as appropriate.

Advanced skills teachers (ASTs) The Department should pursue with the interested parties the issues it raised in evidence in relation to inreach and outreach duties, management roles and review of pay ranges. The requirement for new ASTs to have passed the performance threshold will be removed.

Other issues The fifth management allowance for classroom teachers should be retained. The Department should work together with the interested parties to establish more coherent and consistent procedures for payment for in-service training, initial teacher training activities and out-of-school learning activities. The Department should resolve the issue of recognition of relevant teaching and non-teaching experience through the award of experience points in consultation with the interested parties. The Department should again produce a statement on the pay structure, for issue to teachers in 2002. The Department will consider further with the interested parties whether it should undertake a study into the pay and conditions of headteachers in early years education in 2002. 899W The Department will consider further with the interested parties whether it should initiate a review of the pay and terms and conditions of unattached teachers. The Department will report in its evidence in September 2002, for the main 2003–04 pay review, on progress in response to the following requests by the Review Body for reviews of:

the scope and nature of the evidence, information and statistics it collects and provides on teacher recruitment, retention and labour market issues;
how it monitors the use of pay flexibilities and advises on their application. Better monitoring and advice might obviate the need for prescriptive guidance and further the Department's aim of simpler pay arrangements;
the nature of its advice and direction on the application of pay policies to borderline and atypical groups; and
the scope for greater co-ordination of the current support network of assessors, advisers, local recruitment co-ordinators etc.

Finance I have considered pressures on local government funding. The cost of the headline increase and shortening the main scale is estimated to be £560 million in 2002–03. This will be affordable within the resources available to local authorities. Education Standard Spending (ESS) will increase by 5.7 per cent, after adjustments.

Next steps I am grateful to the Review Body for recommending a general increase at a level which is fair and which can be implemented without staging. I will now initiate consultation with the employer organisations, the teacher associations and other interested parties as required under section 2(1) of the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Act 1991, before I make provision by order for teachers' pay and conditions in 2002–03.