Policy and Politics
Support staff pay body on list of 180 quangos facing axe
The body responsible for negotiating the pay and conditions of nursery nurses and teaching assistants in schools is to be axed, according to a document leaked to the press last week.
The School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) is one of around 180 quangos and public bodies the Government is planning to cut following the spending review, say the reports. A further list of more than 90 organisations is said to be under review.
Those in the children and young people's sector, whose fate is undecided, include the Children's Workforce Development Council, the Training and Development Agency for Schools and the Office of the Children's Commissioner.
The UK's largest public sector union, Unison, is outraged at the possible removal of the SSSNB, which took years to set up. It was created to introduce fairness and consistency to the pay of half a million workers in schools in England, including teaching assistants, special needs staff, nursery nurses, school secretaries, caretakers, technicians and dinner staff.
Christina McAnea, Unison's head of education and lead negotiator, said, 'This displays the utter contempt the coalition Government has for low-paid workers, trade unions and in particular the staff in schools delivering essential education services. We have been asking them since May to talk to us about this. They say publicly they want to maintain an education partnership with all the unions representing school staff, yet we hear this news through the media. School support staff are predominantly low-paid women and this Government demonstrates utter contempt for them by refusing to even meet the unions to discuss this.'
Ms McAnea added, 'Local authorities are facing equal pay claims of hundreds of million pounds from school staff. The SSSNB was set up to help bring fairness and consistency as well as local flexibility into pay in schools. Now they face years and huge expense battling this out in courts.'
Unison said it would be consulting its members on whether to vote for industrial action, and demanding the Government carry out an Equality Impact Assessment.
