Special needs nursery nurses to suffer pay cut

Seven nursery nurses who work with children with profound learning difficulties are set to suffer a 25 per cent pay cut.
The nurses from East Hunsbury Primary School will lose more than £4,000 a year following the introduction of new working terms and conditions.
The changes, which will come into effect from next April, will see them lose their special needs allowance. Following a job evaluation, the nurses are being moved from full-time to term-time-only contracts as part of Northamptonshire County Council plans to implement the single status agreement.

They are being moved from a 32.5 to a 37-hour week contract and will no longer be paid during the school holidays.

The nurses, who look after 26 pupils at the school from reception age to Year 4, fear the cuts will mean they will have to look for new jobs.

One, Becky Simms, who will see her salary drop by £4,126 a year, told NurseryWorld: "None of us can afford to stay. It's a massive chunk of my wage."

And Theresa Harper, who has worked as a nursery nurse for more than 20 years, said she felt she would have no choice but to leave if the plan goes ahead.

"We love our job and the kids we work with and it's a fulfilling job, but we have to pay our bills and our mortgages.

"We have to live. We could take on a second job in the summer holidays, but then we would be taxed as having a second job."

The change means that the nursery nurses will have their job title changed to special needs teaching assistant level 3.

Ms Harper said: 'Between us we have 140 years' experience. We will lose our nursery nurse status."