6.5% pay rise for Teachers, plus £485m for FE Providers over next two years

• School teachers to see pay boosted over the next two years, as part of 17% increase since the general election

• Pay award backed by significant additional investment so schools and colleges can continue to offer pupils and young people an excellent education

• Curb on academy senior pay to ensure public money reaches classrooms, not executive pay packets

School teachers and leaders will see their pay increase by 6.5% over the next two years, after the Education Secretary accepted the School Teachers Review Body’s pay recommendations in full today (1 July).

Teachers will receive an increase of 3.5% from September 2026, followed by 3% from September 2027, delivering a cumulative 17% rise since the general election.

In further evidence of this government’s continued investment in public services, additional funding of £1.8bn will be provided to schools over two years, supporting pay rises for hard working teachers and support staff.

Schools, like the rest of the public sector, will need to continue to play their part and will be expected to find the first 1% of each pay award through continued efforts to maximise value from their budgets.

An additional £485m will be provided to colleges and other further education providers over two years so they can continue to recruit and retain more excellent teachers and deliver high quality vocational, academic and technical courses.

To ensure taxpayers’ money is being invested where it is needed most, the government will also put curbs on academy trust executive pay.

From September, trusts will need to seek government approval before advertising roles over £174,000, bringing the sector in line with other public sector workforces including the NHS and colleges. Annual increases for executives will also be brought in line with the wider school workforce, meaning executives will not be able to receive pay rises higher than those set for classroom teachers.

Education Secretary Bridget Philipson said:

“Our brilliant school and college teachers go above and beyond every day, and I’m determined that dedication is not just recognised, but rewarded.

“This multi-year deal, backed by significant additional investment, shows the immense value we place in our teachers, while giving schools and colleges certainty over pay and their budgets.

“It’s also right that classroom teachers are not seeing executive pay rise faster than their own – or set at excessive levels in the first place – so tighter controls will mean unjustifiable exec salaries become a thing of the past, helping level the playing field for school staff and drive every pound towards classrooms.”

The announcement today means school teachers will see an increase in their pay of 17% since this government took power – equating to almost £7,900 over four years – with the average school teacher salary rising to over £52,800 from September 2026 and over £54,400 from September 2027.

It builds on significantly improved recruitment and retention figures, with over 4,500 more teachers in secondary schools, special schools and colleges since 2024 reaching over 70% of the government’s commitment to recruit 6,500 new teachers with three years to go.

And beyond those figures, fewer schoolteachers are leaving the profession and there has been a 13% rise in the number of people choosing to train to teach this year – a post-pandemic record – signalling a strong pipeline for the future.

The government’s Maximising Value for Pupils programme will play a vital role in supporting schools to get the best value from their budgets, by offering better deals on areas like energy, recruitment, and banking. Schools across the country are already reaping the rewards, including – Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust – which increased its annual interest income from £16,000 to over £1.1 million by reviewing its banking arrangements.

The government’s work to tackle child poverty, in particular lifting the two-child benefit limit, is also widely recognised as supporting teachers and easing pressure on school finances, with schools increasingly going above and beyond to support young people in their day-to-day lives over the past decade. Over 1.5m children in Great Britain will benefit from the removal of the two-child limit, and 450,000 children will be lifted out of poverty.

Sector Reaction

David Hughes, Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges said: 

“Today’s announcement is very welcome support for colleges to be able to fund a meaningful pay increase for their staff this year. Until now, we had feared that we were heading towards a potentially very low or even zero pay award recommendation. It shows that the government has been listening to the case we made as a sector and recognises that its funding decisions are critical for ensuring colleges can address the cost of living crisis their staff face.

“The promise of two years of funding increases should help colleges plan their finances going forward and we are pleased that these funds look like they will benefit not only those institutions predominantly teaching 16-19 year-olds, but also those with large adult and other cohorts.

“We will be working through the detail of today’s announcement over the next few days to understand what this means for colleges. We will also engage with the unions to agree the timing of this year’s pay award recommendation. It looks likely that we will need to postpone our recommendation until after the summer, by which time every college should know what extra funding they will receive.”

“Today’s very positive announcement does not mean we will forget that, after a decade of neglect from 2010, college pay still lags a long way behind schools and industry. Our ask on that is that we want to work up and agree, with the unions and government, a long term plan to close the gap which at the moment is in excess of £10,000 per year between school teachers and college lecturers.”

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: 

“Pressure from the NEU has forced the government beyond its original pay and funding offer. But let us be clear: a partially funded settlement still means cuts to education, and the NEU will never accept that. 

“Schools are being asked to find £430 million from budgets already at breaking point. This is the equivalent of 7,800 school staff: 3,700 teachers and 4,100 support staff. Ministers cannot claim to want more teachers while overseeing such a drastic reduction in numbers next year. 

“In Makerfield, in Andy Burnham’s constituency, that means 40 schools being forced to find £866,842 collectively from their own budgets simply to meet the government’s requirement to fund part of this pay award. 

“Teachers, leaders, support staff and parents know the truth: underfunding damages learning, narrows opportunity, drives staff shortages and pushes workload beyond breaking point. Investment in education is investment in the future of this country. 

“At a time of rising defence spending, government must answer a simple moral question: why is there always money for conflict, but not enough for childhood? 

“If fiscal rules block investment in schools, staff and children’s futures, then those rules must change. Economic credibility cannot be built on crumbling classrooms and a workforce pushed beyond breaking point. 

“With inflation set to rise, members know this offer is not the decisive shift needed to reverse real-terms pay cuts since 2010 or restore the competitiveness of teacher pay. 

“The government’s action on CEO pay is a start, but it is not enough. It will not be retrospective, and the waste and inequality in the academies system must be tackled through a fair, transparent and enforceable shared pay framework.” 

Stacey Booth, GMB National Officer, said:

“GMB members have already rejected the 3.3 per cent offered by the local government employers.

“It’s simply not enough to address the years of underfunding in schools and a cost of living crisis.

“For hard-working, underpaid school support staff to hear today teacher colleagues will receive a higher pay offer than them is abhorrent and really rubs salt into the wound.

“But local government employers will receive more money as a result of this announcement – GMB calls on them to make sure it goes to the people who need it most: school support staff

Limiting how much academy trusts can pay executive pay is common sense and common decency.

“CEO pay has climbed to exorbitant levels, while our members in those trusts have faced cuts and redundancies – it’s a disgrace, frankly.

“GMB has long-campaigned for a cap on academy CEO pay so this is a welcome first step.

“But the proof will be in the pudding and it will be interesting to see not only how many applications for high pay are received, but more importantly how many are approved.”