Wales to get £23.5m to fund teacher pay rise

14 Sep 18

The Welsh government will receive £23.5m to fund teachers’ pay rises, the UK government has said.

The funding, announced yesterday, will be granted in two stages - beginning with £8.7m in 2018-19 followed by £14.8m in 2019-20.

Alun Cairns, secretary of state for Wales, said: “Teachers in Wales will soon be seeing an increase to their pay packets with the additional funding we are delivering for the Welsh government.

“Today’s announcement underlines the UK government’s commitment to the fair application of the rules underpinning the Welsh government’s funding.

“I hope that this will go some way in providing the Welsh government with the additional levers to be able to attract and retain the teachers Wales needs to educate its young people.”

The UK government announced a pay rise for teachers, soldiers and prison officers in July.

Teachers were awarded an up to 3.5% pay rise. The government committed to giving schools in England £187m in 2018/19 and £321m in 2019/20 from the existing Department for Education budget to help pay for the rises. 

The Welsh government will take responsibility for setting teachers’ pay in Wales from October 2018 when they will have the power to determine the future pay and conditions of teachers in Wales for academic years 2019-20 onwards.

Separately, a report produced by the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Sophie Howe, suggested that the Welsh government must make a “choice” between spending £1.4bn to build a motorway around Newport or invest in sustainable public transport infrastructure.

Howe said: “Welsh government’s obsession at addressing 21st century transport issues with 20th century solutions must not continue.”

The commissioner proposed a package of integrated transport solutions to reduce congestion around Newport, which would cost a total of £578m.

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