Lynne Neagle, Cabinet Secretary for Education
I am pleased to publish today the sixth report of the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body (IWPRB), which makes a recommendation for teachers’ salaries and allowances from September 2025. I would like to thank the IWPRB for producing the report. The remit for this year was in two parts so after completing their work in relation to pay, I asked the IWPRB to consider leaders conditions of service and I look forward to receiving their report on that part of the remit later in the year.
Independent Welsh Pay Review Body: sixth report 2025 (Due to the compressed timeframe this year, the Welsh report will be available as soon as possible, no later than 24 June).
In the Welsh Government’s evidence to the IWPRB, we outlined the challenging financial context faced by the Welsh Government, local authorities and schools. We also outlined the need to be mindful of affordability, while providing suitable reward for existing practitioners and ensuring that teaching in Wales continues to attract high-quality new entrants.
The IWRPB report recommends that all salaries and allowances be increased by 4.8% from September 2025, citing the importance of recruitment and retention.
Local authorities and unions representing the education workforce were unanimous in their evidence to the IWPRB, and have told me directly, about the importance of any teachers’ pay award being fully funded. I am very mindful of the possible impact that unfunded pay rises could have on teacher numbers and workload.
In recognition of the importance of providing full and sustainable funding for teachers’ pay, I am therefore consulting on increasing all salaries and allowances by 4% from September 2025. While this is below this year’s IWPRB recommendation, in 2024/25 I was able to make a pay award of 5.5% - significantly higher than the IWPRB recommendation of 4.3%. What I am proposing therefore equates to around a 9.7% pay award over 2024/25 and 2025/26, compared to the approximately 9.3% total recommended by the IWPRB over those two years.
For the Welsh Government to dedicate the resources necessary to fund the recommended pay award, it would require significant funds being redirected from other areas of Government spending such as school budgets, in addition to the funding recently announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language to support devolved public sector employers with the cost of increased National Insurance Contributions.
In their report, the IWPRB request that the Welsh Government commits to a timeline for implementation of the outstanding recommendations from the IWPRB Strategic Review of the Structure of Teachers’ and Leaders’ Pay and Conditions in Wales. I remain grateful to all those involved in the review and the recommendations it produced.
While I was able to accept the recommendations in principle, I was very clear at the time this was subject to discussions with stakeholders and implementation being cost neutral or agreed with stakeholders that costs could be met from existing local authority or school budgets. This has understandably been challenging for all those involved. However, some recommendations have already been implemented and, together with employers and unions through the Pay Partnership Form, we have been able to undertake a prioritisation exercise to identify the most impactful recommendations to begin to progress.
We will now be working to deliver these most pressing recommendations, subject to funding considerations and working through implementation requirements with partners.
One area of priority is continuing progress on moving ALN Coordinators (ALNCos) to the leadership pay scale, as recommended in the IWPRB’s fifth report (recommendations 4 and 5). These recommendations are vital to recognise and reward the important role ALNCos play in our education system. This is why I am also today consulting on changes to the STPC(W)D to bring these changes into effect.
I am also committing to progressing the IWPRB strategic review recommendations to move towards a single pay scale for teachers (recommendations 1 and 3). I am therefore also consulting on changes to the STPC(W)D which remove the application process for moving from the main pay scale to the upper pay scale from September 2025, whilst we work with partners to consider options for the development and structure of a single consolidated pay scale.
Continuing to work together, through our social partnership approach, to reward and recognise the excellent work that teachers do here in Wales is how we will continue to make improvements for our education workforce. I will now be inviting written comments from key stakeholders by 8 July on my response to the IWPRB’s sixth report and the proposed changes to the STPC(W)D. I will consider all responses to the consultation before making my final decision.