Welsh Government issues pay rise update for Welsh teachers

Teachers in Wales will have to wait to find out if they will get a payrise, as their English equivalents have. Wales' education minister Lynne Neagle did not rule out matching the 5.5% pay rise in England, but said she could not yet commit to saying what it could be.

In an interview with BBC Radio Wales, Ms Neagle, said: "As a government we're working across government now on public sector pay andw e'll have more to say on that shortly. I know teachers are anxious about this and I want to make sure we've got information for them asap.

"We've taken a little longer over it because we wanted to assess the fact we had a new government and changes in funding so we wanted to make sure we got the best possible deal."

Asked if the Welsh Government had had extra funding, she said: "We know the UK G has said some of the money for pay in England will be new money and there will inevitably be a consequential for Wales from that. We want to make sure we can get the best possible deal for Wales," she said, but said they did not know how much that consequential would be. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues affecting the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here

When it was put to her that the Welsh Government did not know what it would give teachers, she replied: "We've got plans, and we've an independent Welsh pay review body report which has made recommendations, we've also a long established principle in Wales of no detriment which means we wouldn't want teachers in Wales to be disadvantaged in comparison with England."

She was also asked if the new First Minister, Eluned Morgan, was considering reversing a u-turn on proposed changes on term dates, and cutting the six week summer break and adding two of the weeks to other points of the year. The policy was something former First Minister Mark Drakeford backed, but that was reversed by his successor Vaughan Gething. He decided it would not be looked at again until the next Senedd term, from 2026.

Mr Drakeford is currently back in the cabinet after being given the health brief by Eluned Morgan. Mr Drakeford launched a furious attack on that decision in the Senedd, you can see that here.

Asked if there was any chance of the policy coming back to the table this Senedd term, Ms Neagle said: "The cabinet took the deciison to postpoone a decision on the school year until the next Senedd, that was based on the very extensive consultation, one of the very biggest we've ever had as a Welsh Government, which gave us really equivocal responses. There was no clear majority in favour of any particular option, at the moment, that's our policy."