TEACHERS backed a campaign for pay restoration and improved conditions at NASUWT’s annual conference today.

Classroom teachers’ starting salaries plunged by 21 per cent in real terms, using RPI inflation, between 2010 and 2023, according to the union.

Moving the motion, senior vice-president Wayne Broom said: “We believe that addressing this crisis of teaching recruitment, retention and morale must be a core priority of any future government.”

He said the national executive will lobby all political parties in the run-up to the general election to secure a new deal for teachers, which will involve “delivering a programme to secure a real terms pay restoration for all teachers throughout the UK.”

The deal also includes stronger measures to protect teachers from violence, assault or harassment, a national framework of statutory, contractual conditions of service including a maximum 35-hour working time limit and equal rights for supply and substitute teachers.