§ 7. Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle)To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the impact of pay rates on the scale of migration of teachers between further education and schools. [89213]
§ The Minister for School Standards (Mr. David Miliband)The Department does not collect data on the number of further education teachers leaving to work in schools. However, one local government survey suggests that 1 per cent. of full-time recruits to secondary schools—about 210 staff from an FE complement of 46,000—are from the FE or higher education sectors. The additional £1.2 billion of investment in FE by 2005–06 will allow colleges to address recruitment, retention and reward issues.
§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeI would have expected many more teachers to leave further education and move into schools, as the starting salary for a schoolteacher is £3,000 higher than for a teacher in FE. The Association of Colleges says that teacher vacancies in FE are running at twice the level as in schools. When will we move towards parity between teachers in schools and in FE colleges?
§ Mr. MilibandMy hon. Friend raises an important point. He will know that the top of the FE scale is about £27,000 a year, whereas the top of the schoolteachers' main scale is £25,000 and the top of the schoolteachers' upper scale is £32,000. The pay systems for schools and FE are negotiated differently. In the end, pay comparability will depend, for schools, on the review body for schools and, for FE, on the negotiations between employers and teacher representatives. Those negotiations will restart on 13 January. The pay gap can be bridged by means of the money being put into FE as a result of decisions by my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
§ Mr. John Horam (Orpington)On the subject of the pay and conditions of FE lecturers, will the Minister 310 clear up the confusion caused by remarks made by the Minister for Lifelong Learning and Higher Education in a debate on FE in Westminster Hall in respect of the starter home initiative for key workers? The Minister gave the impression that Government policy had changed and that FE lecturers were now on a par with schoolteachers with regard to that scheme, whereas, hitherto they had to wait in the queue behind nurses, schoolteachers and policemen to benefit from it.
§ Mr. MilibandI am sure that my hon. Friend the Minister for Lifelong Learning and Higher Education would not have wanted to cause any confusion. I promise to write to the hon. Gentleman at the earliest possible juncture to set out the position very clearly.
§ Dr. Brian Iddon (Bolton, South-East)Migration from sixth-form colleges to schools is encouraged by the fact that pupils in such colleges are about £1,000 worse off than their counterparts in sixth forms attached to schools. My 16 to 19-year-olds cannot choose to go to sixth-form colleges attached to schools, as their only option is a sixth-form college. Is it fair that my already deprived young people should be further deprived in that way? When will the Government level up the funding?
§ Mr. MilibandThe different arrangements that apply in different parts of the country reflect institutional history. However, every pupil in the country will benefit from the increased investment that is being put into the whole sector catering for 14 to 19-year-olds. The increased funding and higher quality will benefit all pupils, whether they are studying in school or college or following a work-based study course.