Colleges will find it “impossible” to use the £300 million additional funding being pumped into the sector to match the school teacher pay award, leaders have claimed.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the cash injection at last week’s Budget, but details on how the funding will be distributed and what it should be spent on have still not been released.
Unions were quick to insist the money must be used to fund a 5.5 per cent pay rise for college staff that matches what schoolteachers will receive in 2024-25.
Schools got £1.2 billion of government cash over the summer to cover the costs, but colleges received nothing.
The Association of Colleges previously said £250 million was needed to match this pay award in FE.
But the AoC claims the £300 million announced at the Budget will be spent on other priorities like projected demographic increases in 16-to-19 students, partly because the cash is expected to be released in April – the next financial year.
AoC chief executive David Hughes posted on social media to say colleges will see “none of it before then, making it impossible, sadly, to match the school pay award in this academic year”.
He later told FE Week: “There seems to be some misunderstanding that the extra funding will be able to help colleges to match the school teacher pay award announced in July. That looks highly unlikely, given that the extra funding announced is for the financial year starting in April 2025, and the schoolteacher pay award is for the academic year already started.”
The previous government stumped up an additional £185 million in 2023/24 and £285 million for 2024/25 through the 16-to-19 funding formula to help fund college pay rises in those years.
The AoC made a recommendation of a 6.5 per cent uplift for college staff pay in 2023/24, in line with what schools got, but only recommended a 2.5 per cent pay rise in 2024/25.
University and College Union head of further education Paul Bridge said colleges “know they are getting an overdue funding boost” and should “manage their budgets to prioritise giving hard-working staff a proper pay-rise now”.
He added: “Many further education lecturers are using foodbanks and rationing their heating, so for college bosses to follow the AoC’s suggestion and continue to hoard their resources instead of supporting staff would exacerbate the already parlous staffing situation.
“Last year the Tories made clear their £470 million funding boost was to support staff recruitment and retention; at the very least the Labour government now needs to mirror that directive for colleges to prioritise staff. If the AoC and college bosses keep on holding down pay, then the sector will continue to haemorrhage workers.”
Hughes outlined that some of the £300 million will be “required to fund places for the growing cohort of young people who have a statutory right to education or training to age 18”.
He added: “We will all soon know more about what the growth has been in colleges and school sixth forms in this current academic year, and because of lagged funding that will drive how much of the extra £300 million of funding is required for the next academic year and how much might be able to support other priorities including a funding rate rise.”
Today the National Education Union closed a ballot for strike action in 40 sixth form colleges also excluded from the schoolteacher 5.5 per cent pay rise over the summer.
Daniel Kebede, the NEU’s general secretary, said his union “expects appropriate funding to be given to colleges to enable pay settlements that match those in the maintained schools sector”.
The outcome of the ballot is expected to be announced in the coming days.
The Sixth Form College Association said that “most” of the £300 million will be “needed to fund the projected increase in the number of students”.
Chief executive Bill Watkin told FE Week: “It remains the case that there is a pressing need to raise the rate of 16-to-19 funding to provide students with the education and support they need to fulfil their potential, and to ensure that staff in sixth-form colleges receive the same pay increase as their colleagues in schools and academies.
“£300 million is not enough to fund this, and the bottom line is the government needs to invest significantly more in 16-to-19 education to ensure that both students and staff get a fair deal.”
Skills minister Jacqui Smith told this week’s Association of Employment and Learning Providers conference that the Department for Education is now in a “business planning process” to decide how to allocate the £300 million.
The DfE said details will be released “in due course”.
Gosh, UCU really are a bit silly at times. As if colleges are ‘hoarding’ resources! Hang on, we will just find the cash down the back of the sofa in the principals office.
If the £300m is to fund our rising 16 to 18 numbers, then that must be used to fund extra delivery costs. Pay rises over 5% will cost the sector a small fortune.