Recommendation 8

HM Government · verbatim extract Deferred

The Department’s approach to schools funding and costs already takes account of wage growth for support staff and its impact on school budgets. This is factored into the department’s decisions on funding. The department’s analysis provided in the Schools’ Costs Technical Note 7 (SCTN) shows the impact of support staff pay increases on school budgets and this is factored into the Department’s overall decision-making about how schools’ overall costs are to be managed. The SCTN considers the impact of support staff pay rises on school budgets in the preceding year and forecasts the impact of pay increases for support staff and teachers in the next financial year, alongside an estimate for the ‘headroom’ available for pay awards for both workforces. The Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) made in 2024, which is providing schools with almost £1.1 billion in 2024-25, took account of the impact of the employer offer that was made at the time of the announcement of the CSBG, as part of the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government Services process that most support staff are currently employed on. This offer was then accepted which meant that the support staff pay increase for 2024 was fully funded at a national level. Schools mainly fund wages for support staff and teachers from their core funding. The core funding allocated by the department to schools is not conditional on it being linked to any specific form of expenditure. Most of this funding is allocated through the National Funding Formula, which calculates an allocation for each school based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics; schools’ final allocations are determined by their local authority. Looking ahead, the government is reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) so that in future years the pay rates and pay awards for school support staff will be negotiated by school support staff employer and employee representatives and ratified by the Secretary of State. This will both help ensure there are fair pay rates for school support staff and allow central government to have a strategic view of pay across the school workforce. Our current estimate is that the earliest the SSSNB will start making pay related recommendations is in 2027-28, to ensure a smooth transition from the current NJC process, and to allow for better alignment with the teacher pay process. There are no plans to change the way funding allocations work for schools in relation to support staff as a result of the SSSNB; staffing costs for schools will continue to be taken into account when the Department considers the level of funding it provides for schools. However, better alignment with the teacher pay process should support schools in their overall budget planning.