Ofsted piloting recruiting inspectors en-masse from FE groups

Ofsted has announced a new way of recruiting “groups” of school and FE leaders to work as part-time inspectors, in a bid to make inspections “more collaborative than ever before”.

School and further education inspections are currently carried out by full-time his majesty’s inspectors (HMI) and contracted Ofsted inspectors (OIs), who are typically serving leaders.

OIs typically join Ofsted “as individuals”, but the inspectorate says this “can restrict chances for two-way professional reflection and shared learning”.

Under a pilot announced this morning, Ofsted is trialling recruiting OIs as “groups of peers drawn from professional organisations and networks they’re already part of”.

This includes schools, multi-academy trusts, local authorities, independent learning providers and general FE colleges.

But inspectors will not be paid directly, with payments instead going to their employers.

The scheme is already underway, says Ofsted, and is hoped to encourage OIs to “form a professional community with each other and with HMI”.

OI not paid directly, under scheme

Currently, contracted Ofsted inspectors are paid directly for their work.

As a team inspector on a school or college inspection, they receive a daily rate of £335 a day.

Any additional specialist activities, such as quality assurance or complaints investigations, are paid at a rate of £392 a day.

Under the new pilot, “there is no separate inspection fee”. Instead, Ofsted will contribute to employers’ costs so that staff can become an OI “as part of their professional development pathway”, said an Ofsted press release.

Ofsted confirmed contributions will continue to be paid to their employers, once they are fully trained.

The inspectorate added that it is developing “additional learning and development opportunities to complement inspection training and make sure becoming an OI offers clear professional value for participants and their employers”.

Ofsted said the OIs will have regular opportunities to share feedback with each other and reflect on what they’re seeing and learning. These experiences “will then feed directly into how Ofsted continuously improves inspection”.

Announcing the pilot at the Association of School and College Leaders’ annual conference in Liverpool, chief inspector Martyn Oliver said he is “really excited” about it, adding: “It means we can bring in current sector insight in a more systemic way.

“It means more people in the sector, inspecting the sector. Even more colleagues who understand what it means to lead a school through challenges, to make the difficult calls you all make every day.”

Join us as an inspector, Oliver tells leaders

Oliver said he wants to “bring in as many people in from the sector as possible”, to give leaders chance to lend their expertise and “shape how inspection works”.

“I believe this should be part of every leader’s journey,” he said. “So join us. 

“I want to make inspection more collaborative than ever before. We should work together to challenge each other in the interests of children and learners and to keep raising standards.”

Oliver stressed OIs recruited through the pilot will be trained “to the same high standards as existing OIs” and will carry out the same inspection work.

The first participants in the pilot began inspector training in January and now currently taking part in shadow inspections, said Ofsted.

They are expected to be ready to take part in live inspections later this term, and further cohorts will begin training later in the year.

The pilot will continue throughout 2026 and feedback will be gathered, to help inform how Ofsted recruit OIs.

Ofsted said it is also exploring whether a similar approach can be adopted across early years and social care inspection.

Population-spiked colleges scrabble for cash ahead of real-terms funding cut

College leaders have warned millions of pounds must now be diverted to fund thousands of extra learners after ministers “betrayed” the sector with a real-terms funding cut.

The Department for Education this week confirmed the national funding rate for 16 and 17-year-old learners would rise only 0.5 per cent in academic year 2026-27, from £5,105 to £5,133.

The move broke a pledge made in October’s post-16 education white paper which said there was “significant investment” available to maintain “real terms per-pupil funding in the next academic year to respond to the demographic increase in 16 to 19-year-olds”.

Principals told FE Week they could be forced to re-evaluate course provision for high-needs students, facilities expansion and staff pay awards to find money for unfunded learners.

Sudden increases in student numbers are financially risky for colleges due to the DfE’s “lagged” funding model, which allocates cash based on the previous year’s enrolments. When numbers surge, colleges must absorb the cost unless there is in-year growth funding. 

No growth funding was announced this week, and in previous years it was limited due to affordability issues.

