Public sector staff could be in line for higher pay settlement

Public sector workers including teachers and nurses could be in line for a pay rise of up to 4% in the next financial year.

According to a report in The Times newspaper, the School Teachers’ Review Body will recommend a pay rise of close to 4%, while the NHS Pay Review Body will put forward around 3%.

These proposed settlements are higher than the 2.8% that independent pay review bodies had previously proposed, and for which the government had budgeted.

The pay review bodies recommended higher settlements after the Office for Budget Responsibility increased its forecasts for overall wage growth in the March Spring Statement.

The National Education Union (NEU) has previously said it could strike if the government does not better the “unacceptable” proposal of 2.8%.

Earlier this month, the union held a preliminary online ballot which found that 84% of members would be “willing to take action to secure an increased pay award”, although only 47.2% of members voted.

Members of the NASUWT teaching union have also threatened to go on strike unless the new pay award is fully funded by government, rather than having to come out of school budgets.

The lower NHS recommendations could also be met with discontent from unions. In mid-April, the Royal College of Nursing union demanded that the government make a final decision on the 2025-26 pay settlement, saying that “nursing staff need certainty now”.

The reports were delivered to the chancellor on 1 April, and the RCN said “each day that passes without a pay award is another day the government leaves nursing staff in the dark and out of pocket”.

Nurses, teachers and other public sector workers were granted a 5.5% wage deal for the 2024-25 pay year when the Labour government came into power last year, and unions have described the current 2.8% offer as an “insult”.

Independent pay review bodies make recommendations to government departments on public sector pay, but the government makes the final decision.

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