Nursery World has chronicled the messy and drawn-out history of the Single Status Agreement, still not in place in many local authorities and often seeming to work to the disadvantage of nursery nurses and teaching assistants. A process meant to ensure a fairer deal for council employees has left many on low pay rates for greater responsibility, or having to work more hours to maintain existing salaries.
There will be much for the Support Staff Working Group to tackle - the wide disparity in pay rates across the country, the issue of term-time or all-year contracts, and the status of nursery nurses. The end result, however, should be a much more consistent and equal structure for a body of staff growing in numbers and importance in schools across the country.
There are still no indications of any moves to support the private and voluntary sector in raising or standardising pay rates for early years practitioners, beyond the temporary injection for graduates from the Transformation Fund. The new system for school support staff will probably leave PVI staff at even more of a disadvantage.
