Conference notes:
- Support staff are largely un-unionised, with little more than a third being members of any union. This is in line with the overall decline in trade union membership over recent decades
- Due to signing the TUC Agreement 2017, NEU are not formally recognised for national negotiating purposes at the NJC and are not scheduled to be part of the proposed SSSNB. The 2017 Agreement also prevents us attempting to actively recruit support staff members in the state sector who are not in any union.
- NEU have faced disciplinary action from TUC, including substantial fines, for supporting NEU members who voted to take action to resist funding cuts and job losses
- NEU have made numerous proposals to NJC unions - and made it clear that we would consider any proposals from them - that could help reach an amicable resolution of the matter based on organising the unorganised. Our proposals have been rejected, and we have yet to receive any counterproposals
- While there was some progress made at the TUC brokered support staff summit on 28 November 2025, there still isn’t a resolution of our differences with NJC unions
- The current membership structure was created during the ATL/NUT amalgamation process and does not accurately reflect the range of membership
- The term ‘support staff’ can apply to a wide range of job titles and does not accurately reflect the role of many of our members which is confusing for prospective members. Members termed as ‘support staff’ also have wide ranging salaries which has led to discrepancies between what ‘support staff’ members pay and their actual salaries
- That, as a result of the ambiguity around support staff representation, legalistic attempts have been made by some employers, including local authorities, to shut down disputes involving support staff.
Conference believes:
- There is nothing inevitable about low trade union membership. In a small, but significant way, we have shown that effective, assertive, workplace-based organisation can attract the low paid, overwhelmingly female support staff workforce
- That organising the unorganised – among support staff and in the wider economy is vital to the future well-being of workers in this country
- That squabbling between unions is counter-productive, and that a collaborative joint-union attempt to organise the sector would be in the best interests of all four unions and more importantly, of support worker
- That there is no moral – or even pragmatic – reason to exclude the largest education union, with probably the second largest support staff membership – from having appropriate representation on the relevant formal negotiating bodies
- We should not engage in price wars with our sister unions but should ensure that our rates align with other unions.
Conference instructs the executive:
To notify TUC that we will be withdrawing from TUC Agreement 2017 on 28 March 2026, unless there has been substantial progress towards an acknowledgement by NJC unions that we have the right to actively organise support staff. This means that we will immediately begin to actively recruit non-unionised support staff workers. No recruitment will be done on the basis of disparaging sister unions, by undercutting membership rates or by attempting to poach existing union members. It will be done on the basis of developing agency and power in the workplace.
To conduct a full review of the current membership structure and fees and investigate ways to ensure these better reflect the range of job roles and salaries of our support staff members. Ensure any changes to the current membership categories and rates do not undercut any of our sister unions and do not enter into ‘price wars’.
To write to schools that are currently in dispute over support staff conditions to make our position clear. Then to publish this communication on the website.
To make it clear to the NJC unions that we will continue to seek to work collaboratively in the interests of the workforce and will always be open to proposals for an amicable resolution of our disagreements.
To continue to develop policy and advocate actions that advance the interests of support staff. This will include encouraging co-ordinated workplace activity around the key issues that concern support members, such as job creep, unpaid overtime, low pay, restructures that lead to cuts in provision and excessive workloads.
That such activities as outlined above will prioritise promoting tactics that encourage unity and solidarity across the whole education workforce.
To explore the possibility of affiliation to the General Federation of Trade Unions, a federation of mostly smaller, specialist unions.
To develop and launch, by 30 June 2026, a dedicated national organising strategy and resource pool for support staff, focusing on building workplace agency through local reps, targeted campaigns on pay and conditions, and highlighting the union’s distinct industrial and political voice for the education sector.