Teacher Pay Award 2025 – A Mixed Picture as Budgets Stretched to Breaking Point

The Department for Education have today announced a 4% pay rise for school teachers from September 2025.

NGA welcomes this further step to restore teacher pay with another above-inflation increase, following last year’s 5.5% rise. We are also pleased to see the earliest announcement of the teacher pay award since 2015 – beginning to fulfil one of our long-term asks that boards have more notice of pay awards, so can plan accordingly.

Nonetheless, despite these positive steps, we are disappointed that the government has been unable to meet the demands of NGA’s members and our sector partners that any pay rise needed to be fully funded. The government will be funding 75% of the pay rise, while the other 25% will need to be met via “efficiencies”. Although this is a significant improvement on what the government proposed in their evidence to STRB earlier this year, it will still place further strain on over-stretched school and trust budgets.

Emma Balchin, NGA Chief Executive, said:
“The announcement means, despite the support offered, boards will still be left juggling financial resources. On the one hand, schools and trusts are experiencing a recruitment and retention crisis, caused by years of the profession being devalued.
Conversely, more and more schools are wrangling with falling pupil numbers, with redundancies necessitated by an unstable funding model and long-term underinvestment.”

NGA fully recognises the challenges this government has inherited in rebuilding the teaching profession and the national finances. However, our annual governance survey last year revealed that many schools and trusts were already running on empty. The failure to fully fund the pay rise means that many schools and trusts will face further cuts next year, forcing boards to make impossible choices to balance their budgets.
NGA will continue to work with partners in the sector to call on the government to review its approach to education funding urgently.

We ask that the government:

Ensure that future pay awards are both fair AND fully funded
Prioritises education in June’s multi-year spending review
Acknowledges that further “efficiencies” are not possible for many schools and trusts after years of underinvestment.

NGA are ready to work with the government to reverse the systemic erosion of our education system. Education is more than a budget line; it is the foundation of our children’s life chances and the nation's future economic prosperity.