New TA pay and conditions plan by May

Plans for a new pay and conditions framework for TAs and other school support staff across England will be out by May, says the Government.

The new School Support Staff Negotiating Body has been meeting since July 09, with representatives of local authority and voluntary-aided school employers, unions and government under an independent chairperson, Philip Ashmore.

It has been asked to come up with a framework that will provide national consistency in the pay and conditions of support staff, without losing local flexibility.

Separate working groups have been meeting to develop

· A common core contract and conditions of service including a method

of calculating pay

· National role profiles for core roles and a method of conversion to a

national pay framework

· A process for assimilating school support staff to the pay framework

The SSNB is also going to be setting out new and stronger expectations for support staff development.

Chair appointed to new support staff pay body

The government has appointed an independent chair to set up the new body which will oversee school support staff pay and conditions.

The Schools Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB)will be underpinned by new legislation. The new law will also compel schools to abide by the national workforce agreement, designed to free up teachers from other responsibilities.

Under the agreement, teachers were supposed to have 10% of their time for Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA), and not to have to cover for absent colleagues for more than 38 hours a year. But the government says some teachers are still being expected to cover for absent colleagues during their own PPA time.

The SSNB would give a bigger voice to more than 300,000 school support staff, and will establish a separate negotiating formum for support staff pay and conditions "where the specific role they play is recognised and reflected fairly and openly accross all schools", said a government statement.

"The national framework will facilitate a much greater degree of clarity and consistency in the terms and conditions of support staff nationwide than is possible under the current arrangements, while still allowing employers sufficient flexibility to meet their local needs."

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said, "This is a very important development. Professional and support staff in schools deserve fair pay and the hard work starts now to make sure the new negotiating body can deliver this."

The chair of the new body is Philip Ashmore, currently a member the NHS Pay Review Body, responsible for making pay recommendations for 1.2 million NHS staff.