‘Betrayal’

The government’s recent £800 million cash injection will be swallowed up by the estimated 20,000 extra 16 to 18-year-olds who entered colleges in autumn, according to the Association of Colleges (AoC). 

The AoC said there are around 32,000 learners currently at college who are unfunded.

The white paper pledged an annual £1.2 billion of additional investment in skills by 2028-29 to recruit FE teachers and “respond” to the demographic increase.

Julian Gravatt, AoC deputy chief executive, said: “The DfE calculation that there will be a 1.6 per cent [average per-student] increase shows that this promise hasn’t been kept, and right now, there is a lack of information on the overall budget.”

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said the rate increase amounted to a “betrayal”.

“Just six months ago, in his keynote speech to Labour conference, the prime minister pledged that improving further education would be the “defining mission” of his government and promised to inject hundreds of millions more into the sector,” she said.

Bill Jones, chief executive of Luminate Education Group, said the news was “disappointing to say the least”, adding that colleges were expecting a rise of around 2.5 per cent “given previous promises that ministers made of real-terms increases per pupil”.

Real-terms drop

This week’s announcement marks the lowest increase since funding rates were frozen in 2021-22. Last year, the DfE applied a 5.4 per cent above-inflation rise to the rate.

Imran Tahir, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, explained the marginal uplift would result in a real-terms funding decrease for colleges’ 16-to-19 income.

Analysis by the IFS found real-terms funding per student aged from 16 to 18 fell by 14 per cent in colleges between 2010-11 and 2019-20.

Increased funding in the last six years has only partially reversed earlier cuts, and per-student funding in 2025-26 remains around 8 per cent lower than in 2010-11 in real terms.

Tahir added: “It’s difficult to know definitively what’s going to happen to funding rates next year. In previous years there have been top-ups later in the year that have changed the picture for 16-to-18 funding.”

The IFS had previously called for an extra £150 million by 2028 just to maintain per-student spending in real terms.

No top-ups expected

Guidance documents published this week did not specify details of any additional funding to support significant enrolment increases.

The DfE expects to notify 16-to-19 providers of their in-year top-up payments to accommodate this year’s estimated 20,000 extra 16-18 students by the end of this month.

College chiefs told FE Week they were drawing up budgets on the assumption they won’t see any in-year growth funding.

Tony Lewin, executive principal of one of the country’s largest college groups, NCG, said due to funding lagging by one year, it would constantly be playing catch-up.

“We know next year will be the same again and again. It’s a sunk cost. You’re not able to recover that in the short term,” he said.

“We’ve still got a lot of ground to make up to get back to where we were just before austerity around 2009.”

He claimed NCG had over 500 unfunded learners in its colleges, representing a £3.6 million shortfall.

Lewin has funded learners using money that would have otherwise been invested in facilities and resources.

NCG also faces staff-related pressures from the 30 to 50 per cent premium of hiring agency staff due to struggles in recruiting permanent employees.

In the East Midlands, student numbers at Nottingham College have grown by a third in four years to over 8,000 students this year, but 1,300 students are unfunded, incurring a cost of £10 million.

“We have not been paid anywhere near the full amount in-year,” said Andy Comyn, chief financial officer at Nottingham College. 

The college was paid for half of its extra learners in 2022-23 and the following year, but this dropped to one third for the next two years.

Nottingham College CEO Janet Smith said: “Not only have we had to address that deficit ourselves from within the rest of the budget, but it also positions FE very unfairly compared with HE and schools, both of which are fully-funded for their growth.

“It’s another example of FE being disadvantaged relative to other parts of the education sector.”

Smith told FE Week the shortfall was squeezing its headroom for staff pay awards.

“We would like to pay our staff more and we can’t.”

Meanwhile, Jones was optimistic that a “guaranteed and generous” in-year top-up was on its way.

“I would be cautious of expressing too much anger about this week’s announcement because of that optimism I have that the £800 million will be distributed in a slightly different way. We need to wait to see the full picture,” he said.

However, Luminate fears it could have costs of around £2.4 million from unfunded learners, creating difficulties with cash flow.

