A HeadteacherChat community insight, based on a discussion in our Facebook group

A question came up in the HeadteacherChat community this week that trips up even experienced school leaders: "Where can I find a copy of the upper pay scale (UPS) teacher standards?" One member remembered a PDF — cover image of a chair, of all things — that they used to reference, and couldn't find it anywhere online anymore.

It turns out the honest answer is more useful than the document itself: there is no separate, current, statutory "UPS Teacher Standards" document. Here's what's actually going on, and what it means for your pay policy.

There's one set of Teachers' Standards, not two

In England, teachers on the upper pay range (UPR/UPS) are assessed against the same Teachers' Standards as every other teacher in the school. There isn't a distinct, higher tier of standards written specifically for post-threshold teachers.

What changes at UPS isn't the standards themselves — it's the bar for evidencing them.

What the STPCD actually requires

The School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) sets two tests for moving a teacher onto the upper pay range:

  1. The teacher is "highly competent in all elements of the relevant [Teachers'] Standards"
  2. Their "achievements and contribution to the school (or schools) are substantial and sustained"

Crucially, the STPCD does not define "substantial and sustained" in detail — that's left to each school (or trust) to set out in its own pay policy. This is exactly why the community discussion surfaced so much uncertainty: without a single national reference document, every school effectively writes its own criteria, and the definitions in circulation (like the old PDF) were never more than informal, non-statutory interpretations that have since fallen out of circulation.

What this means for you as a leader

A few practical takeaways for anyone reviewing UPS applications or updating a pay policy this year:

  • Check your own pay policy first. If it references "UPS teacher standards" as a named external document, that wording is outdated or was never accurate — update it to point to the Teachers' Standards plus your locally agreed evidence criteria.
  • The appraisal cycle is the primary evidence source. Best practice (and union guidance) is that the end-of-cycle appraisal review statement should carry the weight of the evidence — asking staff to build an additional portfolio on top of that adds workload without adding rigour.
  • Define "substantial and sustained" locally, and do it in writing. Vague criteria are the single biggest source of grievances and appeals at threshold. A short, explicit rubric in your pay policy — shared with staff before the application window opens — heads off most disputes.
  • Academies aren't automatically exempt. As one community member pointed out, academy trusts that have chosen to continue using a locally adapted UPS framework can still do so — but it should be clearly set out in the trust's own pay policy, not assumed from an old external template.

The bigger picture

This thread is a good reminder that a lot of "standard practice" in school leadership is actually local practice dressed up as national guidance. When something like this comes up in your SLT or governance conversations, it's worth tracing it back to the actual statutory source — the STPCD and the Teachers' Standards — rather than a document someone remembers from a few years ago.

If your pay policy hasn't been reviewed against the current STPCD recently, now's a good time.

Discussion prompted by an anonymous post in the HeadteacherChat Facebook community* — join the conversation.*