Sunday afternoon’s local government conference focused upon early years workers and support staff in schools, who were described as “the backbone of our education system”. Yet despite their vital role, they often have the poorest pay and worst conditions of education workers.
Early years workers
State funding for early years is on the increase. The government will now fund around 80% of early years education, effectively nationalising the funding.
Yet early years workers, the frontline staff who are responsible for children’s learning, care and development, continue to be some of the worst paid workers in the education sector. And there are currently no plans to address this dire situation.
UNISON believes that the Westminster and devolved governments should create an early years and childcare sector-wide national negotiating body that include unions and employers.
Introducing the motion on this topic, a representative from the service group executive said: “The early years and childcare sector has traditionally been characterised by low pay, low status and poor conditions of service for the workforce. The recruitment crisis in early years can only be addressed by improving the pay and conditions of the workforce.
“There is no national framework for early years workers as most of them are in the private sector.
“The government recognises that the first 1,000 days of a child’s life are crucial to a child’s lifelong development. But we’ve got a crisis. The answer is a framework, the answer is a pathway of continual professional development for staff and training and recognition. At the very least, all early years workers must have the same conditions as council or school workers.”
Supporting the motion, James Robinson of Knowsley branch, said: “Employers have broken the law, left, right and centre. In Knowsley, we organised and successfully won what we believed to be the first union recognition for a private nursery. Yet when the employer became hostile and we took industrial action, the company just shut the nursery down. That’s what we’re dealing with. That’s why a national negotiating body is absolutely required as the odds are absolutely stacked against us.”
The school support staff negotiating body
The government’s plan to reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) for England, a key plank in its Employment Rights Bill, was unanimously welcomed by conference. This vital body that was responsible for negotiating all aspects of support staff’s conditions was abolished by the coalition government in 2010.
Since then, school support staff rights have been eroded with term-only contracts, increased responsibilities and a 25% real terms pay cut for learning support assistants compared with 2010. Most support staff have little or no opportunity for career progression.
The new body will cover all school support staff in all state-funded schools, including academies.
Since their introduction, academies have syphoned money away from those working directly with children to pay the often hugely inflated salaries of central teams.
Supporting the motion, delegate Pam Howett, said: “Too often school support workers are undervalued, underpaid and overworked. The new SSSNB gives us an opportunity to change this. UNISON will have the most seats on the new negotiating body. But the SSSNB must be backed by proper funding, otherwise it risks failure.”
Delegate, Alison Campbell, said: “School support staff are the backbone of our system. They make schools work, but the emotional toil and difficult working conditions for staff is too much.
“Year after year support staff have been asked to do more for less. Many staff are leaving to work in shops, warehouses and cafes. The SSSNB will provide the focused representation we need on pay, conditions, training and progression. We shall have nationally-recognised agreements. No more opt-outs. No more uncertainty.”
