MINISTERS AGREE TO FULLY FUND TEACHER PAY RISE IN ENGLAND

The National Education Union says the government has agreed to fully fund a forthcoming pay rise for teachers in England, in what the union describes as a significant victory following weeks of pressure. NEU members had been due to vote next month in a ballot on strike action over the government's pay offer. Education Secretary Lucy Powell, who succeeded Bridget Phillipson, confirmed in a letter to the union on Wednesday that the entire pay award would be funded using money freed up by recent revaluations of the local government pension scheme. NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede called the move a "significant" step. He said it would deliver an estimated additional £500m to schools this year that would otherwise have been spent on the pay rise.

The pay offer provides for a 3.5% rise for teachers from this month, with a further 3% increase from next September. Phillipson had put forward the offer as an improvement on earlier proposals, but the NEU raised concerns it was not fully funded, meaning schools would have had to cover close to a third of the cost from their own budgets. Kebede and Powell held negotiations over the summer before Wednesday's announcement. Kebede said the government's move showed it now "accepts the reality that any teacher pay award must be fully funded." According to reports, the decision reverses an earlier government position against funding the rise in full.

Kebede said the move plugs a £460m gap in school budgets and marks "a welcome return to reality" for the wider school system. He said schools "have been running on empty for far too long" and that leaders could not have afforded to fund the pay award as it was originally set out by Phillipson. He added that the announcement sends "a message of hope for the entire school community." The funding is being drawn from recent revaluations of the local government pension scheme rather than new spending elsewhere. No further detail was given on when the money would reach individual schools.