“It feels like all of our funding streams are under pressure,” Jones added.

Pressures on high-demand courses

Matthew Butcher, vice principal of commercial, skills and partnerships at New College Swindon, said his big worry was the knock-on effect of pressures to non-core subjects.

“If we have a lot of students that need to retake GCSEs, then that puts pressure on our English and maths teaching, which then knocks-on into adult English and maths capacity,” he explained.

Butcher added the college will feel the “biggest pinch” to accommodate around 200 unfunded learners with high needs but without EHCPs, which carries high operational costs.

Workplace training dominated by ‘tick box’ courses

A “tick-box” culture at many UK employers means health and safety training is prioritised over productivity-boosting skills, a report has found.

An analysis of labour market data and international surveys by the Learning and Work Institute (L&W) revealed nearly one in five workers reported security or health and safety was the main focus of their training.

In contrast, training in skills such as advanced digital skills or project management has fallen behind many other developed countries.

More than half of training in the UK is also short (58 per cent) – lasting for a day or less – which was the highest proportion for a country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2023 adult skills survey. The international average was 44 per cent.

‘Tick-box training’

L&W chief executive Stephen Evans said: “We’ve got more of a focus on this really short, often induction, security, health and safety stuff, which is what we’re getting at when we say tick-box training, or a culture of compliance.

“Some of it you need, but it shouldn’t be the sum total, and the more developmental stuff has really dropped off quite a lot over the last couple of decades.”

The data shows that 19 per cent of employees reported security and health and safety as their main focus of training, which is “mid-level” compared to countries such as Switzerland (9 per cent) and Italy (33 per cent).

Meanwhile, 6 per cent of UK employees received project management or organisational skills training, which trailed the US (8 per cent), Singapore (10 per cent) and Japan (13 per cent).

L&W warned that while compliance training is “necessary”, failing to invest in transferable skills means the economy will struggle to build capabilities for “future productivity growth”.

Employer training investment falling

Employer investment in training has also “substantially declined” in recent years, with a 29 per cent drop since 2011.

Countries such as Germany or South Korea have increased their investment in developmental training, while the UK has a “lower skills base”, Evans said.

He told FE Week the UK risks falling even further behind because of its “low and skewed” investment.

The think-tank CEO added that the apprenticeship levy was originally “intended to be the minimum” training budget for employers, but has ended up becoming the maximum.

Teaching hours cut ‘not enough to revive T Levels’

A decision to slim down “bloated” T Levels is a “necessary” move – but shaving classroom hours alone will not be enough to boost take-up, experts have warned.

The Department for Education this week announced it would cut the size of new T Levels to 1,080 classroom hours, down from the current minimum of 1,180 hours, while also continuing efforts to shrink existing courses.

The move follows complaints from colleges that the flagship technical qualifications are too big and difficult to deliver at scale.

But while sector figures say the change should help make T Levels more accessible, many doubt it will be the silver bullet ministers hope for.

Ministers have also been warned the move risks leaving English students with even less teaching time than their peers in other countries that are international leaders in technical education.

‘Painfully bloated’

Robbie Maris, a researcher at the Education Policy Institute (EPI), said reducing hours was a “positive and necessary step” after receiving “consistent feedback from colleges, students and stakeholders that the volume of content has simply been too high – reaching up to 2,000 guided learning hours on top of a sizeable industry placement”.

This has “likely contributed” to relatively high drop-out rates – more than a quarter of students who started the fourth wave of T Levels and should have picked up their results last summer left their course early.

Maris said cutting classroom hours would bring T Levels closer to the three A Level benchmark they intended to equal, adding that this recalibration ensured the qualification remained a “substantial programme that develops high-level technical skills, while finally being proportionate and manageable for students to study and for colleges to deliver”.

The National Audit Office warned last year that T Levels may struggle to scale after student number forecasts were missed by three quarters in 2024-25, compared to original predictions.

Abysmal starts have led to a near-£700 million spending shortfall from T Levels’ launch in 2020 up to 2025.

