Schools have changed dramatically over the last 14 years, with many school support staff taking on more responsibilities. The new School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) is a genuine opportunity to make sure all school staff are treated fairly and equally.
“SCHOOLS are communities. Most people know about teachers, and many know about teaching assistants, but there are so many diverse roles covering so many different areas. Without support staff, schools would collapse,” explains Pam Howard, chair of UNISON’s schools committee and branch secretary of Warrington Local Government branch.
In 2024, the total school workforce in England was almost one million staff (full-time equivalent). Approximately half (493,000) were support staff. Add to this the fact that many support staff posts are part-time, and the size and vital importance of the support staff workforce becomes apparent. From teaching assistants working with the most challenging and high-need pupils, to IT staff keeping children safe online, to lunchtime staff ensuring all pupils have at least one healthy, nutritious meal a day – support staff are the heart of the school community.
The School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) was originally created by the Labour government between 2007 and 2010 and was intended to establish a national framework for pay and conditions for school support staff in England. It was scrapped shortly after the Conservatives took power in 2010, by then education secretary Michael Gove. Then they forced most state schools to become academies, so they were no longer under local government control. Then they introduced real cuts in school budgets for most of the noughties, which led to larger class sizes and fewer resources. And then there was the COVID-19 pandemic. All these changes have led to less security, more responsibilities and poorer conditions for many support staff.
UNISON lobbied hard for a new SSSNB, which is part of the new Employment Rights Bill currently going through Parliament. The body will be responsible for negotiating pay, terms and conditions, as well as training and development, for all school support staff in England, including those in academies and academy trusts.
“Around 250,000 school support staff are UNISON members. This is a genuine opportunity to make sure all school staff are treated fairly and equally and is one of the most significant improvements to workers’ rights in decades,” Pam says.
“The demands and expectations on support staff are increasing all the time and people are coming into schools now with high-level qualifications. These skills and expertise need to be reflected in their pay and conditions.”
Teaching assistants
Teaching assistants and higher-level teaching assistants now make up 30% of the total school workforce.
“I started as a TA 14 years ago and the role has changed so much since then,” says Clara Mason, who is currently the branch secretary of Greenwich UNISON branch. “Whereas I used to be classroom-based, the focus for TAs now is on providing interventions with groups of children away from the main classroom. TAs can be responsible at any one time for four or five pupils with various needs. For the pupils with the most challenging or complex needs, TAs will work with them one-to-one or even with two TAs to one pupil.
“There just isn’t the funding available to properly support these pupils. It’s not fair to TAs and it’s not fair to the children either, because some of these kids have got specific needs which aren’t being met, so they misbehave. We’re seeing a lot of violence in schools. TAs receive a lot of verbal abuse, are being bitten, kicked and often feel totally unsupported.”
TAs also now routinely deliver lessons. Whereas they used to provide classroom cover on an emergency basis, they now cover lessons planned by teachers, as it is cheaper for schools to use TAs then to bring in agency staff. However it is a lot of additional responsibility.
Another major specialised role for TAs nowadays is medical care. TAs are having to meet the needs of pupils with complex medical needs, which can include administering Class A drugs, changing catheters and inserting feeding tubes. “There is no support from the NHS and we’re not trained to do this,” says Clara.
“TAs are in schools because we want to help the children, but our roles and responsibilities have grown. TAs are developing specialist skills and often have extensive experience, but this is not being recognised.”
Pupil support and welfare
Schools rely upon a team of support staff to provide vital services that ensure the safety, well-being and health of pupils. Without these staff, non-attendance at school is higher, families face unaddressed difficulties which can escalate to crises, and learning becomes more difficult – or impossible – for children.
For example, pastoral care officers support children with issues like mental health, bullying, friendship issues and family difficulties. Parent support advisors signpost families to external services, such as NHS mental health services, the police, social services and housing offices. Other vital roles include welfare, behaviour and home/school liaison.
“These support staff are working at a high level with other professional people, but they are not treated as or paid as professional people,” says Pam Howard. “The training for these roles is extremely limited, considering the responsibilities involved, and there is no clear career progression.”
IT staff
Digital learning has exploded over the last 10 years and, with it, the IT knowledge and expertise required in schools. As well as providing and managing equipment, IT staff now must be digital specialists. They need to know how to keep children safe online, how to keep school networks safe from cyberattacks and how to manage the risks and opportunities that are coming with AI.
