TEACHERS in Blackburn with Darwen are set for a backdated pay rise after council bosses approved a salary bump.

Blackburn with Darwen Council bosses approved proposals to rise every point on the teaching pay scale by 2.75 per cent effective from the start of the month.

Rises will be backdated to September, when the new school year began.

Executive member for education, Cllr Maureen Bateson, said: “The Department for Education (DfE) published the final 2019 School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) at the end of September.

"The national changes are primarily amendments to pay based on a 2.75 per cent uplift applied to the statutory minima and maxima of all pay ranges and allowances effective from September 2019.

"As in previous years, the council has made the decision to apply a 2.75 per cent increase across the whole scale and not just to the statutory minima and maxima of all pay ranges and allowances.

"Schools whose pay policies use the points on the pay ranges as part of their decision making on pay progression will need to budget for these potential increases for all teachers, not just those on the minimum points on those scales.

"Any award of enhanced pay progression by a school’s Pay Committee will also impact on the school’s budget.

"Whilst this will be a welcome decision for teachers, the council is mindful of continued budget pressures on our schools and as such acknowledge that this is not a decision that we may be able to recommend or support in future years.

“However, we acknowledge that individual pay decisions for all teachers are a matter for the Pay Committee of each school who are tasked with making annual pay decisions for staff.”

For those schools who purchase payroll services from Blackburn with Darwen Council, the pay award will be applied in this month and backdated to September 2019.