- Conference
- 2006 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 24 February 2006
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference deplores the Government’s policy of creating “independent state schools” in England which will mean that support staff in these schools, like the staff in city academies, foundation and voluntary aided schools, will not be covered by the NJC Agreement.
Conference therefore calls on the Service Group Executive to campaign against all aspects of the Education Bill which are opposed to our members’ interests e.g. the creation of trust schools, the Secretary of State’s veto on the building of new community schools, the undermining of local education authorities etc. Together with the government’s plans for increasing the number of city academies this is developing an educational environment hostile to the NJC agreement and to agreements with local education authorities for protecting terms and conditions.
Conference also notes that even in community schools, where staff are employees of the local authority, national and local agreements are not always implemented. The serious consequence of this is that it makes it impossible to ensure there is a consistent and coherent approach to the way support staff are employed and deployed in schools.
Conference notes the establishment of the DfES Working Party for School Support Staff but believes any recommendations from this group can only be effective if there is adequate funding and a statutory national framework for school support staff pay and conditions, which can only be achieved through legislative changes.
Conference, therefore, calls on the Service Group Executive to develop a campaigning and negotiating strategy based on full consultation with members which includes the following:
1)A national framework for pay and conditions for school support staff, subject to the retention of viable national bargaining through the NJC for remaining NJC staff
2)A statutory framework ensuring that agreements reached at national and local authority level apply to support staff in all state funded schools (e.g. city academies, community foundation, voluntary aided and trust schools)
3)A ballot of NJC members on any proposals to establish separate bargaining structures for school support staff
4)UNISON will continue to campaign for school support staff to be directly employed by democratically elected Local Education Authorities. UNISON will also continue to campaign for the removal of delegated powers for school governing bodies to determine any aspect of conditions of service for school based staff and for these powers to be returned to the Local Education Authorities