HC Deb 24 October 2002 vol 391 cc460-1W
Dr. Cable

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, if she will make a statement on the pay and conditions of lecturers in further education. [75294]

Margaret Hodge

Colleges in the further education sector, including sixth form colleges, are run by independent corporations with their own pay arrangements. Colleges agree annual pay rises and conditions of employment with their staff in the context of local priorities and the overall resources available to them. Within this context, there is a nationally recommended pay increase agreed by employer representative bodies and the unions. There has not yet been agreement between employers and the trade unions on a national recommendation on this year's pay. The Government has strongly encouraged both parties to enter into meaningful discussions on this year's pay award.

In consultation with the Association of Colleges, the Sixth Form Colleges' Employers' Forum and the FE unions we have introduced the Teaching Pay Initiative (TPI) to help colleges modernise pay arrangements and to recruit, reward and retain excellent teachers. This has provided a significant new resource for pay and we recently announced the extension of TPI arrangements to include non-teaching staff, together with a further £32 million, equivalent to about 1 per cent. of the pay bill. This brings total funding for TPI this year to £142m.

TPI is an ongoing commitment for colleges and future funding arrangements will recognise that position. Many colleges have felt able to consolidate TPI payments into pensionable pay already and I hope that others will follow their example.

Mr. Kidney

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of pay levels for staff working in colleges of further education. [75298]

Margaret Hodge

Colleges in the further education sector, including sixth form colleges, are run by independent corporations with their own pay arrangements. Colleges agree annual pay rises and conditions of employment with their staff in the context of local priorities and the overall resources available to them. Within this context, there is a nationally recommended pay increase agreed by employer representative bodies and the unions. Pay arrangements in the sector are therefore diverse, reflecting colleges' local priorities and the overall resources available to them. Extra resources have been made available to FE colleges. There is £4.4 billion available to the sector this year, an increase of £1.2 billion in five years. Within this there is £142m available for the Teaching Pay Initiative (TPI) which helps colleges to modernise pay arrangements and to recruit, reward and retain excellent teachers and we have recently announced its extension to non-teaching staff for the first time.

From next year up to 2005–06, the Government has already announced that there will be a 1 per cent. annual real terms increase in core funding for FE. We also expect to announce further additional resources later in the autumn to support our strategy for reforming further education and training.

Mr. Boswell

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the offer of additional funds to further education colleges under(a) the Teaching Pay Initiative and (b) the College Pay Initiative; and what proportion of the remuneration of each full-time equivalent these aggregates represent if passed on in full. [76416]

Margaret Hodge

On 20 September, I announced an extra £32m for the Teaching Pay Initiative (TPI) in further education colleges this year and the Learning and Skills Council has notified colleges of their additional allocations. Of the £32 million, I indicated that £20 million was for teachers and lecturers and £12 million to allow colleges to make a start on extending the initiative to non-teaching staff for the first time through the College Pay Initiative (CPI). However, colleges have complete flexibility in determining how they allocate their share of the £32 million between different groups of staff to meet local priorities. The additional £32m represents approximately one per cent. of the overall FE pay bill.