AoC responds to DfE announcement on teacher pay

Responding to today's announcement on funding for teacher pay, Association of Colleges Chief Executive David Hughes said: "Today's announcement is very welcome support for colleges to be able to fund a meaningful pay increase for their staff this year. Until now, we had feared that we were heading towards a potentially very low or even zero pay award recommendation. It shows that the government has been listening to the case we made as a sector and recognises that its funding decisions are critical for ensuring colleges can address the cost of living crisis their staff face.

"The promise of two years of funding increases should help colleges plan their finances going forward and we are pleased that these funds look like they will benefit not only those institutions predominantly teaching 16 to 19-year-olds, but also those with large adult and other cohorts.

"We will be working through the detail of today's announcement over the next few days to understand what this means for colleges. We will also engage with the unions to agree the timing of this year’s pay award recommendation. It looks likely that we will need to postpone our recommendation until after the summer, by which time every college should know what extra funding they will receive."

"Today’s very positive announcement does not mean we will forget that, after a decade of neglect from 2010, college pay still lags a long way behind schools and industry. Our ask on that is that we want to work up and agree, with the unions and government, a long term plan to close the gap which at the moment is in excess of £10,000 per year between school teachers and college lecturers."