Latest starts data for 2025-26, published on Tuesday, showed the DfE even missed its revised recruitment target for the academic year by almost a fifth.

Catherine Sezen, director of education policy at the Association of Colleges, backed the classroom hours reduction.

But to make T Levels “truly accessible” the DfE must “go beyond size and look at content, assessment and the nature of the industry placement”, she added.

Claire Green, post-16 and skills specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, warned reducing hours without adjusting curriculum content or assessment load “will not ease pressures on providers and may ultimately jeopardise student achievement”.

She added that “persistent barriers such as limited availability of industry placements, demanding assessment requirements, and the high English and maths expectations continue to restrict colleges’ ability to deliver these programmes at scale”.

Claire Green

The DfE committed this week to making “further changes” to assessment and industry placements to support growth. New industry placement guidance will be published by June.

The minimum 315-hour industry placement, which is undertaken in addition to classroom hours, will remain. But officials signalled further watering down of the mandatory requirement, including enhancing current placement flexibilities such as conducting them across multiple employers, group projects or remote working.

Regulator Ofqual will also remove content “not absolutely necessary to demonstrate threshold competence” and cut the assessment burden, particularly the staff time required to administer exams.

Meaningful reform or cost-saving measure?

Currently, the smallest T Levels require a minimum of 1,180 classroom hours per learner over two years and attract £11,154 funding. The largest require a minimum of 1,730 hours and are funded at £15,430.

These funding rates are set to be reduced in 2026-27, and the hours cap for new T Levels suggests funding levels could fall further.

Green said cutting classroom hours “appears less like meaningful reform and more like a cost‑saving measure” – one that “risks leaving students worse off than their peers in other OECD countries, who already benefit from greater teaching time”.

Her concerns echo previous research from the EPI, which found T Levels were already relatively narrow and short compared with technical programmes in high-performing countries.

Vocational routes in systems in Germany, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands typically include classroom-based technical provision of around 1,000 supervised learning hours per year.

Mix-and-match opportunity missed

Tom Richmond, an education policy analyst and former adviser to education ministers, said the government should have gone further and made T Levels a size that allowed them to be studied alongside A Levels – which is the plan for newly proposed V Levels (see page 7).

He told FE Week: “I’m glad the DfE has recognised the painfully bloated nature of T Levels, although these changes fall well short of allowing students to study them alongside an A Level, despite some T Level students being denied university places due to the lack of A Level maths, for example. 

“It’s bizarre watching the DfE highlight the importance of allowing students to combine the new V Levels with A Levels, only to completely ignore the same principle for T Levels. I also doubt many schools and colleges will be persuaded to suddenly offer more T Levels just because a few hours have been shaved off the curriculum.”

The cracks are in the delivery system, not the qualifications

Skills minister Jacqui Smith described the government’s “phased transition” to new qualifications as giving “the certainty providers need, while ensuring that no young person falls through the cracks”. By pausing the defunding of applied general qualifications and setting out a carefully paced programme to introduce the new V Levels, she has certainly achieved her first goal.

But it’s unclear how the reforms will achieve her second goal of providing a much stronger education and skills platform for young people, because the proposed remedy doesn’t address the problem’s root cause. Poorly designed qualifications aren’t the problem; the real culprit is the chronically unbalanced design of our education delivery system.

The phantom menace

Since the Sainsbury review of technical education in 2016, the DfE have been pursuing the phantom menace of an over-complicated qualification system by pushing through a relentless campaign of simplification. The sheer number of vocational qualifications we’ve been told causes confusion amongst students, parents and employers, and makes technical education difficult to navigate. This is simply nonsense. Yes, there may be 872 level 3 qualifications eligible for funding. But most of them are niche subjects. And in reality most FE colleges offer 20-30 vocational subjects, which are clear in their content, goals and progression pathways.

The quality of applied general qualifications has improved greatly over time, they have gained wide acceptance from universities as valid HE entry qualifications, and the number enrolled on them has increased by nearly 70 per cent over the past decade. They are not the cause of the rise in NEETs or of the country’s continuing skills gaps.

