Briony Densham: ‘To me, that’s completely unfair. We were leaving our kids with other people to go and help in the schools’

TEACHING assistants have been angered after being excluded from a Covid bonus payment for low-income workers who kept the borough running in the coronavirus crisis.

The Town Hall is awarding a discretionary £200 “pay award” to refuse collectors, caretakers and road sweepers as recognition. But the council says legal red tape means it cannot do the same for teaching assistants and lunchtime supervisors in its schools.

Briony Densham, a Unison convener and a teaching assistant herself, said: “We all share the same payday – everyone is paid on the 26th of the month. We’ve all got the same systems.

“Throughout the pandemic, support staff were in school. Most of the time the teachers were working from home, but we were supporting the key workers’ children and vulnerable children.”

She said the Town Hall had told her that any awards for teaching assistants would have to come out of schools’ individual budgets, rather than being covered by the council.

“I’m absolutely flabbergasted by it to be honest,” Ms Densham said.

“To me, that’s completely unfair. We were leaving our kids with other people to go and help in the schools.”

The support staff went the extra mile, Ms Densham said, “going in earlier, [and] working extra days in the summer”, adding: “Everyone tried to rally around to help. They went over and above and they were putting their lives and their families at risk. They weren’t able to work from home.”

Ms Densham said it is not the first time school support staff have been left out of the council’s reward system.

“Last year, Islington Council staff were given a day off for their birthday – we weren’t given that either,” she said, calling for the system to treat all council employees the same. “In my opinion it should be all or nothing,” Ms Densham said.

“They need to think about the people that were on the frontline in the schools, keeping the schools open.”

In recent weeks she has received a barrage of complaints from school support staff.

“Now it’s all come to light and teaching assistants are contacting me,” she said. “You might be a teaching assistant in a school and your husband is a caretaker [for the council], and they’re saying, ‘How come you get this payment and I didn’t get it?’”

While the gender split among council employees eligible for the £200 special payment is fairly balanced, with 47 per cent of women to 53 per cent of men, Ms Densham has pointed out that school support staff are overwhelmingly women.

Jane Doolan, the branch secretary of Islington Unison, told the Tribune: “It’s very well-intentioned, it’s a lovely gesture, but school support staff have been completely excluded from this. It has caused a lot of division.”

She added: “I just think there should have been a bit more thought about how it could be a bit more equitable, particularly when school support staff are primarily women. They’re losing out.”

An Islington Council spokesperson said: “The last two years have been some of the toughest and most testing times in living memory for the education sector, and school support staff have helped ensure that our young people have been able to continue their education throughout the pandemic, via in-person and remote teaching.

“We know that school leaders hugely value the sacrifices and hard work of all their support staff over this time.

“The council is proud to have been able to make a special payment to its lowest-paid staff in recognition of their work. But under the legal arrangements for school funding, it is not allowed to do the same on behalf of schools. Each school is responsible for balancing its own budget and making decisions around the employment and payment of staff.

“However, we believe that school staff deserve recognition for their work and national Government should fund a special payment for lower-paid school support staff. This would show appreciation for their contribution, sacrifices and hard work helping ensure our young people received the best education possible in unprecedented circumstances.”