The UK Government has said it will give Wales an extra £23.5m towards the pay award for teachers following scrutiny and pressure from Ben Lake MP.
A pay-rise was announced by the UK's Education Secretary for teachers across both Wales and England on the 24th of July, to be implemented from September onwards. Details on how the pay-rise would be funded in England were published but in a response to a question from Plaid Cymru MP, Jonathan Edwards, the Education Minister said that he expects the Welsh Government to pay for the increase in Wales, despite it being the responsibility of the Westminster Government.
As a result, schools and local authorities across Wales started this academic year unclear about how much they would have to pay towards what was otherwise a welcome increase to teachers' pay, at a time of shrinking school and local government budgets.
Following the announcement in July, the Plaid Cymru MP group have been calling on the UK Government to take action. Written correspondence was sent to the Treasury and the UK’s Education Secretary during summer recess and an Early Day Motion was tabled on 5 September by Jonathan Edwards, Plaid Cymru MP, calling on the UK Government to provide the additional funding necessary to realise the pay rise in Wales.
During a Welsh Affairs Committee meeting, Ben Lake MP urged the Secretary of State for Wales to raise this matter with his colleagues in the Department for Education and during the PMQs session on 12 September Mr Lake asked the Prime Minister to intervene.
On 13 September, the UK Treasury announced that it would be releasing £23.5m towards the pay award for teachers in Wales.
Commenting, Plaid Cymru’s education spokesperson in Westminster, Ben Lake MP, said:
“I’m delighted that we’ve been able to secure this extra funding towards the pay award for teachers in Wales. Welsh teachers have been over-worked and under-paid for far too long under Westminster’s cutbacks and the announcement of a pay-rise last month was well overdue.
“The responsibility for setting teachers’ pay is still reserved to the UK Government, and consequently the matter of funding any pay increases. The announcement to provide a pay award for Welsh teachers was made without consultation with the Welsh Government, and seemingly without any consideration for how it would be funded.
"Our teachers deserve to be paid a decent wage, and I’m extremely pleased that the Plaid Cymru MP group has been able to pressurise the UK Government to reverse its original decision and release the necessary funding to Wales.”