Setting up the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB)

The government held a public consultation between 11 June and 18 July 2025 on setting up the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB). The consultation:  

• sought views on the definition of school support staff, to inform decisions about which staff will be in scope of the SSSNB when it commences operation sought evidence on the current pay and conditions of school support staff to support the transition from existing arrangements to the SSSNB; and 

• collected evidence on the use of agency workers in schools and sought views on whether agency workers should be brought into the scope of the SSSNB in future legislation.   

In total, we received 2,891 responses to this consultation.  

There were 2,677 individual respondents; mostly school support staff, including teaching assistants, school business professionals, administrative staff, technicians, auxiliary staff and other non-classroom-based support staff.  

We also received 214 responses from a range of organisations, including maintained schools and academy trusts, local authorities, representative bodies, and trade unions. Collectively, these organisations employ or represent many thousands of school support staff across England. A full analysis is included in the government’s response to the consultation. 

The government's response is available here: Setting up the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) - GOV.UK.  

It confirms that, for the purposes of the SSSNB, ‘support staff’ will mean directly employed staff, other than teachers, who support the operation of schools, including supporting pupils, school facilities and school processes, up to and including middle leadership roles. This includes academy trust employees in support staff roles who work from locations other than one or more academies.  

School support staff whose pay and/or conditions are currently covered by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services (the ‘NJC’, or ‘Green Book’) will be in scope of the SSSNB.  

Staff covered by national pay or negotiating bodies other than the NJC will be excluded from the SSSNB, as will executive leaders working for academy trusts, and senior non-teaching staff with strategic responsibilities who work in maintained schools and academies.  

The response also confirms that maternity pay will be the first issue tackled by the SSSNB - the first national improvement to support staff maternity provision in 25 years. 

Respondents emphasised the importance of moving smoothly from the existing arrangements to the SSSNB. There will be a phased, managed transition to allow employers and staff to adapt to the new system, with staff remaining on their existing arrangements for the 2026-27 financial year, and with SSSNB outcomes applying from the 2027-28 financial year at the earliest. The initial focus will be on establishing new minimum levels for terms and conditions with incremental changes to contracts that lead to cumulative improvements in support staff terms and conditions each year. 

As set out in the consultation, the SSSNB will only establish minimum statutory terms and conditions (‘floors’), but not maxima (‘ceilings’). Staff who currently have more favourable terms than any minimum set by the SSSNB will retain them, while those whose terms fall below SSSNB minimums will be uplifted to the statutory floors. No employees will be moved to worse pay, terms or conditions as a result of the SSSNB process. Employers will continue to have the flexibility to offer more than the statutory minimums, ensuring they can respond to local needs and labour market conditions.  

There was no clear consensus on the final topic in the consultation on including agency workers in scope of the SSSNB in the future. The government has therefore decided not to commit now to this, but within the first year of SSSNB operation, the department will work with SSSNB member organisations to review the evidence and position for agency workers.