Over the past ten years there has been a welcome change in the balance between academic and vocational courses. But it’s difficult to be precise because a significant number of students take a mix of both. In 2015, just under 338,000 students took A Levels; in 2025 it was 313,000. In 2015 around 200,000 vocational qualifications were awarded; in 2025 it’s close to 252,000.

Painful progress

Meanwhile, the DfE’s flagship vocational qualification – T levels  – has made painfully slow progress, reaching less than 3 per cent of total level 3 enrolments this year. It’s a far cry from the 100,000 a year predicted in 2021, or the stated intention when the programme was launched that T levels would become the main technical route for 16-19 year olds. Despite continued efforts to improve uptake, retention and results, there’s no sign of T Levels ever becoming more than a niche qualification for a minority of young people. We can only hope that the historic success of applied generals will provide a firmer launchpad for V Levels to take off from.

No qualification reform can address the continued failure of our education system to produce enough technically qualified workers to meet the needs of British industry. In 2015, there were 12,035 vocational qualifications awarded in engineering and manufacturing – representing 9 per cent of the total. In 2025 the equivalent figure was 9,300. An ageing workforce isn’t being replaced by younger entrants. More than a third of technical roles linked to key industrial sectors face chronic and worsening skills shortages.

Pipeline blockage

The blockage in our skills pipeline is our education delivery system. Virtually no schools offer any teaching of technical skills, other than in the practical elements of science subjects. Of those taking T Levels, 72 per cent attend college, and the great majority of those at school are studying education and early years, or business and administration. Imagine being 16, trying to find an engineering course near you. In Huddersfield, 82 per cent of technical courses are delivered by the two FE colleges. Only one (Kirklees) offers engineering. In Reading, only six of eleven state schools offer any applied generals. And only the UTC, sponsored by Activate Learning, offers engineering.

Introducing V Levels – or any other qualification reform – is not going to close technical education gaps that exist across the country. What’s needed is a radical reform of the secondary school curriculum, going much further than the Francis review’s recommendations, to reintroduce a technical skills element. And the pattern of 16-19 provision in each local authority needs reconfiguring to ensure that good quality technical and vocational courses are far more readily available, so every aspiring engineer or technician has local access to an attractive training pathway. This is the only way to close the cracks that Smith is rightly concerned about.

‘Small’ pool of awarding bodies eligible for first V Levels – Ofqual

A limited pool of awarding organisations will be eligible to deliver the first tranche of V Levels under rules tabled by Ofqual today.

The exam regulator has opened a short, six-week consultation on new criteria for recognition ahead of the launch of V Levels, foundation certificates and occupational certificates.

Expectations that awarding bodies have a “proven” track record of delivering comparable qualifications mean that “relatively few” are likely to secure recognition, officials said.

Ofqual said awarding bodies must have existing “high levels of capacity, capability and governance” to ensure safe delivery.

It will draw on the standards that it expects from A Level and T Level awarding organisations, in line with the government’s aim for V Levels to have “parity of esteem” with them.

The consultation added: “As a consequence, we anticipate that few organisations will secure recognition in the first phase, because only a small number of awarding organisations currently award qualifications which require those attributes.”

Second consultation coming soon

Ofqual intends to run a separate consultation later this year on new ‘qualification level conditions’ that will set a long-term “level playing field” on assessment approaches, how standards are set, and requirements for review and appeal.

The regulator has similar qualification-specific conditions for awarding organisations delivering GCSEs and A Levels.

It expects to have these conditions in place in time for the new qualifications to be available for teaching of the first tranche of subjects in September 2027.

But awarding organisations that gain recognition for the first tranche will have to re-apply for recognition for the second batch.

Asking awarding organisations to undertake two recognition processes in a row could be a “major increase” in cost, but will result in the commercial benefit of a “more trusted and robust qualification ‘brand’”, according to the regulator’s impact assessment.

Students will also benefit from “increased trust in qualification quality” when progressing into work or further training.

