England's national teacher pay settlement is now set on a two-year basis rather than the usual single-year cycle. On 1 July 2026, the Department for Education said Bridget Phillipson had accepted the School Teachers' Review Body's 36th report in full for 2026/27 and 2027/28, giving teachers and leaders within the maintained school pay framework a 3.5 per cent uplift from September 2026 and a further 3 per cent from September 2027. (gov.uk) The department said that takes the cumulative rise in teacher pay since this government took office to 17 per cent. It also said average teacher pay is expected to move above £52,800 from September 2026 and above £54,400 from September 2027, with starting salaries projected to exceed £35,000 by September 2027. (gov.uk)
The government response matters because it goes beyond the headline percentages. In the written statement to Parliament, the Department for Education confirmed that the STRB also recommended a 5 per cent uplift to the bottom of the unqualified teacher pay range in the Rest of England for 2026/27, and ministers accepted that alongside the main award. (questions-statements.parliament.uk) The same statement draws a clear line beyond 2027. The STRB offered only an indicative 3 per cent recommendation for 2028/29, but the government said its formal acceptance applies to 2026/27 and 2027/28 only. For schools, that means two years of pay certainty, not a fully locked-in three-year settlement. (questions-statements.parliament.uk)
On funding, the headline figure of £1.8 billion for schools over two years is the sum of £700 million in 2026-27 and £1.115 billion in 2027-28, according to the written ministerial statement. The Department for Education said this sits on top of existing budgets and earlier Spending Review allocations, and that 2027-28 support will be rolled into the National Funding Formula due in the autumn. (questions-statements.parliament.uk) Further education is included as well. Ministers said colleges and other FE providers will receive around £120 million in 2026-27 and around £365 million in 2027-28, broadly matching the £485 million two-year figure set out in the department's news release, with separate 16 to 19 allocations supporting post-16 provision in schools and academies. (gov.uk)
This is not a fully funded award at institution level. The department said schools will be expected to absorb approximately the first 1 per cent of each pay award in both 2026-27 and 2027-28 through better value from existing spending, with grant support and previously announced funding covering costs above that level. (gov.uk) To support that assumption, officials pointed to the Maximising Value for Pupils programme. The Department for Education says the programme is designed to help schools secure better deals on procurement, energy, banking and agency supply staffing, with the wider aim of releasing more of each budget for frontline teaching and support. (gov.uk)
The governance change is just as significant as the pay award itself. From 1 September 2026, academy trust executive pay must not rise faster than teacher pay, and any new appointment with pay above £174,000 will require government approval before the post can be advertised. The department said this brings trusts into line with HM Treasury senior pay guidance used elsewhere in the public sector. (gov.uk) In practice, that gives trust boards and remuneration committees a new procedural step before autumn recruitment rounds. Trusts planning senior appointments will need to build approval time into recruitment, while annual uplifts for existing executives will be constrained by the same pay trajectory being applied to the wider school workforce. (questions-statements.parliament.uk)
The department is presenting the settlement as part of a broader recruitment and retention strategy. In a 4 June 2026 workforce update, the Department for Education said it had reached 4,654 of its 6,500 additional teacher pledge, made up of 3,008 more teachers in secondary and special schools and 1,646 more in further education, alongside a 13 per cent rise in people training to teach. (gov.uk) The same update and the school workforce release pointed to stronger retention. The written statement put the school leaver rate at 8.5 per cent, the lowest since at least 2010 outside the pandemic years, which helps explain why ministers are treating pay, workload and retention as one connected policy question. (gov.uk)
The government response also contains several technical changes that will matter in implementation. Ministers said they will allow maintained schools to offer modest non-consolidated payments or bonuses for contribution beyond core duties, extending a flexibility that academies already use, while retaining the existing three-year salary safeguarding period for teachers and leaders. (questions-statements.parliament.uk) The Department for Education also said it will implement changes on INSET flexibility and leaders' working time protections, then run a 12-week consultation on the revised School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document and Pay Order. The policy decision has therefore been taken, but the formal framework and detailed wording still have to move through the usual consultation stage. (questions-statements.parliament.uk)
For schools and colleges, the immediate advantage is predictability. A two-year award gives finance leaders a firmer basis for workforce planning than the standard annual cycle, but that certainty comes with a clear instruction from the Department for Education to keep finding efficiencies and to use national commercial tools where appropriate. (questions-statements.parliament.uk) For teachers, the key dates are September 2026 and September 2027. For academy trusts, the earlier operational deadline is 1 September 2026, when the executive pay controls begin. All of these measures apply in England, where the STRB's 36th report and the government's response now set the direction of travel for the next two academic years. (gov.uk)