Employment provisions- School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD)

 

Schools HR Perspective

The Bill largely aims to put maintained schools and academies on the same legal footing by amending the Education Act 2002.

The amount of autonomy Academies currently have will become limited and Trusts and Schools will have to review their current policies and procedures to ensure they comply with statutory frameworks.

School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD)

The Bill seeks to extend the statutory teacher pay and conditions framework to include teachers working in academies.

The Bill originally sought to amend Part 8 of the Education Act 2002 to create one overarching pay and conditions framework which meant that academies would no longer have the choice of adopting the STPCD. The NEU showed support for this amendment as they argued that having the same pay and conditions would increase teacher mobility across the school system and improve fairness.

However, following some criticism, the Government have amended this part of the Bill to now allow the Education Secretary the power to issue an order ‘requiring the remuneration of an academy teacher to be at least equal to the amount specified in, or determined in accordance with, the order’. This means the Education Secretary can require Academy teachers, providing primary or secondary education, to be paid at least a minimum level of pay, which will be set in accordance with the STPCD pay ranges. Academies will still be required to have regard to the whole of the STPCD when determining teachers’ pay and conditions and follow it unless they have a good reason not to.

Academies that have not already adopted the STPCD may consequently need to take advice on whether they need to review and potentially revise existing contracts to align with the national framework or whether they have a “good reason” not to.

The above analysis relates to Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which has not yet become law and may be subject to change as it passes through Parliament. We will be posting updates to this page if there are any key developments but the above may not reflect the latest changes to the legislation.  Please contact our School Support (schoolsupport@wslaw.co.uk)  or Schools HR (schoolshr@wslaw.co.uk) teams if you require an update on the latest status of the Bill.