Rushed circumstances

The DfE announced this week that V Levels will be taught in digital, education and early years, and finance and accounting from September 2027.

Eight further V Levels are planned from 2028, with the final batch rolling out in 2030. By then, there will be 18 V Levels available in subjects including care services, hair and beauty, sport, engineering and performing arts.

Rob Nitsch, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, has raised concerns about the rushed timeline and pointed out that Ofqual has had to forego the normal 12-week consultation period deployed by government bodies and are “having to apply criteria from other qualifications”.

“This is a manifestation of the time pressure and risk that is being introduced to this change programme by the decision to have first teach in 2027 – and there will be more,” he told FE Week.

Ofqual said its approach of recognising awarding organisations for delivery of subjects due to be launched in 2027 before it has set qualifications level conditions “reflects the unique circumstances” of the timeline.

With previous complex new qualifications, the regulator said it already had qualification level conditions in place before recognising awarding organisations.

Officials also think introducing this round of new qualifications is “a more complex endeavour” than previous reform programmes because similar qualifications already existed.

T Levels were also introduced after a round of competitive tendering, the consultation added.

Proposed requirements

Conditions proposed by Ofqual include the awarding organisation having pre-existing recognition for other regulated qualifications, and demonstrated expertise and experience delivering large numbers of qualifications on a national scale.

They also include having the appropriate systems in place, such as governance, quality assurance qual, printing, data sharing, and cyber security.

The criteria for recognition consultation launched today is aimed at awarding organisations as well as schools, colleges, employers and their representative bodies.

College staff need better training to support learners in care – Ofsted

School and college staff need continuous specialist training to “better understand and respond to the needs of children in care”, Ofsted has said.

Research by the watchdog found issues that “often disrupted continuity” and were “barriers to progress” for children in care.

Inspectors found “inconsistencies in local authority processes, high staff turnover and limited availability of external agencies”.

College learners “faced additional challenges, such as combining studies with parenting responsibilities, or coping with last-minute timetable changes”.

They often felt “less supported than their peers who attended school”.

‘Inconsistent’ training

Ofsted’s research was based on focus groups and surveys of inspectors and virtual school heads – leaders who sit within local authorities with a statutory responsibility for the education of children in care.

Inspectors also carried out 15 research visits, 10 to schools, four to general FE colleges and one to a sixth form college.

The research found support for children was most effective when staff were well trained.

“Leaders who invested in specialist professional development, particularly in understanding the needs of care-experienced children and the impact that issues such as trauma can have on children in care, were better equipped to create supportive environments.”

But staff access to high-quality training was “inconsistent, especially in college settings.

“Staff showed a keen interest in having more targeted, practical training. To improve outcomes for children in care, it is essential that all staff, regardless of role or setting, receive access to relevant and sustained professional development.”

‘Lottery’ effect

Some schools and colleges visited for the research reported that access to resources and virtual school provision “often depended on which local authority a child was placed under, creating a ‘lottery’ effect”.

“Further education providers highlighted that PEP meetings were sometimes not held beyond age 16, reducing oversight and support for older learners.

“These inconsistencies limited timely interventions and contributed to delays in support for children in care.”

Despite the difficulties, “the leaders of most of the schools and colleges visited demonstrated a deep understanding of each learner’s circumstances”.

The report recommended “ongoing specialist training for school and college staff, to better understand and respond to the needs of children in care”.

“Training should be continuous rather than one-off, with regular refresher sessions.”

Boost collaboration

It also called for a standardised national approach to PEP formats, funding approvals and virtual school provision.

Collaboration between schools, colleges and councils should be improved through “shared protocols and expectations”.

Councils should “ensure ongoing support for care-experienced young people beyond 16, including effective PEPs”.

The report also said colleges needed extra support for “mentoring, emotional support and academic help, alongside early transition planning with clear routes into education, employment or training”.

Martyn Oliver

Chief inspector Martyn Oliver said the report highlighted “the fantastic work some schools and colleges are doing to support these children’s progress”.

But it is “also clear that we need a more consistent national approach to local authority support and practice.

