Sixth form colleges

Specific advice for members in sixth form colleges.

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Sixth form colleges ballot on industrial action

As you know, the National Education Union (NEU) is formally balloting its members in the sixth form colleges sector about taking discontinuous strike action during the autumn and spring terms.

You should receive a ballot paper in the week beginning 10 June and you will be asked to VOTE YES.

Find out more

Staff side pay negotiation update

The pay offer for sixth form college teachers for September 2018 has been very reluctantly accepted by the NEU Executive following consultation with reps and members. 

This has been agreed in order to allow us to embark on an intensified campaign on sixth form college funding, linked to the 2019 pay claim, including a formal legal ballot later this term for potential industrial action in the autumn term.  

The pressures of reduced funding mean that NEU members’ jobs, pay and working conditions are all at risk, as well as curriculum provision, curriculum offer, enrichment and student support.  The consultation with NEU teacher members showed strong support for action focused on the impact of the funding crisis in colleges.  

The NEU Executive has therefore decided that a ballot for action on these issues, with the dispute being with the Secretary of State as the ultimate source of funding, is a more appropriate strategy than a ballot on the 2018 teachers’ pay increase.  

Reps and HQ will be working to ensure membership lists and details are in order for the formal ballot so please let us know if there are any changes to your contact details, your future employment at the college or any other changes that may affect your eligibility to vote.

All members will be balloted as the dispute is over inadequate sector funding and the implications of that for jobs and learners broadly. We also believe that the decline in funding will make pay deals more difficult in the future and will widen disparities between teachers in schools and sixth form academies and those in sixth colleges. This is wrong and divisive for the sector and the education profession.

This means that sixth form colleges that adhere to the Red Book terms and conditions should now implement a pay increase for teachers, backdated to September 2018, as follows:

  • points 1 to 6 of the Pay Spine to be increased by 3%, 
  •  points 7 to 9 to be increased by 1.5%,
  • all other scale points including leadership scale points and responsibility allowances to be increased by 1%, and
  • London allowances to be increased by 1.5%.

It has also been recommended that additional unconsolidated payments be made by sixth form college academies which have received the additional Teachers’ Pay Grant.  The NEU believes that the appropriate level of additional payment would be an additional 0.5% increase, so that the total increase matches that for school teachers in line with the purpose of the Teachers Pay Grant.  

NJC national agreement conditions of service handbook

This is the national agreement on pay and conditions of service for teachers in sixth form colleges, also known as the Red Book. It includes the new pay and progression framework.

Sixth form colleges useful documents

Sixth form colleges advice and guidance