School support staff get pay and conditions body
The new body tasked with setting pay and conditions for school support staff starts work this week.
In his speech to the Labour Party conference, education secretary Ed Balls confirmed that the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) would agree a new framework for pay and conditions in maintained schools.
He told delegates, 'Teaching assistants, dinner ladies, cleaners and caretakers - all our support staff are vital to our schools. We will now legislate for a statutory body to agree a new and flexible framework for their terms and conditions.'
Philip Ashmore was named as the SSSNB's independent chair.
The new legislation is part of a package of reforms to help the schools workforce and includes giving teachers guaranteed time away from the classroom to plan and prepare lessons and assess pupils, including extra time for newly qualified teachers.
Plans to set up a new negotiating body to create a national pay structure for school support staff were given the go-ahead last year, following recommendations by the Support Staff Working Group (News, 30 May 2007).
Previously pay scales were determined by the National Joint Council for local authorities.
Numbers of support staff have grown rapidly as they have taken on more duties and responsibilities. According to the DCSF, there are now 326,400 full-time equivalent support staff in schools, up from 136,500 ten years ago.
Workers who will have their pay and conditions set by the SSSNB include classroom assistants, caretakers, clerical and administrative staff, catering and playground supervisory staff.
Gina Smith, a Sunderland nursery nurse, who put a petition for a national agreement on the Downing Street website last year, said, 'I don't know what they're going to do. I'd love to see something coming out of it and a pay rise, but it's taken them so long to set it up.'
