By Jo Seery, Professional Support Lawyer
More than a year after the consultation closed on reintroducing the School Support Negotiating Body (SSNB), abolished under the Coalition government in 2010, the government has finally published its response. The SSSNB is the new joint negotiating body which will determine pay, terms and conditions, as well as training and career progression for school support staff in England.
The consultation sought views on the definition of ‘school support staff’ to be set out in secondary legislation and specifically whether agency workers and academy trust employees working in locations other than academies should be in scope in the future, and if any should be excluded. It also sought evidence on existing pay and terms and conditions. Almost 3,000 responses were received from trade unions, employers, education bodies, and individual respondents.
In its response, the government confirmed that “support staff” will mean directly employed staff, other than teachers, who support the operation of schools, including supporting pupils, school facilities and school processes, up to and including middle leadership roles. Academy trust employees in support staff roles who work from locations other than one or more academies, such as administrative and finance staff, will be in scope, while executive leaders of academy trusts will not be. Staff covered by national pay bodies other than the National Joint Council (NJC - set out in Annex A) will not be in scope. Disappointingly, agency staff will not be in scope, meaning that the overall policy objective since agency staff tend to have poorer terms and conditions than directly employed support staff
While re-establishing the SSNB and restoring sectoral collective bargaining, the failure to include agency and outsourced staff is a missed opportunity to secure minimum pay and conditions amongst the poorer paid school support staff.
