Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve (a) pay and (b) working conditions in further education colleges.

Further education (FE) colleges, rather than government, are responsible for setting and negotiating pay within colleges and for the working conditions of their staff.

FE Colleges were incorporated under the terms of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, which gave them autonomy over the pay and contractual terms and conditions of their staff. Unlike maintained schools, colleges are not bound by the national pay and conditions framework for school teachers, but are free to implement their own pay arrangements in line with their own local circumstances.

The department will be investing over £400 million more on 16 to 19 education in the 2025/26 financial year to ensure enough funding is available to respond to the significant increase in student numbers and other pressures on the system. We are making approximately £50 million of this funding available to colleges for April to July 2025 to respond to current priorities and challenges as they see fit, including workforce recruitment and retention.

The Plan to Make Work Pay sets out an ambitious agenda to deliver our Plan for Change by ensuring employment rights are fit for a modern economy, empowering working people and contributing to economic growth. Once implemented, it will represent the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in a generation, including for those in the FE sector.