In July 2024, shortly after Labour swept to power, the following appeared on a Government website: “Are teachers getting a pay rise this year?”
“The STRB [School Teachers’ Review Body] recommended a pay award of 5.5% and this has been accepted in full by the Education Secretary, reflecting the vital contribution teachers make to children’s life chances.”
Teachers across the land will have felt relieved that their calls for a pay award had been acted upon by the new Labour government. The 5.5% award would be in effect from September 2024.
The pay award doesn’t apply to non-academised sixth form colleges
But since last December, there have been picket lines outside many sixth form colleges, including two colleges in Brighton, as teachers have taken strike action.
This is because there was an unpleasant surprise in the small print. The pay award does not apply to teachers at certain sixth form colleges – those that haven’t become an academy or part of an academy trust.
Brighton has been hit particularly badly by this action as it has two non-academised colleges: BHASVIC and Varndean College. These two-state run sixth form colleges have chosen to remain independent, self-governing colleges, rather than becoming part of an academy chain. There are over 30 others in the country, each of which decided that they would prefer to stay independent.
Despite the pay deal stating that all teachers would be due a 5.5% pay rise in September 2024, no funding was provided for the non-academised sixth form colleges to pay their staff. Government sources said that any money for pay rises had to come out of their existing budgets. In what might appear to be an oversight, this small subset of 40 sixth forms were left out of the pay deal. It isn’t clear why.
This has created a situation where staff on the same pay structure, teaching the same subjects to the same demographics of students are suddenly being paid differently to their counterparts across the road. A teacher in a school sixth form, who has been teaching six years or more, will be paid over £3000 more a year than a teacher in a sixth form college.
There is no apparent reason for this two-tier pay system other than the fact mistakes were made by the Government and it wasn’t spotted during the negotiations with teachers’ representatives. The pot of money that could fund their pay rise simply had not been made available.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “The teaching profession was awarded a 5.5% award last year and the Government made an error in excluding non-academised sixth form colleges.”
A spokesperson for Varndean College commented: “The Department for Education has incorrectly classified academised sixth form colleges as falling under the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), a position that does not align with the distinct status of sixth form colleges within the education system.”
Legal challenges and strike action
In September 2024, at the start of the academic year, teachers in affected sixth forms discovered they hadn’t had a pay rise. No funds had been provided by the Government and the forthcoming October budget held no promise of an award for them.
The Sixth Form College Association (SFCA) launched a legal challenge to the Government’s decision not to award the 5.5% pay increase to teachers in non-academised colleges. The Government repeated the line that sixth form colleges should pay teachers from their own budgets, without stating where this money would come from.
The National Education Union (NEU) balloted its members who voted overwhelmingly for strike action. This action began in December 2024 and continued into the start of the new year. Classes were cancelled as teachers took to picket lines protesting about the complete lack of a pay award. Teachers’ frustration at being ignored was mixed with huge concern about the impact strike action would have on their students as well as the damage to their personal finances.
Referring to the prospect of creating a two-tier workforce, Phil Clarke, regional secretary of the NEU commented: “It is simply unjust…No teacher wants to be taking strike action. They want to be in classrooms doing what they do best: teaching.”
A possible settlement on sixth form college pay?
Early in January, the government and the SFCA believed they had negotiated a settlement. The Government agreed to make £50 million available for teachers at the affected sixth form colleges, but this wouldn’t be until April 2025. As a result, the SFCA agreed not to proceed with their legal challenge, believing this would make it possible to provide a back-dated pay rise to teachers of around 3.5%, rising to 5.5% in April 2025.
However, teachers found this trade-off unacceptable. A second teaching union, the NASUWT, have now balloted their members for strike action, condemning the ‘divisive’ pay offer which would result in higher pay for teachers in schools and sixth forms that have academised.
As to why the SFCA withdrew their request for a judicial review despite the glaring pay gap it accepts as a result, they said in a tweet:
“We took on the legal challenge (alone) and through dialogue secured 5/12 of [the money] required for SFC teacher pay. Not the 100% we need but better than the 0% we had. A judicial review would have taken months and left teachers with [nothing] this year – we bank that [success so far] and fight on.”
Strike action continues
It seems inconceivable that teachers in the affected colleges will consider they should be earning less than a teacher doing the same job in a school or academised college. Increased industrial action is on the cards, which can only have a negative impact on current sixth form students already disadvantaged by Covid restrictions.
Naturally, teachers continue to be worried about the impact of the strikes on their students, with one teacher remarking on ‘X’: “There is so much to get through and so little time at sixth form level. A long-drawn-out strike could damage students’ chances of achieving their goals.”
The question needs to be asked why this has happened. Was it an oversight or part of an agenda to persuade sixth form colleges to become academies? This situation is not a good look for a new Government that states it values teachers, when there seems little doubt that the funding solution is grossly unfair for the teachers affected.
STOP PRESS: The National Education Union has suspended its strike, while it consults members on a pay offer from the SFCA and “firm assurances around future pay parity”.
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