Unions slam ‘lack of meaningful progress’ on support staff pay

Unions representing school support staff have threatened the government with industrial action over a “lack of meaningful progress” on improving pay.

The leaders of GMB, Unison and Unite, which between them represent more than 500,000 education workers in England, have written to education secretary Bridget Phillipson with concerns the remit of the new School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) will initially be “very limited”.

Gary Smith, Andrea Egan and Sharon Graham have also expressed fears a move to encourage all schools to join trusts comes “at precisely the moment when a coherent national framework for school support staff remains absent”.

Unless there is “meaningful progress” on pay, the unions “we will have no option but to escalate our response publicly and industrially”, they said.

Labour pledged in its election manifesto to re-establish the SSSNB. The body was developed under New Labour but scrapped by the coalition government.

In their letter, the union leaders called SSSNB “our best and long overdue opportunity to address the deep-rooted inequalities, fragmentation, and inconsistency experienced by school support staff across England”.

“However, the pace and substance of negotiations to date are now placing that confidence at serious risk.”

Just last year, Phillipson wrote in Schools Week that support staff “have been undervalued and denied professional respect for far too long”.

“It’s time that they got the fair pay and the professional respect they deserve.”

‘No progress’ on job evaluation work

But in their letter, the union leaders said that at a SSSNB working group meeting on 20 May, they were informed the remit for the body initially “would be very limited”.

The unions said they were told “there would be no progress” on strand two of the SSSNB’s work – a national approach to job evaluation and role profiles – “within this Parliament”.

“This work must be an essential part of the SSSNB if it is to fulfil its goal of ensuring school support staff are fairly rewarded for the work they do,” the leaders warned.

Schools Week understands there are also concerns that with the SSSNB due to formally start its work in the autumn, the unions won’t get a full year to negotiate pay for the 2027-28 financial year.

At present, the pay of support staff in council-maintained schools is negotiated as part of the wider local government workforce process each year, though academies can deviate from the increases set.

In their letter, the union leaders said their concerns “have only intensified” following publication of the government’s schools white paper, “which actively encourages further movement towards academy trust structures at precisely the moment when a coherent national framework for school support staff remains absent”.

“Taken together, these developments risk undermining the very purpose for which the SSSNB was re-established. The continued expansion of academy trust structures, in the absence of a coherent national framework for school support staff, risks accelerating workforce fragmentation.”

The DfE was approached for comment.

Industrial action threat

The unions are calling for a “clear commitment” that staff will transfer into the SSSNB with their “full existing pay spine and pay structure protected”. They also want “immediate commencement” of the SSSNB’s work on job evaluation and role profiles.

Leaders are also calling for “assurances that recognised trade unions are fully and meaningfully involved in all decision-making processes relating to the future framework”.

Unions said they remained “committed to constructive engagement and would strongly prefer to resolve these issues through meaningful progress and genuine partnership with government.

“However, the current trajectory is rapidly exhausting the goodwill that existed when the SSSNB was re-established.

“Should meaningful progress continue to be absent, we will have no option but to escalate our response publicly and industrially, including at upcoming conferences over the summer period.

“We are therefore urging government to treat this moment with the seriousness it requires and to work with us urgently to restore confidence in the process before further damage is done.”

It comes after councils made a “final offer” to workers of 3.3 per cent for the 2026-27 financial year, which began in April.

GMB members recently voted to reject the offer, and Unison members will be balloted for industrial action this summer.