Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
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Teacher starting salaries require increases to remain competitive for recruitment and retention.
Conclusion
Teacher salaries need to be attractive in order to boost recruitment. We welcome the introduction of a £30k starting salary as a step towards improved competitiveness. However, it is clear that this salary will have to be increased in the coming years if it is to remain competitive. Whilst initiatives such as the levelling up premium may help in certain areas, the issue of pay competitiveness will need to be kept under review across the board and both starting salaries and progression must be taken into account.
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation by detailing recent actions to boost teacher attractiveness, including a 5.5% pay award, a £233 million financial incentives package for 2025/26 (bursaries and scholarships), and targeted retention incentives for 2024/25 in shortage subjects.
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40
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
We accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from this September. We announced a financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle worth £233 million, a £37 million increase on the last cycle. This includes a range of measures, including bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing. For 2024/25, DfE is also offering Targeted Retention Incentives worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. Together, these financial incentives aim to attract people to teach in those subjects where recruitment and retention proves more challenging.