Colleges are set to receive additional funding to improve maternity pay for their staff, the Department for Education has announced.
The plans come ahead of the schools white paper, due on Monday, which will commit to double the period of full maternity pay for teachers and leaders from four weeks to eight weeks from academic year 2027-28.
Unlike maintained schools, the government has no formal role in setting pay and conditions for staff in further education colleges, meaning maternity policies vary by institution.
However additional funding “commensurate to investment in schools” will be paid to colleges to “support them to improve the maternity offer for their staff”, the DfE said in a statement.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Having met so many incredible teachers and staff in schools and colleges, I’ve heard how tough it can be juggling between a career you love and starting a family, and I’m concerned that too many women feel they don’t have the support they need to make the right choice for them.”
It’s not yet clear how much funding colleges will receive, or how it will be calculated.
It comes amid government efforts to improve teacher retention, which is expected to be a theme in next week’s schools white paper alongside major reforms to the SEND system.
Poor retention of further education teachers was flagged in the post-16 education and skills white paper, published in October, citing research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showing 60 per cent leave in their first five years.
While it did not suggest improvements to maternity pay, it did propose bonus payments to teachers in shortage subjects, a professional development framework and increased 16 to 19 funding to help colleges retain staff.
This is not the first time the government has sought to provide parallel funding for colleges alongside a schools-focussed announcement.
Colleges have previously been given additional funding alongside school teacher pay awards. However the funding for these have been allocated through colleges’ 16 to 19 funding, meaning colleges with larger adult education and apprenticeship provision lose out. Ministers at the time “encouraged” colleges to spend this funding on staff pay, but they have no power to force them.
The department has not yet confirmed how this upcoming funding towards maternity pay will be allocated or whether it will be ringfenced.
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