Nonnie it was the 1944 act which brought in the Burnham Scale The NUT. records
the groundbreaking 1944 Act brought in free secondary education for all, raised the school leaving age to 15 from 1947 (with a further rise to 16 at an unspecified date), and set up not a comprehensive but a tripartite system of grammar, secondary modern and technical schools.
The union welcomed the Act, which also made it statutory for LEAs to pay the Burnham–agreed rates of pay.
In addition women teachers would no longer be forced to leave their jobs when they married, and in 1946 a Royal Commission recommended equal pay for women teachers
When I said one of the best I meant in relation to other jobs. Academies of course are not LEA run and hence not subject to the Act.
The Department for Education (DfE) states that it is "the responsibility" of the academy to agree levels of the pay with its employees.
It's one of the reasons teachers dislike Academies on the whole.