NJC pay award 2026/27: what it means for school and council support staff

The 2026/27 NJC award is 3.3% on pay points 3 to 43 and on NJC allowances, effective from 1 April 2026. It was agreed on 24 August 2026, so the money was due back to April. If you work in a council or a school on Green Book terms, your monthly gross pay goes up by roughly 3.3% from the date your employer implements it, and you are owed arrears for the months in between.

Every point on the spine is listed on the NJC pay spine page.

What was agreed and what changed at the bottom

The increase covers pay points 3 to 43 inclusive and all allowances under NJC terms. Part-time staff receive it pro rata. One more change takes effect on the same date: spinal column point (SCP) 2 was permanently deleted from the spine from 1 April 2026, an arrangement set out in the previous year’s deal. SCP 3, at £25,614 a year for a full-time 37-hour week, is now the lowest point.

If you were on SCP 2 last year, the published pages do not say how individual staff are moved, so look at the pay notice from your employer. Your rise may differ from 3.3%, because you are comparing an old point with a new one.

What it adds each month: some worked examples

These are hypothetical full-time, 37-hour, 12-month examples. The 2026/27 salaries are the official 1 April 2025 values plus 3.3%, rounded to the nearest pound, so they are calculated figures. The 2025 figures below are worked back from them and could be a pound out. Your council’s or school’s pay notice is the final word.

Point	2025/26 (calculated)	2026/27	Rise a year	Extra gross a month
SCP 3	£24,796	£25,614	£818	£68.17
SCP 5	£25,583	£26,427	£844	£70.33
SCP 10	£27,694	£28,608	£914	£76.17
SCP 20	£32,597	£33,673	£1,076	£89.67

Those are gross amounts, before tax, National Insurance and pension. A 30-hour week on SCP 5 gets 30/37 of the full-time rise, about £57.03 a month. To see what lands in your account, put the new salary into the take-home pay calculator.

When the money arrives

There was no single national payment date. The employers’ side encouraged councils to implement the award as swiftly as possible, and each employer then runs its own payroll. As one example, Devon County Council told its maintained schools that staff would receive the increase in their September 2026 pay, backdated to April. Other employers may have paid in a different month or may still be working through it. If yours has not, ask payroll or HR.

Backdated pay is one extra line on a payslip. On SCP 5, six months of arrears (April to September) would be about £422 gross, from £70.33 a month. It is taxed through PAYE in the month you receive it, which can make that month’s tax look high. How backdated pay awards are taxed explains why and how it evens out.

Term-time-only staff

If you are paid for term time only, the award applies to your annual salary in the same way, but you are paid a share of the full-time figure. The NJC advisory model gives one worked example of 86.778% of full-time pay, for 39 weeks of work plus pro-rata leave. Your own percentage depends on your contract.

Applying that example percentage to the table, a term-time worker on SCP 5 would gain about £61 gross a month, against £70 for a full-year worker. Other points work out at about £59 (SCP 3), £66 (SCP 10) and £78 (SCP 20). Your payslip will differ if your percentage does. How term-time-only pay is calculated walks through the formula, and working term-time only covers holidays and the practical side.

The School Support Staff Negotiating Body

The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Royal Assent 18 December 2025) provides for a School Support Staff Negotiating Body. It needs secondary legislation before it can start, and the government has said it expects it to be established in autumn 2026. It is not operating yet. Support staff stay under their existing arrangements in 2026 to 2027, and the first changes to contracts would apply in 2027 to 2028 at the earliest.

Northern Ireland and Scotland

In Northern Ireland the NJC award is reported as 3.3%, backdated to 1 April 2026. NIPSA says no implementation date has been confirmed for Education Authority staff, and it has asked the Authority when arrears will be paid. Your employer can tell you where your own payment stands.

Scotland has separate arrangements. Council staff on the Scottish Joint Council terms have a two-year deal worth 4% from 1 April 2025 and 3.5% from 1 April 2026, according to Falkirk Council. Check your own council or union for your figures.