Soulbury Pay Settlement 2024

In February 2025, after careful consideration from all three Soulbury unions, the Officers' Side reluctantly accepted the 2024 pay offer. 

The headlines of the pay offer, are as follows:

• An increase of 2.5% on all pay points with effect from 1 September 2024. 
• An increase of 2.5% on all allowances with effect from 1 September 2024.
• Joint Secretariat discussions on reviews of the SPA System and London Area 
  Payments.

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 AEP National Executive Committee noted their reluctance to accept and expresses its disappointment at the Employers Side ‘final’ offer, which does not address the real terms decrease in Educational Psychologists’ pay over several years. 

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.