SCHOOL support staff will receive all-year round pay if Labour retains power in the May elections in Wales, First Minister Eluned Morgan will pledge today.

Expansions to pay agreements and training opportunities of teaching assistants, cooks, cleaners and caretakers would be brought about by a new School Support Staff Negotiating Body established in law.

Ms Morgan is expected to tell Unison’s Labour Link Conference in Cardiff that school support staff “are the backbone of our education system.” 

She added: “Yet for far too long, too many of them have been among the lowest-paid workers in public service.”

Unison Cymru regional secretary Jess Turner said: “Term-time only pay has meant that tens of thousands of school support staff endure in-work poverty, despite them being essential to the education workforce in Wales.

“A school support staff negotiating body for Wales could finally correct this historic wrong.”

Cardiff teaching assistant Cath Rowlands added: “Support staff are no longer just ‘extra help’ in classrooms.”