Teacher pay rises in FE should “keep up” with schools over the next few years, the skills minister told MPs today.
In a wide-ranging final session of the education committee’s inquiry into FE and skills this morning, Baroness Jacqui Smith also revealed that the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) would be “mapping” schools’ compliance with the Baker clause next year.
Smith said she had listened to the inquiry’s evidence sessions “with interest” and that the government’s “plan for change” missions would be impossible without the contribution of the sector.
Five committee members, including the chair, attended the hearing, all of them were Labour MPs.
Here are six things we learned from the session:
Teacher pay
Smith said she “can’t really see a justification” for the pay difference between college and school teachers, which she admitted is “part of the reason” for high vacancy rates in FE colleges.
The minister said funding confirmed in the recent spending review aimed to ensure that college teacher pay at least “keeps up” with schools.
Unlike in schools, college teachers do not receive a nationally agreed pay rise each year. Instead, individual colleges decide their own pay awards.
In recent years, the DfE has released extra cash to colleges through the 16-19 funding formula, with advice to spend it on staff pay.
Several MPs today raised the growing gap between school teachers and college teachers believed to be harming colleges’ ability to recruit and retain staff.
Smith’s comments hint that the DfE will be continuing to provide extra cash to colleges to go towards pay.
Smith outlined other ways the government hopes to support recruitment, such as retention incentives, professional development and funding premiums for high priority courses, but was pushed again by Hayes on the “fairly basic problem” of pay parity between schools and colleges.
Smith replied: “I didn’t want to sit here and say that we could achieve something in this spending review period that we don’t currently have the funding to be able to do.
“But what I did want to do was to spell out the considerably increased efforts that we’re making in order to get FE pay, recruitment and retention nearer to where it should be”.
Baker clause compliance
School compliance with the so-called ‘Baker clause’, which requires them to give pupils a set number of “meaningful encounters” with apprenticeship and technical education providers, will be “mapped” for the first time next year.
Responding to a question about parity of esteem between academic and technical education routes, Smith revealed that the CEC will “map” compliance to reassure ministers that pupils are getting informed about technical training options at school.
Smith said: “One of things we’re going to do next year is, with the Career and Enterprise Company who are running much of the careers provision, to ask them to map the compliance with that particular requirement so that we can be confident that students are getting the ability to be able to see what the options are for them”.
The legislative requirement for schools to provide at least six “encounters” with further education providers came into force in January 2023. Guidance at the time said schools could be subject to a “ladder of support and intervention” if they didn’t comply.
Four mayoral combined authorities and the CEC will also pilot a work experience programme that will be part of Labour’s young guarantee election pledge.
Average school compliance with the wider Gatsby benchmarks is currently 5.8 per cent, Kinniburgh said.
Adult education cuts
Reduced adult education funding has been focused on providers that can deliver “the biggest bang for the smaller amount of buck that I’m afraid there has to be for adult skills funding” Smith said.
The minister was quizzed by MP Amanda Martin, who said the committee has heard that “cuts to adult education directly threaten the government’s ability to complete and achieve its five missions.”
“What assessment have you made of the impact these cuts will have on the government’s missions?” Martin asked.
Smith said the government “ideally wouldn’t have made 3 per cent cuts in the adult skills fund” blaming the “financial position that we inherited”.
Mayors were told in February their devolved adult skills funds will be reduced by around 3 per cent for the year 2025-26. Meanwhile non-devolved allocations were subject to a 6 per cent “affordability” reduction, though Smith confirmed “not every provider got the same cut”.
“What we’ve also tried to do is to make sure that we focused the money through the changes that we’ve made to funding rates and other elements of it on those which are likely to deliver the biggest bang for the smaller amount of buck that I’m afraid there has to be for adult skills funding”.
College VAT impasse
Hayes wanted to know why colleges’ VAT liabilities hadn’t been addressed by the government since colleges were reclassified as public sector organisations in November 2022.
On a recent visit to City College Norwich, Hayes heard their £1.2 million VAT bill was enough to have raised staff pay by 1.2 per cent.
“It seems completely unjustifiable that they’re still in this anomalous position where they’re having to pay VAT and are not able to claim it back,” Hayes said.
Smith replied: “I do understand the situation well. I think it’s obvious that, whilst we have discussed it with the Treasury, we haven’t yet come to a conclusion that would be satisfactory for colleges like Norwich”.
SEND transport
Smith was asked if the government could bolster local authorities’ statutory responsibilities so post-16 SEND students could continue to receive transport to college.
MP Mark Sewards raised the issue at the committee this morning.
“There’s no legal requirement for local authorities to provide free school transport to students with SEND who are aged between 16 and 19 .
“We’ve heard evidence as a committee that local authorities, as they retreat into their statutory obligations because of funding restrictions, are now choosing to restrict these free transport programmes or even limit their criteria very strictly, so that special educational needs students can’t get into FE.
“Will you consider extending the statutory duty to provide free transport for special educational needs students so that they can access FE?”
FE Week has reported on numerous cases where local authorities have introduced charges for families pay for transport for post 16 SEND students.
Local authority transport cost savings have even led to significant safeguarding issues for specialist college students, and delayed the start of the year for some learners.
Responding to concerns that transport for SEND students is no longer free once they turn 16, Smith said the government has no plans to change the age of legal entitlement.
Answering Sewards, Smith said “we’re not committing to that at this moment”.
The minister added that local authorities do have to publish statements which tell students know what is available to them, and pointed to the 16-19 bursary fund which colleges can spend on transport.
Disadvantage gap
Smith was also asked what measures the government is taking to support disadvantaged young people who achieve poorer grades than their peers in FE.
She said education secretary Bridget Phillipson has been “very clear” about the disadvantage gap around the lowest performing group, “white, working class boys” and has “committed the department to doing far more work” on the issue.
Extra funding for disadvantaged students is already part of the funding formula, Smith explained, which will increase in the next academic year.
The committee’s Liberal Democrat and Conservative members have told FE Week they were unable to attend due to other parliamentary commitments.
Your thoughts