The Department for Education’s (DfE) evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body was published on 10 December 2024.

• The Government considers an award of 2.8% pay award would be appropriate for 2025/26There is an acknowledgment that to pay this most schools will need to supplement the new funding with efficiencies
• The DfE assumes that whatever level of award a school absorbs from its budget for teachers, it can also absorb for support staff
• Reinstatement of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body aims to better align the two pay processes within realistic limits as most school support staff are currently employed on the pay and conditions of the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government Services (SSSNB is not envisaged to be operational until 2027/28)

What happens next?

• The STRB still needs to take into consideration evidence from other sources (including the national employers for school teachers (NEOST)), before making its recommendation on the teachers’ pay award for 2025
• The NEOST evidence was submitted to the STRB in mid December 2024
• The STRB is expected to submit its recommendations in the form of a report to the Government by the end of March 2025.
• The Government aim to publish their decision on the pay award as soon as possible, and well before the end of schools closing for the summer break.

A People / HR  strategy is critical in the education sector to ensure that establishments have the right people, with the right skills, knowledge and experience, in the right roles, at the right time. It is a comprehensive plan for schools and academy trusts to manage their workforce in a way that supports its overall goals and objectives whilst addressing the specific challenges and opportunities of the education sector.

This is an opportune time to review your existing HR Strategy or develop an explicit plan for your setting.

We have developed several resources you can access to support your actions.

HR Customers can visit our Legislation Tracker to find a summary of the proposals outlined in the King's Speech at the state opening of Parliament in July and the Employment Rights Bill published in October 2024.

The scale and breadth of new government's proposals around employment law are likely to make the next few years extremely busy for employers.

While the Government's large majority should make it easier to get legislation through Parliament, many of the proposals in the Employment Rights Bill will need public consultation.

In particular, there is likely to be consultation on the detailed secondary legislation and/or non-statutory government guidance/statutory codes of practice necessary to implement some of the more substantial changes, including:

• the removal of the two-year service requirement to bring an unfair dismissal claim, which will mean that schools will have to review how they induct, train and manage new recruits and how they deal with employees who are not performing during their probationary period;
• "making flexible working the default from day one for all workers, with employers required to accommodate this as far as is reasonable", which goes significantly further than the flexible working reforms introduced by the previous Government on 6 April 2024; and
• the introduction of mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for larger organisations, which adds significant complexity to the current pay gap reporting regime.

The complexity of many of the proposals, the time required for the Bill's passage through Parliament, and the need for public consultation all mean that we are unlikely to see most of the major legal changes introduced before 2026 at the earliest.

The National Minimum Wage rates will increase from 1 April 2025, as follows:

Aged 21 and over: £12.21 (currently £11.44)
Ages 18-20: £10.00 (currently £8.60)
Ages 16-17 and apprentices: £7.55 (currently £6.40)

In addition, the following rates have been announced to come into effect from 6 April 2025: 

Statutory sick pay (SSP) will increase to £118.75 (currently £116.75) per week;
Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental and parental bereavement pay and maternity allowance will rise to £187.18 (from £184.30) per week (or 90% of the employee’s average weekly warnings if lower);
The lower earnings threshold, at or above which employees must earn in order to receive various statutory payments, will increase to £125 (from £123) per week.

In addition to updating our resources on Pay, Appraisal and Capability you can find new resources to support you in the new duty on employers to take reasonable steps and proactive measures to prevent sexual harassment from occurring in the workplace, and taking steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties, such as clients and customers.

We look forward to supporting you in 2025.

You can now find details of our online training offer for this term below:

Training this term

You can access a range of previously run webinars on demand by clicking here and keep an eye out for details of upcoming webinars using this link too.