New Deal for FE campaign update

Our campaign for a New Deal for FE continues to go from strength to strength. The union's lobbying work led directly to the budget announcement of £300m extra funding for further education (FE) last October. More recently the Department for Education (DfE) announced that £50m of the £300m could be drawn down and made available to fund pay rises via a one-off grant. This funding is to cover an uplift from April to July 2025.

We don't yet know how that funding will be distributed to colleges; however, UCU's position is absolutely clear, whether it's the £50m to be drawn down in April or the £250m deferred for allocation in the academic year 2025/26, it must all go on staff pay.

The union's campaign for a New Deal for FE calls for the government to fully fund pay settlements so that we can address the decline in your pay, achieve pay parity with schoolteachers and have the same starting salary for early career teaching professionals. We need a new workforce and investment strategy in FE not an annual cycle of ad hoc payments to apply a sticking plaster to a broken funding model. National pay bargaining doesn't work, and we need a new settlement to reverse excessive workloads, the neglect of our sector, and end the crisis in recruitment and retention of staff.

February sees the start of a series of branch briefings where FE reps will come together to discuss the campaign and how we can make further developments over the coming weeks. We are also starting to develop the national pay claim with the other unions for submission in March. Last but by no means least we are keenly anticipating the UK government's spending review announcement in the spring. The outcome of the review will set the direction for the next three years. Our expectation is that there is a new deal for FE as part of that announcement and we will continue to campaign and lobby hard to achieve that end.

You may have also heard about the new 'Making further education fit for the future' Education Select Committee inquiry that has been launched. This presents an invaluable opportunity to undertake an evidence lead review that gets to the root causes of the problems affecting of FE and adult education in England. UCU will be participating in this inquiry and presenting our New Deal demands as a roadmap for change.

Thousands of UCU members and supporters have signed our petition calling for a New Deal for FE that delivers pay parity with schoolteachers, action on workloads and a return to binding national bargaining. Now we're going to be presenting the petition to employers and the government ahead of these key decisions taking place next month. Please make sure that you have signed it and shared with your friends and colleagues too.

In solidarity

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary