Further Education: Pay

(asked on 18th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a funding mechanism for pay in further education that is separate to per-pupil funding.


Answered by
Robert Halfon Portrait
Robert Halfon
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 8th January 2024

Colleges and other Further Education (FE) providers are responsible for setting the pay of their teaching and support staff. The government plays no role in this process. Colleges and other providers can make their own decisions about teacher pay in light of their own recruitment and retention needs and local skills priorities.

The department is investing an additional £185 million in the 2023/24 financial year and £285 million in the 2024/25 financial year to drive forward skills delivery within the sector. This funding is to help colleges and other providers to address their key priorities, including tackling recruitment and retention issues in high-value subject areas critical to our economy.

For academic year 2023/24 there is an 8.3% increase in the average 16-19 programme funding per student compared to academic year 2022/23. This funding supports colleges and other providers with staffing and other delivery costs.

The 2021 Spending Review set out an investment of £3.8 billion in skills across this Parliament to enable learners to access the skills and training they need to transform their lives.

The department is also delivering a programme to directly support the sector to recruit excellent staff, which includes a national recruitment campaign; strengthening and incentivising the uptake of initial teacher education, including through teacher training bursaries in priority subjects worth up to £29,000 each (tax free for 2023/24); and Taking Teaching Further, a programme that supports FE providers to recruit and provide early career support to those with relevant knowledge and industry experience to retrain as FE teachers.

To boost the recruitment and retention of teachers, we will also give eligible early career teachers in key science, technology, english and mathematics and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually on top of their pay. This will double the existing Levelling Up Premium paid to school teachers and extend it to all FE colleges for the first time.

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