Wokingham school funding campaigners highlight wages pay gap

SOME teachers in Wokingham are being paid less than the recommended salary for their pay band, according to new research.

Campaigners for the Wokingham Borough Schools Fair Funding Campaign have discovered that teachers on the M1 starting pay band would end up £1,800 worse off over seven years according to current figures.

Teachers starting on the M1 band receive £23,720, but while the National Educational Union recommended that teachers on the M2 pay band should receive £25,594 a year, the average Wokingham pay for teachers is £25,344, a difference of £250 a year.

And on the M3 band the NEU says staff should be paid £27,652, while Wokingham teachers get £27,380, a difference of £272 a year.

The difference on the M4 band is £292 a year. However, teachers on the M5 band are better off: Wokingham teachers are on an average of £32,811, £685 more than the NEU recommendation of £32,126 a year.

But teachers who hit the M6 band receive £34,325 – £683 a year less than the NEU’s salary band of £35,008. Wokingham does have an extra M6b band, which is the same as the NEU’s M6 figure.

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Annabel Yoxall, who helps run the Fair Funding Campaign, said that 33% of the borough’s schools are paying staff below than the national average and that this is the result of Government cutbacks.

She said: “Staff wages are the biggest outgoing in the school budget. We know that Wokingham Borough suffers one of the poorest levels of school funding in the country and is also the lowest funded unitary authority in England.

“From the information which we have received anonymously, it is reported that about a third of our Wokingham Borough schools are paying staff the Wokingham rate which is lower than nationally recommended.

“Over a quarter of our schools are on half pay scales which means those staff may only get a half pay rise if they do not meet the performance management targets. These figures highlight the stark reality that not only have many headteachers across the borough been forced to cutback on staff, they are also having to pay wages at a lower rate.

“In the light of the extra responsibilities many staff have taken on in recent years due to funding related staff cutbacks, we need to be aware and concerned about how demoralising this must be.

“It reduces incentive for staff retention and reduces competitiveness for potential future employees in this current climate of teacher shortages, particularly in times when the cost of living is increasing.

“Local school funding needs levelling up and it needs to happen now. We must urge our MP to lobby Parliament. Our hard-working school staff deserve better.”

Wokingham Borough Council said that the pay levels were for individual schools to determine. Executive member for Children’s Services Cllr Pauline Helliar-Symonds said: “All schools have the freedom to set their own pay policies and pay scales in line with the parameters of the STPCD (School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document).

“It is for school leaders and governing bodies to implement the changes to the national pay framework in accordance with their pay policies and within the funding available.

“Although the teaching unions recommend that the maximum percentage is applied to all pay points on the Main Pay scale, it remains up to individual schools as to how they implement the annual pay increase and there is no statutory requirement to follow the unions’ recommendation.

“All schools are aware of the impact on recruitment and retention when they are unable to follow the Teaching unions recommendations, but they have to be able to manage within the financial resources available to them.”