Scottish colleges fear they could be asked to pay back hundreds of thousands of pounds they received to support the harmonisation of pay and conditions across the country.
The return of national bargaining, along with subsequent pay deals for support and teaching staff, significantly increased the staff cost for the country’s further education institutions, and to help ensure financial sustainability, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) pledged an extra £34.2 million to support harmonisation of pay and conditions and job evaluation.
Colleges were allocated specific amounts from that pot on the basis of staff data provided by the Employers’ Association, Tes understands, alongside their general core funding allocation from the SFC earlier this year.
Now, however, they might be asked to pay a proportion of that money back, due to a revision of the staffing data. Although the data is yet to be validated and the SFC stressed it was still considering a range of options, this could mean hundreds of thousands would need to be found in some institutions.
In-year repayments
According to a spreadsheet seen by Tes, New College Lanarkshire could be in line to repay £496,285 to the SFC; West College Scotland might have to find £317,160; £252,975 might need to be repaid by Glasgow Kelvin College; while City of Glasgow College received £220,539 in addition to what it should have, according to the yet-to-be-validated figures.
Meanwhile, Argyll College UHI, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee and Angus, Edinburgh, Fife, Lews Castle, Orkney, South Lanarkshire and West Highland College received less than the new data suggests they should have.
College principals told Tes that it had not been made clear to institutions that the figures would be reviewed, so the money had been allocated and spent. Repaying amounts on that scale would be challenging, they said, amid what are already considerable economic pressures on the sector.
“We don’t have those funds hanging around so we wouldn’t be able to pay that,” one principal said.
“We in good faith gave the [Employers’ Association] our contract data and assumed the calculations were done on what we gave them and what was agreed.”
Another college leader said: “When the award was made, there was no fine print that it would be reviewed so colleges have included it within their budget planning. To clawback mid-year, when colleges are under considerable economic pressure, would be really unhelpful.”
‘Working with the SFC’
A spokesman for West College Scotland said discussions and agreements in relation to the cost and implementation of national bargaining had taken place at a national sector level. “West College Scotland has received a 2018-19 funding allocation from the SFC and has not been made aware of any in-year adjustments to this,” he added.
A spokesperson for the SFC said: “In the current academic year, colleges have received an additional £34.2m to meet the specific purpose of harmonisation and job-evaluation costs relating to national bargaining.
“Colleges Scotland has updated its original costings to reflect changes in staffing levels (full-time equivalents) and other assumptions.
“The SFC has yet to receive the finalised, updated costing from Colleges Scotland. When we do so we will examine whether there is a need for a redistribution of this funding across the sector, recognising that this funding has been provided for a specific purpose.”
Shona Struthers, chief executive of Colleges Scotland, said the organisation was working closely with the SFC and was “currently in the process of validating this information, so an important point is that both the data contained in this spreadsheet and the outcomes for colleges have not been determined or confirmed”.
She added: “Colleges Scotland always strives to achieve the best possible outcome for colleges and this is precisely what we are doing on this issue. Once the updated spreadsheet has been validated, we will continue our dialogue with the SFC.”
