A COUNCIL is hoping to break an impasse over controversial changes to teaching assistant contracts by agreeing to a doubling of compensation.

Instead of the compensation element being offered to the 2,700 County Durham teaching assistants involved in the dispute being paid over one year, it could be extended to two, if councillors agree.

The proposal would then be put to union members in a consultative ballot.

Durham County Council said it was a “final attempt” to resolve the dispute without the requirement to dismiss and re-engage those affected.

The Northern Echo understands that if approval is given for the proposal by full council, teaching assistants will be offered a choice of either two lump sums or monthly payments over 24 months, starting from April next year.

Last month the Echo revealed that mediation service ACAS had held a meeting with the parties involved in an attempt to broker a way forward.

Durham County Council wants to pay teaching assistants only for the hours they work – meaning they will be paid term time only rather than the current 52 weeks a year – in order to ensure fairness and equality with other workers and bring the authority into line with other councils.

But critics say the move means pay cuts for some of up to 23 per cent and in all cases at least ten per cent.

County Councillor Jane Brown, the authority’s cabinet member for corporate services, said: “We have a legal responsibility to resolve this matter and have been in discussions with the unions and teaching assistants for a year in an effort to find an appropriate solution.

“While continuing to implement the council’s decision to dismiss and re-engage staff on new terms we have continued this dialogue and, following a meeting involving an ACAS mediator, propose a final revised offer.”

If no agreement is reached the council’s original decision from May would continue to be implemented, meaning staff would receive notice of their dismissal as early as next month.

Helen Metcalf, a regional organiser with Unison, said: “We are pleased to see that our lengthy and continuing negotiations with the council and ongoing consultation with our members over the past year has resulted in a much improved offer.”

In a statement the Liberal Democrat group on the council said it was not convinced that “merely a temporary stay on the financial damage caused…will be enough to restore goodwill which has been so dangerously undermined through this appallingly mishandled dispute”.

Its deputy leader County Councillor Owen Temple said the council needed to listen to the workforce, which it had failed to do in the first place.