AN equal pay scheme could see schools having to cut non-teaching staff in a bid to balance the books.

But Southend Council insists the education of primary school children will not suffer despite the cuts being made following an equal pay agreement last year.

The single status pay agreement, which aims to standardise the wages of council staff according to their skill level, has meant schools now face much higher wage bills for non-teaching staff.

Roger Hadley, councillor responsible for children and learning, said: “We are not cutting down on teaching staff, but at the end of the day the schools are in charge of their own finances.

“The schools with concerns with their deficit forecasts are the ones the council is focusing on and we are offering support to any school that is having problems. Officers are working with those schools to allow them to keep as many staff as possible.”

The introduction of the single status agreement cost the council, together with the Southend Schools Forum, £1.9million in back pay in order to bring worker’s earnings in line with the private sector. The rest was met from surpluses saved by schools’ budgets in previous years.

The Forum, which allocates money to schools from Government grants, recently set aside a further £150,000 to help schools deal with the problem.

Jerry Glazier, secretary of the Southend Association of the NUT, said: “The local authority was very late in implementing the single status pay scheme, which caused a lot of problems with back pay.

“There still needs to be more money found if schools are to protect their staff levels beyond this year. There is a timebomb ticking here.”

Bournes Green Infant School, in Burlescoombe Road, Southend, is one of the many schools having to reconsider the way it is staffed.

It currently has 15 part-time teaching assistants.

Headteacher Amanda Keech said: “Because the council decided to set quite a high single status scale in order to keep staff from leaving the area for better paid jobs elsewhere, it is impossible for us to keep the staffing structure we have now.

“Like many schools we are having to look at our staffing structures and along with our governors we are looking at what we can afford.Our staff know we are looking at the whole of the structure and we are looking at a range of options which may include changing job descriptions, reducing hours or offering redundancies or early retirement.”