Support staff pay body will come into force in 2008

A new stand-alone national body will set pay and conditions for school support staff in England from next September, the government has announced.
The new body will set pay scales for all school support staff who will no longer be covered by local government pay negotiations. The trade unions representing support staff support the move, and want the pay scales to be binding for all state schools, as the teachers' pay scales are now.
A "shadow" chair for the new body is to be appointed as soon as possible, and a group will start work in January, ready for its full launch next September.
Schools minister Jim Knight said, “Each time I visit a school, I am reminded of the increasingly significant and powerful contribution that support staff are making every day in the classroom and behind the scenes to free up teachers to do what they do best - teach.
“We want support staff to make the maximum contribution to the classroom. In order to do that we need their pay and conditions to reflect that contribution in the right way. We want fair representation and transparency for all our workforce and this new group will work in the interests of all support staff, ensuring they are fairly rewarded for the work they do, as well as making it easier for school leaders to recruit the best staff and reward them fairly."