Nursery World - Editor's view (219)

It is rare indeed to find a good news story about wages and conditions for early years professionals, but the Nottinghamshire nursery nurse pay deal appears to be just that. Our Special Report, 'Stepping up' (pages 10-11), shows how a breakthrough was made to forge a deal that offers not only higher salaries, but a more defined career structure. The nursery nurses and their union, Unison, will now have to keep up the pressure to ensure that schools adhere to the deal and don't attempt to downgrade jobs. However, their victory will be a boost to early years workers currently protesting about pay in Scotland and the London Borough of Ealing, as well as elsewhere as the single status agreement on re-grading jobs, due to be finished by next April, continues to proceed slowly and painfully. If Nottinghamshire can do it, so can other areas!

The nursery nurses and their union, Unison, will now have to keep up the pressure to ensure that schools adhere to the deal and don't attempt to downgrade jobs. However, their victory will be a boost to early years workers currently protesting about pay in Scotland and the London Borough of Ealing, as well as elsewhere as the single status agreement on re-grading jobs, due to be finished by next April, continues to proceed slowly and painfully. If Nottinghamshire can do it, so can other areas!

And there's more good news as the winner of our Nursery Makeover competition is announced (see page 8). Barwic Parade Nursery in Selby, North Yorkshire, gets a brilliant 5,000 package of equipment and resources. There'll be more competitions in future issues of Nursery World, so keep reading - you too could be a winner.

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