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Authored by Sarah Monk, Chief Strategy Officer, Edwin
The Secretary of State’s announcement of a 3.5% teacher pay award from September 2026, followed by a further 3% increase in September 2027, will be welcome news for many. But for school and trust leaders, the affordability questions are very real, especially given the settlement is not fully funded. Alongside the pay increases, schools will receive additional government funding but will still be expected to find the first 1% of each pay award through efficiencies within existing budgets. The announcement also introduces some new controls on academy trust executive pay and highlights the continued focus on recruitment, retention and workforce wellbeing.
That means the sector will still need to absorb a significant proportion of the cost, with union estimates suggesting schools may need to find hundreds of millions of pounds from existing budgets. There also remains uncertainty about how the 2027 award will be funded, which reinforces the need for trusts to think beyond a one-year approach to financial planning.
For many trust leaders and school business professionals, the immediate question will be: What does this mean for our budgets?
But I believe the more important question is: What does this mean for our people?
At a recent conference for Trust HR leads, I argued that the policy and funding landscape we are operating in, now requires us to think not only about integrated curriculum financial planning, but also about integrated curriculum people planning.
Beyond pay: Building a sustainable workforce
Pay matters. Of course it does. Recognition through fair and competitive pay is an important part of attracting and retaining talented professionals. But in my experience, salary alone is rarely the reason people choose to stay in an organisation or decide to leave one.
Today's education workforce faces a range of significant pressures. Recruitment challenges remain in many regions and specialisms. Leaders continue to balance rising expectations and evolving accountability measures with finite resources. Wellbeing and workload continue to feature prominently in the conversations we have with schools and trusts.
For trusts, this is not only a teacher pay issue. It sits alongside wider workforce pressures, including support staff pay, recruitment, retention, workload and wellbeing.
As the sector digests the announcement, I’d argue that school trusts have an opportunity to move beyond short-term budgeting discussions for next year, and look more widely at what makes your workforce sustainable: how you attract, develop, support and retain great people, and how you create the conditions for those people to stay and flourish.
The trusts that design for the future will be the trusts that thrive
In our work with trusts and schools, we see every day that workforce challenges cannot be solved by pay awards alone. The trusts making the strongest progress are taking a deliberate, whole-organisation approach to their people strategy and investing in:
When the right people are in the right roles, and when structures support rather than slow down the work, leaders have more space to focus on what matters most. When staff understand their purpose, feel well led and know their voice is heard, they are more likely to stay. And when culture is shaped deliberately rather than left to chance, performance, wellbeing and belonging can strengthen each other.
These are not add-ons. They are part of the practical work of building resilient, successful organisations.
Finding and building capacity through smarter ways of working
The expectation that schools identify efficiency savings alongside implementing pay awards will inevitably create challenges for many schools and trusts. However, efficiency does not always have to mean doing more with less.
Increasingly, we are helping school trusts to explore alternative delivery models, such as shared services and managed service partnerships that provide access to specialist expertise and strengthen how the organisation works, rather than adding another layer of complexity.
Whether that is HR, recruitment, payroll, finance or wider central services, the focus should not simply be cost reduction. It should be about creating capacity for leaders and ensuring specialist functions are delivered not just efficiently but effectively.
I would encourage trusts not just to ask, "How can we save money?" but "How can we organise ourselves more effectively?"
I was pleased to see the Secretary of State highlight the new Government Commercial Agency framework for agency supply. Through our Vision for Education brand, we are involved in both Lot 1 and Lot 2, and we can see how a Lot 2 managed service partnership model can support better quality, stronger compliance and more informed spending decisions. In the Midlands, our work with Thrive Education Partnership Trust has resulted in over £1.5m of savings by using Edwin’s data insights to improve practice and plan more effectively across the whole workforce.
Culture is a strategic priority
One of the most significant themes within the Secretary of State's announcement was the continued emphasis on working conditions, flexibility and staff support.
This reflects something many trust boards and executive leaders already understand: culture has become a strategic issue. Staff want to work in organisations where they feel valued, trusted and supported. They need clarity, opportunity and purpose. They want leaders who listen, manage people well, invest in development and wellbeing, and take workload seriously rather than simply paying lip service to it.
Wellbeing cannot sit at the edges of organisational life. It has to be embedded into the culture, routines and leadership behaviours that shape people’s day-to-day experience of work.
Brené Brown captures this well when she writes, “Daring leaders work to make sure people can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging.” That feels particularly relevant in schools and trusts, where culture is shaped every day through the way people are led, listened to and supported.
Creating that environment does not happen by accident. It takes intentional leadership, purposeful people strategies, evidence-informed HR and wellbeing practices, a capable and well-supported people function, and a genuine commitment to listening to staff voice.
Culture can be designed, supported and strengthened through the everyday behaviours, systems and decisions that shape people’s experience of work. We see this in our work with trust boards through our “Governing with care” programme, and in the work we do with senior leaders, middle leaders and individuals. It is multi-layered, and when it is done well, it becomes sustainable. That matters for schools, trusts and the people working in them.
The opportunity ahead
While much of the immediate discussion will understandably focus on funding allocations and budget implications, the announcement should also prompt a wider conversation:
These are the questions I keep coming back to, because they go to the heart of how we build strong, sustainable trusts for the future.
At Edwin, we are proud to support schools and trusts with this work, from organisational design and managed service partnerships to HR advice, leadership support, staff culture and wellbeing development, through to the work we do on Trust growth and mergers.
For me, that is the real opportunity here. Sustainable improvement will always need funding, but it also depends on the conditions we create for people: to feel valued, to do their best work, and to want to stay.