Soulbury Pay Claim 2025/6

In June 2025, the Soulbury Committee agreed to submit a pay claim to the employers.

The priorities of the submission are as follows:

(1) A pay increase of at least 5% on all pay points and allowances, which will begin to address the substantial real terms cuts which Soulbury employees have, like other public sector workers, suffered since 2009.
(2) Discussions to continue on the SPA system and London Area Payments.
(3) It was welcome that some of the changes to the pay structure proposed in the previous claim of the Officers’ Side were agreed. Local Authorities should be encouraged to use the points at the top of the A&B pay scales to improve recruitment and retention of staff. The Officers’ Side proposes that the following should also be considered:

• In the spine for Education Improvement Professionals, points 1-4 should be eliminated, making point 5 the first point of the spine.
• In Scale A for Educational Psychologists, points 1-3 should be eliminated, making point 4 the first point of the scale.
• Points 6-14 of Scale A are identical to points 1-9 of the scale for Senior and Principal Educational Psychologists. This overlap would be reduced if points 1-3 of the latter were eliminated, making point 4 the first point of the scale. 

(4) Advice to Local Authorities to clarify that point 1 on the scale should no longer be used as it has been deleted from the Assistant Pay Scale and that any Assistants employed under Soulbury terms should automatically be placed on the current Assistant Pay Scale which consists of points 2-5.

In October 2025, the Soulbury the Employers’ Side sent a formal response to the claim, dated 7 October 2025.

The headline of the offer received in response to the Soulbury unions' claim is as follows:
• An increase of 3.2% on all pay points with effect from 1 September 2025.
• An increase of 3.2% on all allowances with effect from 1 September 2025.

This increase falls short of the unions' claim for an increase of at least 5%. The employers' response emphasised the most important factor in reaching a decision on this response has been affordability. The proposed increase was deemed to be unaffordable in a number of local councils.

Pay spines
The 2025 claim had also requested a series of changes to the pay spines. The Employers’ Side has said it is unable to agree to these elements of the claim on the basis of cost and affordability and the need for local authorities to maintain local flexibility.

The offer will now be considered by the AEP National Executive Committee, who will consider its response on behalf of members and in further discussions with the fellow Soulbury unions. We will provide an update to all AEP members as soon as possible.