Soulbury Officers’ Side has formally accepted the pay offer, effective from September 2025.

Following the pay claim sent to the Soulbury Employers' Side on 25 June the Employers’ Side undertook a consultation of councils in England and Wales and have sent a formal response to the claim, dated 7 October 2025.

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

Most EPs employed in Local Authorities are employed on Soulbury Terms and Conditions, which includes the nationally agreed payscales. These are not statutory, but have been developed over many years of consultation and negotiation by the Soulbury Committee which is made up of the Local Government Association and the recognised Soulbury Trade Unions. The AEP is a member of the Soulbury Committee along with National Education Union and Prospect. The full agreement can be found on the AEP website Soulbury Report. For AEP Members, there are four relevant scales, and every post should be graded on an appropriate range within them. There are other Soulbury scales, but it is only in rare occasions that EPs would find their post being allocated a range on another scale.