School support staff and nursery nurses' pay body axed

• Gove scraps School Support Staff Negotiating Body
• Unions threaten strike action

Unions have condemned the move, which will affect around 500,000 school support staff, including teaching assistants, special needs staff, nursery nurses, school secretaries, caretakers, technicians and school meals staff.

Public sector union Unison said it would ballot its members on strike action ‘as a matter of urgency’ and demanded an equality impact assessment, because it said low-paid women would be among the worst hit by the decision.

In a written statement Mr Gove said, ‘The Government has conducted a review of the future policy direction for determining school support staff pay and conditions, including the role of the SSSNB, and has concluded that the SSSNB does not fit well with the Government’s priorities for greater deregulation of the pay and conditions arrangements for the school workforce.

I therefore propose to introduce legislation to abolish the SSSNB at the earliest opportunity.’

He said that school support staff would continue to have their terms and conditions determined locally by employers.

Mr Gove said he would be writing to the independent chair of the SSSNB, unions and employer organisation members of the SSSNB to notify them of his decision.

'Blow to women'

Christina McAnea, Unison head of Education, said, ‘This is a bitter blow to the mainly women, overwhelmingly low paid, hard working and loyal support staff in schools. Unison will be consulting our members on taking industrial action as a matter of urgency.

‘The coalition’s consultation process was a sham. It was obvious the Government had made up its mind, right from the beginning, that school support staff are not worthy of national pay and conditions.

‘We are calling for an immediate equality impact assessment, as it is likely this move will hit women hard. The Government must also explain how it intends to deliver George Osborne’s headline grabbing, £250 boost for the lowest paid. It is a disgrace that they have so far refused to guarantee this pledge for school support staff.’

Earlier this month the SSSNB was named as still under review on a list of eight arms-length-bodies on a Department for Education list.

Philip Parkin, general secretary of Voice, the union for education professionals, said, ‘This is outrageous. According to the Government’s Review of Public Bodies only three weeks ago on 14 October, the future of the SSSNB was "under consideration – subject to further discussions with employer and union representatives". What happened to the "consideration" and "discussions"?'

He added, ‘Scrapping the SSSNB is hugely disappointing and an insult to our dedicated school support staff, who deserve higher pay and a proper pay and career structure.’

Voice had called for the SSSNB to be reformed along the lines of the School Teachers’ Review Body, when its work on setting up national pay and conditions for support staff was finished.

The SSSNB was set up by the previous Government in 2009.