2026 Pay Award and Pay Policy Update – Teachers

Further to the joint ministerial statement on 1 July 2026, the Department for Education has published the draft School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document 2026 (‘the STPCD’). This is currently subject to a period of consultation with statutory consultees until September.

For maintained schools, once the STPCD is a legal document any agreed pay uplift is mandatory. At this time we cannot implement any proposed pay increases linked to the new pay rates.

Headlines from Draft STPCD 2026

• from 1 September 2026 a 3.5% increase will be applied to all pay and allowance ranges and advisory points, except for the minimum of the unqualified teacher range (rest of England) where a 5% increase will be applied
• from 1 September 2027 a 3% increase will be applied to all pay and allowance ranges and advisory points

The draft Model Pay Policy has been added to the HR ONE Policy Library (under ‘Pay and Grading’) for schools to read. This remains draft until the STPCD is a legal document.