UNISON is the leading union for support staff in further education colleges, and the only recognised union in sixth forms.
Nationally and locally we campaign on improving pay, including introducing the living wage for the lowest paid college workers, and tackling the gender pay gap.
Pay in England
How do pay negotiations work?
In England, pay for staff in further education is negotiated between the FE unions and the Association of Colleges (AoC) in the national joint forum (NJF). UNISON is represented on the NJF by staff working in colleges.
The result of the national negotiations is a pay recommendation which individual colleges use as a benchmark to set their own pay rates. UNISON firmly believes that national bargaining should result in a pay offer that colleges are obliged to implement.
Pay in Further Education in England has reached crisis point. For over a decade pay has failed to keep pace with the rate of inflation leaving staff with 35% less spending power than they had in 2010.
2025/26 pay claim
- On 4 April 2025 the joint trade unions submitted a pay claim calling for a pay uplift of at least £3000, or 10%.
- Unions met with the Association of Colleges (AoC) in September 2025. The AoC made a formal recommendation that “colleges should make an award of 4% for 2025/26 for all staff, where their financial circumstances and funding allocations allow them to do so.”
- Each individual college uses the Association of Colleges recommendation as a benchmark in deciding what pay rise to award staff in their college.
- Some colleges will negotiate with unions locally to decide how much to pay staff in their college, and others will impose a pay offer with no negotiation.
- UNISON’s position is that all colleges should implement the pay recommendation and should make a pay offer of at least 4%.
Read the full pay claim 2025/26
Join us in the call for fully funded national bargaining
Pledge to be part of the team calling for fully funded national bargaining so we can work together to get further education staff the pay they deserve.
Pay in Cymru
In Cymru, the Joint Trade Unions submitted a pay claim for 2025/26 to the Welsh Negotiating Committee for Further Education. The claim was for a pay increase equal to the pay award to Teachers in Wales for all FE staff.
The pay award for all staff in FE has been agreed at 4%. This will be backdated to 1st August 2025.
Pay in Scotland
Pay 2025/26
We entered this years’ pay discussions in early March 2025 with our pay claim based on a member survey of Scottish FE members.
A pay claim was submitted in April 2025 calling for a £2000 uplift in 25/26 and the same in 26/27, a no compulsory redundancy guarantee and increases to the overtime rate threshold, the standby allowance and the First Aid rate. Following negotiations, an offer has been received of:
- Year 1 (2025/26): an award of 3% (enhanced to 4.25% subject to government funding) or £1150 (whichever is greater),
- Year 2 (2026/27): an award of 3% (enhanced to 3.4% subject
to government funding), - Year 3 (2027/28): an award of 3%.
This equates to a cumulative increase of 11% over the 3-year period. Improvements to terms and conditions have also been offered with the increase to the overtime rate threshold and the standby allowance called for in the claim agreed.
Job Evaluation
Negotiations on job evaluation resumed in December 2024 and we are now at a point where we anticipate a consultative ballot of all our FE members at the end of April on a JE package covering the scheme and backpay. It will, as always, be for our FE members to determine the way forward.
National Bargaining
We have recently taken the decision to give formal notice to the employers group that we (UNISON and Unite the Union) will withdraw from this joint-table bargaining with EIS, the lecturer’s union, and will now bargain at a separate Support Staff only table. This decision has been taken in the best interest of our members to progress national policies.
Further details on pay negotiations in Scotland can be found here – https://unison-scotland.org/service-groups-and-sectors/further-education/
Sixth form college pay
Sixth Form Colleges Pay Award 2025/6 (England)
On 29 September 2025, the National Joint Council (NJC) Committee for Support Staff in sixth form colleges confirmed that agreement was reached on the pay settlement for all support staff for the 2025/26 pay year.
From 1 September 2025 staff will receive:
- An across the board increase of 4% on all NJC pay points
- A 4% increase on all relevant allowances
As a result of this pay agreement support staff on the lowest pay point on the NJC pay spine will be paid above the statutory minimum wage for the duration of the pay year and beyond.
Read the full pay settlement 2025/26
We believe this pay agreement to be fair to hard working members of college support staff. However, to take account of the ongoing teacher pay discussions on the NJC Employer Side’s 4% pay offer for 2025/26, this agreement will include a reopener clause. This would be triggered by either side if, circumstances related to any NJC teacher pay offer change that would warrant a re-examination of the agreement.
In Northern Ireland the employers’ representative, Colleges Northern Ireland, was disbanded in June 2018.
Term time working and holiday pay
UNISON secured a victory in a Court of Appeal case in summer 2019 which ruled that all employees are entitled to statutory minimum of 28 days paid annual leave even if they do not work for part of the year or work irregular hours. The judgment also confirmed that this should be paid at the rate of a week’s pay (and if this is irregular, then the average over the previous 12 weeks). If you’re unsure about how your college has calculated your holiday pay, your UNISON rep can help