This pay and conditions of service claim is submitted by the Officers’ Side of the Soulbury Committee national negotiating body, comprising the Association of Educational Psychologists, the National Education Union and Prospect.
On 4 December 2024, a letter from the Soulbury employers confirmed the pay offer, comprising:
In February 2025, with the agreement of all three Soulbury unions, the Officers' Side reluctantly accepted the 2024 pay offer. The circular to employers can be found here.
The unions put on record their huge disappointment at this outcome, which represents yet another real terms pay cut and another significant worsening of Soulbury pay relative to teachers.
The employers have agreed that there are significant recruitment and retention problems – but we need improvements in pay to tackle these problems. The unions will continue to engage with our members to build support for the improvements in pay levels and pay structure that are so desperately needed to recruit, retain and properly value Soulbury Officers.
The employers have agreed to further discussions on a review of SPA points, a review of London Area Payments and the Workforce Survey Report. The unions called for urgent meetings to take forward these issues.
The unions called for the employer to discuss campaigning jointly with the unions for more Government funding for the pay and conditions improvements needed to recruit, retain and properly value Soulbury Officers.
All concerned should be clear that any delay in the implementation of the September 2024 increase is not the fault of the unions. Our pay claim for 2024-25 was submitted to the employer in May, but no response was received until September. The unions then needed to complete their separate consultation processes. The unions call for the September 2024 pay increase to be implemented and appropriately backdated as quickly as possible.