Kitchen assistants, cooks and cleaners
Kitchen assistants, lunchtime assistants, cooks and cleaners are generally the lowest paid workers in a school. Generally, these part-time, term-time roles are fulfilled by women.
“These roles are often overlooked and taken for granted,” says Pam. “Yet schools could not function without them. Cleaners keep schools safe from germs. And all pupils require healthy food if they are to be able to concentrate and learn properly. Staff get stuck in these roles. Not everyone wants career development, but the opportunities just aren’t there. These staff do statutory training when they’re appointed, but staff development is often forgotten.”
Site maintenance
The caretaker is one of the best-known school support roles – maintaining school buildings on a day-to-day basis, keeping them clean, secure and tidy, so that children can learn safely.
Many schools also now have site managers and maintenance officers to lead on more substantial projects like school painting, electrical and plumbing works. Many site maintenance staff have extensive experience and have often worked in industry. Yet while these roles save schools money by not having to use external contractors, the pay and conditions do not reflect the added responsibilities.
Pictured: Bridgewater High caretaker Phil Mann
Early Years
Early years workers have a vital role in child development, helping build the confidence, skills and foundation learning of children, so that they are ready to start school. Increasingly, though, early years teaching assistants are having to take on additional responsibilities in nurseries, as many children are not meeting expected milestones for their age.
“Since the scrapping of Sure Start, we’re finding that many children are starting nursery and school unable to use a knife and fork, are not toilet trained and lack basic social skills,” says Pam. “Increasingly the onus is upon support staff to teach these skills and to have to deal with challenging behaviour.”
Specialist and technical roles
These roles include science technicians, food and textile technicians, design and technology technicians.
Historically, many of the specialist and technical staff working in schools had little direct contact with pupils. For example, lab technicians would set up a class ready for a science experiment and then leave the lesson to the teacher.
“What we’re finding now is that many of the specialist and technical staff being recruited have backgrounds in industry, where they’ve gained extensive knowledge and experience,” Pam explains. “As a result, they’re much more hands on. They’re joining in classes and partaking in some of the teaching. They’re dealing with children of all capabilities and being a tech assistant is becoming much more of a specialist role.”
Business support staff
Administrators, secretaries, finance officers and business managers are the staff keeping schools operating within legal guidelines and within budgets. Many business managers and finance officers are highly qualified and are responsible for large sums of public money that needs to be correctly accounted for and managed.
Meanwhile, admin staff, including school office teams and receptionists, are the face of the school. They are the staff who build relationships with parents and pupils across the whole school. As a result, they have a key role keeping schools functioning smoothly on a day-to-day basis.
Pictured: Jonalda D'Costa, office and admissions manager, Foxfield Primary
These support staff are working at a high level with other professional people, but they are not treated as or paid as professional people
Winning for workers
Clara Mason notes that, “The main issue for TAs and many support staff is most definitely pay. Our job descriptions haven’t been updated in years and are very weak around certain aspects. We have specialised roles that need to be paid at a different rate.”
Clara has a long history of successfully bargaining for the rights of school support workers. In 2018, she was part of the UNISON team that won a five-year battle, successfully concluded at Employment Tribunal, after Greenwich Council failed to correctly calculate the annual leave of term-time, school support staff.
“It was a long haul, but we won,” says Clara. “While the case was brought by UNISON and only involved 476 workers, the award applied to all 5,000 term-time only school support staff, awarding hundreds of pounds to each worker. It was a huge success for all support staff.”
Clara has genuine hope for the new SSSNB. “UNISON will be on the body and it will give a voice to all support staff. It will mean that the terms and conditions of individual roles can be looked at properly, rather than them all being a part of local government pay. Until now, we haven’t had a specific job evaluation scheme that covers all the diverse roles within schools.
“There are so many different job descriptions that need to be looked at, but you can go between one school and another and find pay and conditions differ for the same role, even though the job expectations are the same. The SSSNB should bring clarity.
“As a teaching assistant myself, I don’t do the job for the money,” she adds. “You do it for the children you work with and their progress. But when you see skilled, experienced school support workers leaving to work in supermarkets because they can earn the same and not face the same stresses and responsibilities, then something must change.”
What happens next?
UNISON is currently speaking with government as to the final form and function that the SSSNB will take, ensuring a better working life for all school support staff.
Both the union and individual members have recently responded to a public consultation conducted by the Department of Education, which is gathering views on exactly who should be covered by the new body.