Education Bill

I shall speak also to Amendment 78B. Clause 18 abolishes the School Support Staff Negotiating Body. These amendments together amount to a commencement clause of in the region of 15 months by the time the Bill goes through Parliament. This body was in the process of negotiating agreements on pay, grading, working time and conditions of service for school support staff, but the staff of the body, who were seconded, have already stopped and gone on to other things. I shall make three brief points about this. First, roles in schools have changed immeasurably with a greater number of support staff taking on a wider range of more complex responsibilities, so the picture of the employees who work in school, other than the teachers, is becoming more complex by the year. Therefore, there was an important job for the SSSNB to do. Secondly, it was not opposed by any party when it was introduced by the Labour Government in the ASCL Act 2009. It was doing a good and useful job. Thirdly, the Secretary of State has suggested that in place of the SSSNB, employers and unions should enter into voluntary agreements, but this may not deliver fairness, consistency and transparency akin to that enjoyed by teachers, who are, of course, subject to the School Teachers’ Review Body. I am proposing that we delay abolition by about 18 months so that the organisation can complete the role profiles and pass them to the local government employers. This would assist employers in coming to fair agreements about terms and conditions with school support staff, and it would be consistent with the requirement to have fairness, consistency and transparency in the system, which is bang on when it come to the coalition agreement. The staff who were doing this job are still around and are doing other jobs, so it would be very easy for the Government to ask them to come back and finish that part of the job. After that, the organisation could be abolished, leaving employers with a very useful tool with which to go forward with their future negotiations. I beg to move.