The Further Education Committee (FEC) met on Friday for its first meeting since the new committee was elected. Members could reasonably have expected the meeting to focus on implementing the decisions taken at the Further Education Sector Conference (FESC) in May.
Instead, the committee was presented with proposals that abandoned those democratically agreed decisions and attempted to implement motions that had actually been defeated, thus delaying any national action over pay, national binding and workload agreements until October 2027!
This was an extraordinary and deeply troubling position for the Secretariat (the national official) to bring to the FEC, who made clear to the FEC that these proposals were going against what was agreed at the May conference. Nevertheless, FEC members were able to prevent this attempt to overturn conference policy.
What did FESC decide?
Delegates representing around 100 branches voted to escalate the New Deal for FE campaign through an England-wide aggregated ballot in 2026/27. Motions FE4 to FE7, together with their amendments, set out a strategy for winning that ballot by producing branch resources and building a strong industrial and political campaign.
The decisions of FESC could not have been clearer. FESC is the sovereign democratic decision-making body for UCU FE where members elected by their branches, debate and vote on political and industrial strategy. It is then the responsibility of both the union’s officials and the FEC to implement those decisions as effectively as possible. Those decisions cannot simply be set aside because some people disagree with the outcome.
However, at Friday’s meeting, the Head of FE, supported by those who brought motions unsuccessfully to May’s conference to delay taking any action, attempted to do exactly that. The paper presented proposed abandoning the planned 2026/27 aggregated ballot altogether. Instead, an entire year would have been spent preparing for a ballot in Autumn 2027. If this had been agreed, it would have fundamentally overturned the democratic decisions taken by conference only weeks earlier.
Moreover, the paper would have effectively implemented one of the few motions that was actually defeated at FESC: Motion 2 from Bolton College, presented by UCU’s new Vice President. That motion proposed delaying the campaign, holding branch briefings in the autumn, and convening a Special FE Sector Conference in early 2027 to merely decide the national grounds of dispute and ballot arrangements.
Conference delegates clearly rejected that approach. In the debate, many argued that delaying the campaign would effectively abandon this year’s pay claim and that members could not afford another year without national action.
What was particularly alarming was that, when presenting the paper, the Head of FE openly acknowledged that he knew it conflicted with FESC policy. That should concern every UCU member, whether individuals agreed with the decisions taken at FESC or not. Once officials or committees begin deciding which conference decisions they will implement and which they will ignore, member democracy is placed in jeopardy.
Why we can’t delay
In the attempt to overturn FESC decisions, the Head of FE argued that the union was not yet prepared. He stated that while around 100 branches were represented at FESC, another 60 to 80 branches were not sufficiently engaged. He also said he wanted to build greater consensus before proceeding and pointed to the NEU’s campaign, arguing that they had spent a year preparing before moving to a ballot. However, these arguments miss the bigger picture.
The NEU is a much larger union, with around half a million members, making it the largest education union in Europe. Whilst UCU FE only has around 27,000 members and so the amount of time needed to organise is clearly different.
More importantly, it’s simply not true to say that preparations haven’t already occurred.
Back in 2023, an England-wide e-ballot over pay, workload and binding national bargaining produced an 87% YES vote on a 51% turnout. However, moving to a statutory industrial action ballot was defeated by just one vote at a Special FESC April that year. The New Deal for FE campaign was launched in spring 2024 around the same core demands. And at FESC 2025, delegates voted to move towards an England-wide aggregated industrial ballot to begin September 2025 to escalate the campaign.
But in implementing those decisions, the union delayed with the ballot closing mid-November, and industrial action pushed back until January. Those delays led branches being bullied into accepting local pay deals and weakened confidence in the national campaign. At the national strikers’ rally in January, many members expressed frustration that they had voted as part of a coordinated national campaign, yet only 17 colleges actually took action.
We cannot afford to repeat that experience. When members vote for a strategy and the national union fails to deliver it, members will of course disengage. It will breed cynicism about the value of the national union, encouraging members to focus solely on local disputes.
Yet local action alone has not, and cannot, secure the improvements our members need. FE pay remains around 20% lower in real terms than in 2010. The teaching workforce is around 25% smaller, while student numbers have increased substantially, driving workloads ever higher. Inequality across the sector has also continued to grow, with pay and conditions varying dramatically between colleges.
Many members recognise that reversing this trend requires coordinated national industrial action. This will give members and branches a stronger collective voice, increasing pressure on the AoC and the government, and recognises that the crisis in FE is fundamentally about national funding rather than simply the decisions of individual college managements.
The political opportunities
The Head of FE and the FEC majority also failed to recognise the importance of the current political moment. It is very likely we will have a new Prime Minister within weeks. Expectations have been raised amongst our members by the resignation of Starmer and an expectation that the government will move in a new direction that favours working people. We need to act fast to apply pressure on a Burnham led government if these expectations are to be realised.
At the recent National Joint Forum between the unions and the AoC, the employers’ position on binding national bargaining had shifted significantly. Three years ago, they described themselves as “agnostic” towards binding national bargaining, which in practice meant opposition. They are now no longer ideologically opposed and are instead identifying practical barriers that can be overcome.
The AoC has also written to the government arguing that FE funding is inadequate, expressing disappointment at the lack of support for the sector and calling for a national binding agreement for the sector.
There is now an opportunity for employers and unions to jointly press the Labour government to deliver on its commitment to provide funding the sector so desperately needs.
So what did FEC decide?
Three motions were ultimately passed that rejected the approach set out in the Secretariat’s paper. They committed UCU FE to:
- begin preparations immediately for an aggregated ballot, starting no later than the beginning of October;
- produce a clear campaign timeline designed to win that ballot;
- support branches by using national communications, producing campaign materials with clear demands, organising local and regional meetings, and making GTVO resources available; and
- organise a parliamentary lobby and a national demonstration during the autumn term calling for increased FE funding.
The immediate threat of abandoning conference policy has been defeated, but members cannot be complacent.
Branches and regions must now hold the FEC and the union’s officials to account. A democratic, member-led union depends on conference decisions being respected. If members vote for a strategy, they have every right to expect the union to implement it. Our task now is to ensure those decisions are carried out in full.