Commenting after the passing of motion 14 at NEU Annual Conference, Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“More than a decade of underfunding has cut deep. The funding crisis has left support staff susceptible to redundancy or restructuring and this has also led to the increasing misuse of those who remain.
“Teaching ‘on the cheap’ is a longstanding issue, with those support staff members who are able to work within the boundaries of their contract firmly in the minority.
“This is not a sustainable situation. For every member of support staff lost, their considerable workload is simply redistributed amongst an already beleaguered staff. This has an impact on the education of children and young people, not least those with special educational needs and disability whose individual contact time is put at risk by the loss of support staff.
“The NEU will seek to work with the other support staff Unions – Unison, GMB and Unite – to address this situation and ensure that all support staff receive the respect and remuneration in the workplace that they so clearly deserve.”