I vowed never to stand up here again at Conference but desperate situations require desperate measures, so here I am.

Seriously, the treatment of our support staff in schools has been and is appalling. The single status agreement , signed by local government unions and employers in 1997, continues to result in ATL support staff members being given worse terms and conditions, notably by moving them from all year round employment similar to teachers to term time only contracts. Not only do support staff have to put up with being some of the lowest paid staff in the whole of local government they then have their employers trying to make those salaries even lower by paying them on a term time only basis. What an insult! What a disgrace!   

Such proposals serve to not only cut their salaries but also to undermine support staff as professionals at a time when the school workforce is supposed to be working together. Wasn’t the workload agreement about team work? Wasn’t it about the new school workforce working together for a common goal? Well if that’s the case then why shouldn’t everyone in that school workforce be treated equally?

And what about Tony Blair’s new labour Equal Society? Working as a Teaching Assistant was one of the 10 lowest paid jobs in Britain in 2002 and nothing has changed. And 80% of those lowest paid jobs are carried out by women. How many women have to continue to suffer low pay before this government stop passing the buck to local authorities and introduce a national pay scale and terms and conditions that properly value support staff.  

Do you remember what Ruth Kelly said at the ATL Conference last year in Torquay?  If not I’ll remind you.  She said,

“If teaching assistants and support staff are taking on more responsibility we have got to make sure that they are fairly rewarded. There is a real issue here and it is one that we’ve been thinking about a lot”.

That was in March last year. They say a week is a long time in politics but 56 of them are a lifetime to a low paid teaching assistant who’s been waiting 20 years for a wage she can live on.

I was all in favour of workforce reform for all of us working in schools; not me off loading extra work onto support staff but a true partnership, a New Start. How naïve was that ? I have, in reality, spent a goodly part of the last 18 months cajoling, threatening and in some cases pleading with Headteachers to employ support staff all the year round or at very least 39 weeks so that they get their promised professional development. 

How would the mighty MP`s like it if someone decided, with little if any consultation, to cut their salaries or ask them to take on twice as much work just to merit the same salary? This is the fate of our members. If the government is so in favour of term time only working why don’t they introduce it for MPs? Let’s see how they like being paid for the time that Parliament is in session with only a holiday allowance built in. 

Finally, take a look at the figures from our recent survey of ATL members. One in three support staff who have taken on cover supervision roles on top of their existing ones have not received a pay increase. One in five Higher Level Teaching Assistants have not received any salary increase to recognise their new role. And even when they do get an increase some schools are limiting it to an enhanced hourly rate for the extra duties only. This can’t go on. Enough is enough. 

If ATL is to continue to recruit support staff we must be proactive in securing them better terms and conditions. Don’t get me wrong, Andy Peart does a splendid job but he needs the help and support of the executive committee both to raise the profile with the DfES and to support Branches to resist the detrimental changes to their conditions.

Delegates, I urge you to support this resolution.