General conditions of service for school support employees

The terms and conditions of employment will be those specified in the advertisement and associated correspondence. These terms and conditions will be stated in the contract of employment, however, the following summarises several key points.

We provide support for all of the county’s maintained schools. Our aim is to secure the highest quality of learning for all Derbyshire people.

Local management of schools

The governing body has the responsibility of managing the school and its budget. It decides how funding should be spent, including the staffing structure of the school.

Community schools

The governing body is responsible for appointing school employees and determining the nature of posts within the school. We remain the employer in law.

Foundation schools, aided schools and academies

For foundation, aided schools and academies the governing body is the employer in law.

Single status in schools

On behalf of Derbyshire schools, we have implemented the National Single Status Agreement. For all community schools, most aided schools and some academies single status was implemented on the 1 March 2014. For these schools 'working for us', which is attached this page, informs new starters about all the main terms and conditions which apply.

Queries concerning the terms and conditions of employment for a post at an establishment that has not implemented this agreement should be made directly to the school or academy.

Annual leave

There is a minimum of 25 days annual leave increasing to a minimum of 30 days after 5 years’ continuous service and a total of 8 bank holidays. All entitlements are pro-rata for part-time employees. Please be aware that annual leave should normally be taken during school closure periods.

Term time only posts

For each post the advert will state the minimum weekly guaranteed hours and contract weeks per year that you will be required to work. All employees will be paid for the weeks worked plus the appropriate pro-rata annual leave and bank holiday entitlements and these will be averaged out over 12 equal payments (referred to as equated pay arrangements).

As a result of the single status exercise teaching assistants will normally be employed to work for 39 weeks per year and the standard full-time hours will be 37 per week, with part-time employees being paid pro-rata to 37 hours.