Key differences between the Soulbury scale and Teachers’ Pay and Conditions
Are Teachers of the Deaf paid on Teachers’ Pay and Conditions (TP&C) as a rule or are there some differences? My headteacher has started talking about a Soulbury scale.
The Consultant replies: Educational Psychologists are paid on the Soulbury scale and there is progression (as there is on the Teachers’ pay scale until you reach UPS3). There is a wide range of progression and one need not have anxieties over pay being limited (it is much more than a peripatetic Qualified Teacher of Deaf Children and Young People could achieve on TP&C – it exceeds UPS3. The major effect is the raising of the retirement age and the change of hours/weeks worked throughout the year.
There has been a number of examples of Qualified Teacher of Deaf Children and Young People (QToD) posts being changed to Soulbury. This has usually been achieved through new recruitment rather than changing Pay and Conditions whilst the teacher is in post. However, some LAs have changed QToDs to Soulbury and this has been done on the amount of teaching the teacher carries out over the week. In my authority to remain on TP&C each teacher needed to demonstrate that they were engaged in teaching for more than 50% of the time. There are many ways to calculate this and I am happy to share the way it was calculated in my LA. If the teacher was not able to demonstrate 50% teaching load, they were changed to Soulbury. This was often against their will and the unions were not able to affect the decision.
