Many of you will be aware of North Lanarkshire’s most recent announcements regarding the restructuring of the Early years staffing model. This would see approximately 300 Grade NLC9 workers who are predominantly female with the majority being aged between 41-65 forced to face a 30% Pay Cut unless they apply for a leadership post.

These announcements come at a time when families within our communities are battling with a cost-of-living crisis. These workers are not immune to the struggles we all face, but now they have been placed with further burdens and anxieties of what their futures will look like. Not just in terms of employment but where they will be financially, and these have just been further heightened in the last few days by the announcement of redundancies within Early Learning and Childcare.

In 2017 NHS Scotland produced a report in which they identified aspects or indicators which were associated with children’s outcomes, one of their findings was “Higher qualified teachers and staff, leadership and an experienced, competent and confident workforce provide a better quality environment for children”

So why are North Lanarkshire looking to go against this by actively implementing a policy which will see the Early Years and Childcare setting lose skilled and experienced staff as many of these workers have indicated they will not be prepared to take the loss of earnings. How do NL plan to replace over 300 jobs in order to maintain their statutory obligations in the delivery of 1140 if these workers walk away from the sector.

NLC state that these practitioners are valued members of staff, we would question the sincerity of the authority when three senior officers are suggesting to fellow supporters of our campaign “they all need their jobs in this current climate and will not leave”, where is this showing them compassion on difficult decisions being forced on them and their families in the middle of cost-of-living crisis.  Is this how we say thank you to the staff who worked in Hubs during the middle of a pandemic coming to the aid once again of their communities.

This policy feels nothing more than another attempt of fire and rehire. Erasing jobs to have these NLC9 workers do the same job for less money. Senior executives in the authority wouldn’t take a 30% pay cut to do the same job so why should anyone else?

Early Years and Childcare is the foundations on which our children’s very education is built, so it’s never been so important that we get it right at the beginning of their journey.  This means having quality skilled and experienced staff to be able to face the social and health inequalities that many of these children face. Many of these practitioners have external training in Solihull, Pecs/Makaton, Mental Health etc for this reason. This along with their knowledge of the communities they serve they are more equipped to support the children and their families tackling the attainment gap head on. These valued and experienced members of staff when situations arise are those who parents and other staff members will seek out for help, advice and reassurance. So, if these valued practitioners are lost who will these parents and staff turn to?

Nurses are getting a pay rise

Teachers are getting a pay rise

NLC Early learning Practitioners Grade 9 a 30% Pay Cut.

Its downright immoral and disgusting to treat these valued members of our community this way. So we ask you to sign our petition, to show NLC they are out of touch with parent/carers and the communities and that our children’s education will be better with these staff in our sector and not out it.