Pay deal ends strike at Leicester special needs school

Ash Field Academy looks after pupils with special educational needs

Support staff at a special needs school have accepted an increased pay offer following 43 days of strike action.

Unison union members at Leicester's Ash Field Academy first walked out in May after learning they were being paid less than equivalent staff in similar schools.

The disruption led to parents expressing concern about the impact it was having on their children.

The BBC has approached the school for a comment.

Unison said the pay deal, which members voted "overwhelmingly" to accept, would be backdated to September 2022.

It includes the introduction of pay scales and pay progression along with the nationally-agreed 2022/23 salary increase of £1,925 pro-rata.

Support staff have also been offered a one-off payment of £2,000 and a contractual agreement to comply with all future nationally-agreed pay awards for school support staff.

The union said this brought pay in line with staff at other local authority special education needs (SEN) schools.

It estimated the deal would increase pay for classroom-based support staff by up to 25%.

'We stuck together'

Union representative Tom Barker said: "This remarkable victory should be a green light to all education support workers, in particular those in academies, to organise to fight for improvements.

"It is extremely regrettable that it took 43 days of strikes to reach this agreement.

"The legacy of this dispute will benefit staff and students for years to come."

A Unison member who wished to remain anonymous, said: "We won this dispute by sticking together, supporting each other and standing up for what we knew was right.

"The work we do is highly skilled, emotionally and physically draining and extremely valuable, and we didn't feel valued doing it."

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