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<p>The Government has accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) recommendations
for 2023/24 teacher pay awards in full. This means that teachers and head teachers
in maintained schools will receive an increase of at least 6.5%, the highest STRB
award in three decades. The Department will be providing an additional £525 million
of funding in the 2023/24 financial year, and £900 million in 2024/25, and as the
unions have agreed, this means that the award is properly funded.</p><p>Although the
Department will have to make difficult decisions, the Secretary of State has been
clear all frontline services will be protected. Funding for early years, SEND, school
conditions and core school and college budgets are fully protected. To help fund the
pay award, the Secretary of State has also secured exceptional permission from the
Treasury to keep money where there have been or will be underspends, which in normal
years would have to be returned to Treasury.</p><p>The additional funding announced
alongside the teachers’ pay award fully covers the cost of the pay award above 3.5%,
nationally. The Department’s affordability calculation says that a 4% pay award should
be affordable for the average school, and the Department is more than covering that
calculation.</p>
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