UK Government announces £23.5m to fund teachers’ pay increases in Wales

Welsh Secretary: Funding is as a result of UK Government’s decision to increase teachers’ pay

The UK Government has today (13 Sept) announced that the Welsh Government will receive additional funding of £23.5m as a result of the Department for Education’s decision to increase pay for teachers in England and Wales.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns today confirmed that the Welsh Government will receive £8.7m in 2018/19 and £14.8m in 2019/20, representing the cost of the pay award for teachers in Wales.

This is in recognition of the unique devolution circumstances for teacher’s pay in Wales, where setting pay is a reserved matter whilst meeting of the costs of the award is devolved.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said:

I am delighted to confirm today that teachers in Wales will soon be seeing an increase to their pay packets with the additional funding we are delivering for the Welsh Government.

Today’s announcement underlines the UK Government’s commitment to the fair application of the rules underpinning the Welsh Government’s funding. I hope that this will go some way in providing the Welsh Government with the additional levers to be able to attract and retain the teachers Wales needs to educate its young people.

The Welsh Government will take responsibility for setting teachers’ pay in Wales from October 2018 when they will have the power to determine the future pay and conditions of teachers in Wales for academic years 2019/20 onwards.

Today’s announcement follows the multi-billion NHS staff pay deal announced in by the UK Government in March which is expected to deliver more than £1.3bn a year for the Welsh Government by 2022/23.