Academy trust chief executives will not be defined as school support staff under plans to re-establish a national pay negotiating body proposed by government. The Department for Education has today on the school support staff negotiating body (SSSNB), which is due to be reinstated under ministers’ flagship employment rights bill. The SSSNB will provide a dedicated forum for negotiating pay, terms, and conditions for school support staff, ministers have said. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: 鈥淲e are consulting on a number of areas to ensure that the body is set up to reflect the context in schools today. 鈥淭hat understanding is essential to ensure that the transition to the SSSNB does not disadvantage school support staff or move them onto less favourable terms because of new agreements.鈥 Trust execs removed Schools Week revealed last year how chief executives and central team staff fell within the definition of support staff under the terms of the legislation. Consultation documents acknowledged this 鈥渂road definition鈥, and government is now seeking to remove those roles. Bridget Phillipson This includes CEOs, COOs and CFOs, all of whose 鈥渞oles have distinct characteristics and needs that differ from those of support staff鈥. Last year, Jean Boyle, head of education at Stone King, said the drafting of the legislation was “really confusing”. The papers show that the current definition 鈥渙nly includes academy staff working wholly at one or more academies鈥. It also does not cover those working in both maintained and academy settings. What about agency workers? Under the plans, DfE will include trust staff 鈥渨ho work from locations other than academies鈥 but whose work 鈥渨ould otherwise be in scope鈥 in the definition. The changes mean 鈥淗R officers or administrative staff working from a head office鈥 would be brought into scope, along with those 鈥渃arrying out work in other locations such as maintained schools鈥. Officials are also consulting to understand 鈥減otential scale of change鈥 bringing agency workers into the SSSNB would have. They believe that doing so would mean agency worker contracts would have to change, entitling them to 鈥渁t least the minimum pay and the core conditions agreed for support staff鈥. They would also need to be represented on the body itself. Pay 鈥榗all for evidence鈥 鈥淲e think it may only be realistic to include agency workers who have a contract with an agency and work only in school settings 鈥 like directly employed school support staff 鈥 in the SSSNB in future. We want to test this idea,鈥 the documents said. Through the consultation, government has also launched a support staff pay and conditions 鈥渃all for evidence鈥. This will support DfE鈥檚 鈥渦nderstanding of current arrangements and inform the transition to the new system鈥. But the papers noted that the 鈥減recise way鈥 the body will operate 鈥 including how it sets pay and the 鈥渃ontent of any core terms and conditions鈥 鈥 will be determined by the SSSNB once it鈥檚 launched. Phillipson stressed: 鈥淭he SSSNB will provide a dedicated forum for negotiating pay, terms, and conditions for school support staff. 鈥淎ll support staff in state-funded schools in England will benefit from this core offer, while allowing schools the flexibility to respond to local circumstances above the minimum agreements reached.鈥
Josh Terence 11 June 2025 Well, most MAT CEOs and Exec Heads can鈥檛 be called support staff as they don鈥檛 actually support the teachers in any conceivable way – on the ground, in the classroom, on corridors or in settings that might make a difference. They are simply expensive pastoral workers/lunchtime supervisors. Solve the retention and recruitment crisis by demanding they return to the classroom on a full timetable or forfeit 50% of their pension to the school/local authority education budget.
Gary McVeigh-Kaye 13 June 2025 One thing is certain, CEOs and central MAT management staff are not paid at the same low rates as our incredible school support staff. I have just completed a piece of research on CEO pay across the 31 MATs that operate across North Yorkshire across North Yorkshire, where I am NEU Branch Secretary. Many CEOs had between 拢10,000 and 拢20,000 pay increases between the last 2 sets of accounts published by Companies House. CEOs are taking above inflation pay increases whilst our support staff members are facing wage cuts, moving from whole year contracts to term time only.