YOU might be shocked to hear there’s a school in Cardiff that operates a foodbank for its own staff.

In fact, one in six school support staff in Wales have told Unison they have used a foodbank. Some are forced to rely on benefits to keep their heads above water.

These are the thousands of women across Wales — because school support staff are predominantly women — who care for your children and keep the school running, many of them struggling in poverty.

That’s upwards of 30,000 women and their families. Many in single-income homes, 40 per cent of them have another job to make ends meet. Like one Unison member who told us she works in a supermarket after school.

So when you’re picking up your shopping at the end of a long day, it’s shocking to imagine that the person at the till might have already done a day’s work in the local primary.

Support staff are the biggest group of workers in schools. They are teaching assistants, cleaners, catering staff, lunchtime supervisors, tech support, caretakers, admin staff and more.  

Yes, they are comparatively low paid, but what tips many over the edge is term-time only pay. This is a scandal and Unison Cymru calls to end term-time pay in Wales arguing this is a symptom of the historic undervaluing of what is seen as traditional “women’s work,” and Wales is letting them down.

As a consequence of term-time only pay, some support staff are taking home a lower income than they would earn on a minimum-wage full-time job.

School support staff are paid for term time only while heads and teachers are paid for their summer holidays. Support staff are only paid for the time they’re in school – nine months, but this is disguised by being spread out into 12 payments in the year.  

During term time many work over their hours with after-school clubs, and residential trips, late nights and early mornings for no extra pay.

Their year is tied to the school calendar — unable to take leave in term time — but not compensated for being subject to a system that means they can only take their own holidays at the most expensive time of year.

Teaching assistants are seen as professional enough to be registered and cover a class, and even be struck off, but not valued enough to be paid for summer holidays.  

Years ago, some support staff could claim benefits to cover the holiday period, but that provision is long gone.

Support staff tell us that they respect their teaching colleagues, and our campaign is not an attack on the fair entitlement of other school employees. But a first-class education system starts with the staff, and that means treating the whole education workforce equally.

Last year, Unison invited the low pay commissioners to come and hear evidence from our school members in Swansea. This is what they had to say: “We get a buzz supporting children and knowing our work is valuable to their education and happiness, but I couldn’t even get a loan to buy a second-hand car, my salary was that low.

“I’m worse off than last year. So many of us have a second job, all of us probably, are juggling the credit cards when we go shopping at Tescos. I have £14 in my account today. I’m lucky, I have a partner to help.

“I have to bring up two children on my own, and I rely on parents because I had to work after school. I would work in a factory five nights a week. I also did a Sunday job. I was in debt and that was the only way I wouldn’t have my house taken off me.”

It’s so humbling to hear their commitment, yet their reward is so poor.

There is a way to do things differently. A dedicated School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) has been created in England from the Employment Rights Act to deal with the recruitment and retention crisis. Unison Cymru is leading the charge for the creation of a Wales negotiating body that sets a bold first ambition to end term-time-only pay.

Unison’s call to end term-time pay made it into the Welsh Labour and Green Party manifestos. Despite the results, the commitment went down well on the doorstep, perhaps because it is tangible and showed a real intent to tackle in-work poverty.

But now we must look to the new Welsh government to take up the challenge. There is a moral duty on it to lift its citizens out of poverty and give them more control over their working lives.

I first joined this campaign 19 years ago in a school hall in Merthyr inspired by listening to a group of teaching assistants getting up to speak one after another, seething with injustice and committing to standing together to demand better.

Politicians told them they understood, but while support staff kept our schools running, they also told them to wait. Wait for austerity to be over, wait for Westminster, wait for the Senedd elections.

They have waited too long.

Jess Turner is Unison Cymru regional secretary.

Unison will be hosting a fringe meeting on term-time pay and the creation of a Wales negotiating body on Wednesday May 20 12.30pm in the Conwy Room, Venue Cymru.