“Understanding how leaders meet the needs of vulnerable children is my top priority, and a golden thread running through all our education inspections under the renewed framework.

“I hope this report’s findings help leaders and decision-makers understand how children in care are best supported in their education, so that no child falls through the gaps.”

FE teacher pay gap with schools hits 15-year high

Further education teachers now earn nearly £10,500 less than school teachers – the widest pay gap in at least 15 years, new research has found.

New findings from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) today reveal teaching staff in FE providers earn on average 27 per cent less than their peers in secondary schools.

The disparity has widened sharply in recent years, with researchers warning that sustained funding increases will be needed if colleges are to close the gap and recruit enough teachers.

While average UK earnings have grown by 4 per cent since 2010, FE teacher pay has dropped 18 per cent in real terms over the same period.

In 2010, the median FE teacher salary was £32,645, compared with £36,756 for secondary school teachers — a gap of about 12.6 per cent.

The difference narrowed slightly during the 2010s but began widening again from 2020-21.

By 2024-25, the median FE teacher salary stood at £39,355, compared with £49,789 for secondary school teachers, leaving a pay gap of almost £10,500.

The report said: “School teachers’ pay has also dropped in relative terms, but the drop for FE teachers has been far larger. This data reinforces the impression that FE teacher pay is now far less competitive than it was in the recent past.”

Funding pressures

Recent analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed per student funding for 16 to 18-year-olds, the main income source for many colleges, has declined by 8 per cent in real terms over the last 15 years.

NFER researchers said this reinforces its conclusion that the 27 per cent gap in FE teacher pay is largely driven by colleges and other providers’ inability to afford higher pay.

The Department for Education further stung leaders this week after it announced a 0.5 per cent rise to the 16 to 19 funding base rate this week despite promising real-terms increases in the recent skills white paper, prompting warnings that this measly cash boost to college finances will leave “very little” for staff pay rises.

NFER called for a “sustained” effort over several years to sufficiently fund colleges to pay teachers more.

School teacher salaries are nationally binding and set through a recommendation by the School Teachers’ Review Body, which is then approved by the secretary of state.

In contrast, colleges are responsible for setting staff pay themselves. 

‘Totally unacceptable’

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said college leaders’ hands are tied without a headline pay increase for FE staff.

“The increasing pay gap between school and FE teachers is totally unacceptable,” he said.

“It is also grossly unfair to thousands of college staff who are not being paid what they deserve. It is no wonder that the unions are able to secure wins in ballots for industrial action, with pay below where it should be.”

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said the pay gap between school and college teachers is a “scandal that has blighted the sector for years”. 

She added: “Our members took strike action at colleges across England earlier this year in defence of their pay and working conditions and college employers must do more to ensure staff are paid properly.

“If the government is as committed to improving the skills of the nation as it says, then it must put its money where its mouth is, increase funding for further education and ensure staff pay is prioritised.”

Boosting teacher numbers

The analysis, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, also found the number of teachers in general FE colleges and sixth form colleges has stabilised in the last three years, following a decade of decline. 

Latest data from 2023-24 showed there were around 80,000 FE teachers working in England 

The report also cited 3,000 vacant FE teaching posts in 2023-24, with very high vacancy rates in key subject areas like the construction and engineering sectors, which reached one in 10 unfilled posts in some regions.

NFER education workforce lead Jack Worth said: “We know that FE teachers in these subjects are set to play a critical role in supporting the government to meet its economic growth ambitions.”

Hughes added: “The disparity between school, and indeed industry salaries, has serious consequences for recruitment and retention, particularly in high-priority areas like construction, engineering, and health, which then means key courses can’t run.”

The demographic bulge of an estimated 20,000 more 16 to 18-year-old students in colleges this academic year further exacerbates the FE teacher shortage.

NFER pointed out that the number of 16- to 18-year-olds in England is projected to increase by 7 per cent between 2023 and 2027. 

Researchers said that FE providers will “almost certainly” have to recruit significantly more teachers and to continue doing so for the next few years, adding that a 7 per cent increase in the teaching workforce equates to 2,700 more teachers – nearly half of the government’s 6,500 teacher recruitment target.

