Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Acknowledged
We asked about colleges’ ability to recruit and retain teaching staff.
Conclusion
We asked about colleges’ ability to recruit and retain teaching staff. DfE explained that it was trying to promote teaching in the FE sector as a positive career, especially for people who were mid-career and could offer industry experience. However, it accepted that recruitment was a significant challenge, particularly because college pay would often not compete with pay in the industries from which colleges were seeking to attract potential staff. DfE also said that it had been working with colleges to develop options for 30 DWE0008 British Retail Consortium, Developing workforce skills for a strong economy, 17 October 2022 31 DWE0011 Heathrow Airport Ltd, Developing workforce skills for a strong economy, 17 October 2022 32 DWE0009 City & Guilds, Developing workforce skills for a strong economy, 17 October 2022 33 Q 81 34 Committee of Public Accounts, Managing colleges’ financial sustainability, Thirty-Eighth Report of Session 2019–21, HC 692, 27 January 2021 35 Committee of Public Accounts, Managing colleges’ financial sustainability, section 1 para 2 36 Q 52 37 Committee of Public Accounts, Managing colleges’ financial sustainability, section 1 paras 5, 8 38 Qq 21, 23 Developing workforce skills for a strong economy 15 potential staff who wanted to teach part-time but also stay in industry part-time. It told us that such initiatives helped with funding from the college’s point of view and income from the individual’s point of view, and they also helped to ensure that the skills being taught in colleges remained current and rooted in industry practice.39 DfE’s Unit for Future Skills
Government Response Summary
The government will provide an additional £1.6 billion for 16-19 year olds education, uplift funding rates, increase cost weighting for specific subjects, address uneven monthly payments to colleges, and invest in direct support for the FE sector including bursaries and recruitment campaigns.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 5.2 The government has made available an extra £1.6 billion for 16-19-year-olds education in 2024-25 financial year, compared with 2021-22. The department is using part of this increase to uplift 16-19-year-olds funding rates for 2023-24 academic year. As well as a base rate increase of 2.2%, the department is increasing the cost weighting for engineering, construction and digital subjects to help providers with the additional costs of recruiting and retaining teachers in these subject areas – where providers are facing some of the greatest workforce challenges. 5.3 To help colleges manage their cashflow, the department is addressing the historical issue of uneven monthly payments from central government, which leave colleges out of pocket by March every year. The department will invest £300 million before the end of the 2022-23 financial year in bringing forward payments. This will smooth out the funding for a new even profile for colleges from 2023 to 2024 for both the 16-19-year-old and adult education budgets. 5.4 The department is also investing in a package of direct support for the FE sector in 2022-23 to assist with the recruitment, retention and development of teachers. This includes bursaries worth up to £26,000, a recruitment campaign, initial teacher education reforms, and the Taking Teaching Further (TTF) programme to support industry professionals to become FE teachers.