Last week, the government announced a number of public sector pay rises, including a rise of up to 3.5 per cent for school teachers from September. I was pleased because this is better news for school teachers after too many years of pay freezes and pay caps. I want to live in a society that properly recognises and rewards public servants, including teachers and lecturers, for the work that they do, so the removal of the 1 per cent pay cap must be welcomed.
Once again, though, this news is tainted because of uncertainty about what this means for college staff where pay has been lagging for too long. The figures speak for themselves. Median pay for teachers in colleges is currently £30,000, some £7,000 less than their counterparts in schools. As a result, colleges are struggling to retain and recruit teachers, particularly in science, engineering and maths – areas vital for the successful delivery of the country’s industrial strategy and to the delivery of T levels.
College funding outstripped by schools
The pay gap has emerged over the last decade because school and university funding has far-outstripped college funding. The funding rate for adult education in colleges has not changed since 2009 and for 16-18-year-old education since 2013. Overall, the core schools budget (excluding the pupil premium and various other funds) has risen from £35 billion in 2010 to £43 billion in 2020 while total 16-18 spending has fallen from £7.7 billion to around £6.5 billion in the same period.
No wonder that college leaders across England have had to make so many redundancies, take colleges into mergers and reduce contact hours and support for students. The brunt of the cuts has been on college staff and students with ‘efficiencies’ being found through pay freezes, fewer staff members and less contact and teaching hours for students.
The good news to cling onto is that there is now a widespread understanding that this under-funding must end. A wonderful array of important people have said so in recent months as our funding campaign has started to be heard. The Ofsted chief inspector, the FE Commissioner, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Select Committee (Treating Students Fairly: the economics of post-school education), the Children’s Commissioner (Public Spending on Children 2000 to 2020), the skills minister herself and many others have all said that colleges are not funded adequately.
Working with the Department for Education
To build on that understanding, we have been working closely with DfE in recent months to analyse the funding gap more closely. By the end of the summer, DfE will have much better evidence of the scale of the funding needed to deliver a truly world-class academic and technical post-16 education and skills system. They will be able to use that evidence in their discussions and negotiations with Treasury to support college pay this year and next year so that the pay gap does not widen further and to develop their bid into the next spending review for a longer-term settlement. The evidence will also be invaluable for us at AoC and for everyone committed to the unique and vital roles colleges need to be funded for in a successful post-Brexit Britain.
It’s not by chance that college funding has lagged that of schools and universities; it’s because colleges are not as well understood, respected nor supported in the corridors of Parliament, in the media and in wider society. Those of us in the college sector have two choices though - we can (all too easily) blame everyone else, point fingers, complain and be gloomy. Or we can work together, use the evidence and set out our ambitions for the roles colleges want to play. We can build understanding, garner respect, inform our potential supporters and advocates and campaign for the investment which colleges deserve. We need, now more than ever, to be confident about our worth, set out what we can deliver for Government, employers, communities and individuals and ask others to support our cause. AoC is committed to leading that, but the power of our sector comes when students, employers and staff unite with one powerful voice.
We have precious few months to build this powerful voice to influence and persuade the government to properly invest at the autumn budget and in next year’s expected spending review. All offers of help will be welcomed; I look forward to working with you.
David Hughes is chief executive of the Association of Colleges