Workload and morale

The study also looked at working conditions for FE teachers.

Full-time FE teachers worked an average of 39 hours per week, compared to 41 hours among similar workers in 2024-25.

However, FE teachers were more likely to report working overtime, often without additional pay.

Combined with relatively low salaries, researchers said this could contribute to dissatisfaction and retention problems.

The report also found FE teachers reported less influence over workplace decisions than comparable workers and were associated with lower levels of happiness at work.

NFER suggested colleges could help improve retention by meaningfully involving staff in organisational decision-making.

The report also recommended ministers continue targeting financial incentives in shortage subjects, pointing to evidence from school teacher bursaries and retention payments showing they can be cost-effective.

Free meals funding frozen in FE while schools rate rises

Funding for college students’ free meals will be frozen next year, while schools will see a 5p boost.

In an update today, the Department for Education said the current £2.61 per student FE free meal rate will remain the same in the 2026-27 academic year “as a minimum”.

In contrast, the per-meal funding rate for school children will increase by 5p to £2.66 in September.

The news, which follows revelations of a below-inflation 0.5 per cent increase to the 16 to 19 funding base rate, has been described as “frustrating” and “insulting”.

Darren Hankey, principal at Hartlepool College of Further Education, said: “As someone who was in receipt of and benefited from free-school meals through primary and secondary education; I find this decision deeply disappointing.

“Once again, post-16 students miss out as colleges up and down the country work tirelessly to support many students from some of the least-resourced backgrounds.

“To offer £2.61 a day, a real terms cut, to help try and feed an older teenager is quite insulting and the government’s key mission of breaking down barriers to opportunity rings hollow.”

Qasim Hussain, vice president (further education) at the National Union of Students, added: “The decision is particularly frustrating following yesterday’s wider 16 to 19 funding announcements, which were already a significant disappointment for the sector. 

“Free college meals are a vital support for disadvantaged students in FE, and freezing the rate while costs remain high will make provision increasingly challenging for colleges.”

In its update, the DfE said the rate will remain at £2.61 as a minimum “to support planning” but added that funding is kept under review.

Operational guidance will be issued “in due course”, the department added.

It is unclear why the DfE has chosen to increase meals funding for schools but frozen the rate for FE settings.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Through our Plan for Change, this government has taken a historic step to tackle the stain of child poverty – offering free school meals to every single child from a household that claims Universal Credit. 

“The new entitlement will see over half a million more children able to benefit from a free meal from next school year and lift 100,000 children out of poverty.

“The significant expansion of free meals to an additional 500,000 children is fully funded, backed by £1 billion.”

How the dinner tables have turned

Colleges, independent training providers and sixth-form colleges have had access to free meals in FE funding for disadvantaged students aged between 16 and 19 since it was extended from schools to FE in 2014-15.

The 2026-27 rate freeze will be the first year since at least 2020-21 that FE providers have received a lower per-meal rate than schools.

The FE per meal rate was frozen at £2.41 between 2014-15 and 2022-23. The schools rate was set at £2.34 before being matched with FE at £2.41 in 2022-23 and rose at the same rate until this year, when it reached £2.61.

Diana Martin, CEO of Dudley College of Technology, said the DfE’s announcement on a free meals freeze for next year “is disappointing, given that the degree of disadvantage a learner has does not change when they reach 16”.

Hussain added: “At a time when the cost-of-living crisis continues to affect many families, and some students are struggling to afford food during the college day, this is not the direction we should be taking, even recognising the current fiscal constraints.”

Universal credit expansion

About one quarter of school pupils, 2.2 million, received free school meals in 2024-25.

In the same year, about 90,000 low-income students in 377 FE settings benefitted from free meals allocations, at a cost of £37 million.

But these figures are likely to rise next academic year as free meal eligibility is widened from students or families with an income below £7,400 to anyone from a household receiving universal credit.

This will give 500,000 more pupils and students access to the scheme for the first time, the DfE estimates.