Sixth form college teachers have accepted a pay award of 4 per cent but have rejected workload proposals by leaders.
The national joint council staff side committee, representing sixth form teachers in the National Education Union (NEU) and the NASUWT union, have accepted the pay offer that will match their school counterparts for the 2025-26 academic year.
Over 4,300 NEU members across 72 colleges were recently consulted on the pay and workload offer tabled by the Sixth Form College Association (SFCA), representing sixth form college leaders.
Just under 94 per cent of NEU members voted yes to the 4 per cent pay offer, based on a 62.9 per cent turnout.
The union 2025-26 pay claim demanded a pay increase above the RPI rate of inflation (4.5 per cent) from 1 September 2025 on all pay points and allowances and an extra pay rise from September 1 for London-based teachers.
The SCFA offer, which was accepted, included a 4 per cent “across the board” uplift as well as a 4 per cent increase on all location and responsibility allowances from September 1.
The pay award matches the schoolteacher pay rise for this academic year, which was accepted just before the summer.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “NEU sixth form college teachers have accepted a pay award matching that received by their peers in schools, which goes some way to putting right the pay injustice experienced by non-academised college teachers last year caused by inadequate funding.”
Last year, the SCFA dropped a judicial review threat after it secured a “one-off” £50 million award from ministers to help fund FE college and sixth form teacher pay awards between April and July 2025.
But teachers in non-academised sixth form colleges were excluded from the 5.5 per cent 2024-25 pay award offered to teachers in schools and academised sixth forms.
Around 2,000 NEU sixth form members walked out for eight days claiming the deal would create a “two-tier” sector.
Teachers ultimately approved a 4.3 per cent pay offer and in February, the NEU had suspended two days of strikes to consult on the government’s assurances that no two-tier offers will be made for future years.
In the same period, NASUWT union members in 23 sixth form colleges voted for strike action – in a ballot that “confusingly” included academised sixth forms, who were receiving the 5.5 per cent pay rise that the union was demanding. The strike ultimately did not go ahead.
Workload: ‘We cannot accept these half measures’
The pay claim also asked for several workload flexibilities, including extra planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time for teachers; limits on contact hours; limits on class sizes; strengthened terms and conditions that allow teachers to “rarely cover” only in unforeseen circumstances; and agreed principles on directed time as well as workload.
Based on a 61.4 per cent response rate, 86.6 per cent of members rejected the SFCA’s proposals, which offered “accelerate joint discussions” to an agreed timetable on teacher workload and working time.
The NEU had demanded that the joint discussions would reach an agreed position by the close of the autumn term 2025.
A further workload negotiation between the SFCA and the National Joint Council’s working party on workload will take place on November 27.
“Members have clearly signalled that they expect significant movement by the SFCA on all of their workload demands,” Kebede said.
“While there has been some progress made in negotiations, sixth form college teachers want the employer side to go further still, particularly around genuinely protected time for teachers to plan, prepare and assess as their school counterparts receive.
“We cannot accept half-measures. Now is the time to introduce substantial workload protections across all sixth form colleges, to meet the changing conditions of the 2020s.”
A spokesperson for the SFCA said: “We are pleased that agreement has been reached on the pay settlement for teachers for 2025-26.
“This is a competitive agreement and provides a pay increase for all NJC teachers above the rate of CPI inflation and more than the vast majority of other public sector workers. We are engaged in constructive discussions with the staff side on teacher workload and these will continue during the Autumn term.”
NASUWT was approached for comment.
FE college ballot ongoing
Meanwhile, unions representing FE college staff recently negotiated a 4 per cent pay award, but the Association of Colleges admitted that “many” of its college members will be unable to afford it.
Unlike in schools and sixth form colleges, negotiated pay recommendations are not binding, meaning college leaders can decide pay rises themselves.
Staff unions have been calling for binding national bargaining for several years and the University and College Union (UCU) polled its FE members in the summer and found 86 per cent were prepared to take strike action to secure an “above inflation pay rise, binding national bargaining and a national workload agreement”.
The union wrote to 76 college principals to outline its demands ahead of announcing a formal ballot.
UCU subsequently opened a ballot, which is running from October 13 to November 17, asking members at 68 colleges to vote whether to strike over the above demands.
Your thoughts