Teaching assistants quitting schools for supermarkets because of 'joke wages'

[noblegiraffe]

Finally getting some mainstream press attention:

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/09/teaching-assistants-quitting-schools-for-supermarkets-because-of-joke-wages

The article is very clear that schools cannot afford to pay higher wages for support staff. The DfE comment at the bottom says it is up to schools to improve support staff pay.

The education sector is falling apart. Teacher redundancies mean bigger class sizes. Fewer teaching assistants means zero in-class support unless your child has an EHCP. Recruitment issues mean that even if your child has an EHCP, they might not be able to hire anyone to support them.

The way provision for the most vulnerable students has been eroded over the last decade of school underfunding is devastating.

People already volunteer in schools anyway listening to readers and the like. Schools don’t need more volunteers but they do need experienced, quality TAs.

No-one is sneering at volunteers! But they can't be used to replace full-time paid staff? And you haven't answered the question of how, if schools can't even find people prepared to do this job for pay, how they will find people prepared to do it for free?

You think someone would come and do that for free?!

The schools might prefer it but they're not going to get it

Do you remember the last time the government called for volunteers to prop up schools? The army of supply teachers that was supposed to keep schools open during the covid wave of last January?

Very few people stepped up. The ones that did couldn't get DBS checks in time. And they were going to be paid.

I e actually sat in at a school meeting where the SENCO has sat and told a parent (EHCNAC in process), that the school "don't have time and resources to invest time in the interview process and they can't get support staff anyway".

The pay for these roles is abysmal, the qualifications requirements pitifully low often and most importantly, morale and rapport between TA's, LSA's and management teams very broken.

This has been at crisis stage for many schools and local authorities for a very long time, I was pleased to read this today because at least now it's in the news.

Quite how schools legally obliged to deliver the contents of an EHCP are going to cope in the next 6-12 months is frightening. It's shameful how minimal support remains when every sector of the SEND system is so painfully overloaded and understaffed.

I got out 7 years ago. The stress and pressure nearly killed me. There's no way a volunteer could do some of the tasks I had to do. You can't toilet a child for eg, that's a safeguarding issue.

You're wilfully missing the point. It's an enhancement not a replacement sigh ..

Honestly if it's good enough for the NHS then it should be good enough for education

Quite how schools legally obliged to deliver the contents of an EHCP are going to cope in the next 6-12 months is frightening.
We already can't cope.

I would hate this. Support staff have maximum impact in the classroom support the children with learning.

@justasking111 what do your volunteers do?

It's an enhancement not a replacement sigh..

Do you not understand that having some random helpful parent turn up in your classroom saying 'what do you want me to do?' is not an enhancement but sometimes a liability?

Which is why you have enhanced CRB's. Our volunteers escort adults to the toilet daily. It's just expected

People have no idea of the reality. Most TAs in my primary school are now 1:1 supporting children whose needs are so severe that they are a danger to themselves and others if left alone. There is little job satisfaction in chasing round after a non-verbal 5 year old who doesn't want to engage with anything.

However, TAs are also used to cover all teacher PPA time, training time, sickness absence be absence schools can't afford supply teachers. I would say the pressure of having to constantly cover classes is an even bigger reason why TAs at my school leave than the pay.

But @justasking111 schools are replacing paid staff with volunteers, these volunteers are not enhancements. Many schools will have stopped recruitment due to budgets, so if anyone leaves they won’t be replaced with paid staff and will try and fill gaps either with current staff or volunteers or just have gaps

People have no idea of the reality

That, from this thread, is very, very obvious.

Volunteers. FFS.

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

They won't get 12 weeks paid holiday a year in a supermarket

Well yes that's my point- it's horrific that school teams are under the pressure like this already, I'm seeing so much more if this and also a far wider scale sickness amongst staff. They simply cannot sustain all they're supposed to in such limited funds.

@justasking111 so your answer is more volunteers in the NHS? Not actually lobbying the government to fund the NHS properly and employ staff to do these jobs the volunteers are doing.

Bloody hell we really have reached the bottom. NHS and schools should not have to get by with having volunteers. They should be properly funded so they can have the staff that are needed. Volunteers are not the answer in either case.

Fine a volunteer goes in and reads to kids or patients etc..... taking patients to the toilet should be a paid professional.

Work within the premises caring for and entertaining . Sit with them if they're doing educational courses, think computers, cooking, arts and crafts. Escort them on days out, push wheelchairs when needed, take them for toilet breaks, help them with their food. Drive the minibuses.

I don't think schools generally need adults to be escorted to the toilet.
I'd like Bob to have the reader he's entitled to, Fred to be toileted and Tim to be supported when he flies into a rage and needs to be safely managed out of the room. Sadly, we don't have the staff.

None of which are very useful to my secondary school.

Work within the premises caring for and entertaining

Is that what you think TAs do?

They don't get 12 weeks paid holiday currently!

TAs get paid for 38 weeks term time and then approx 4.8 weeks legally entitled holiday pay. This amount is then divided by 12 months so they have a regular income over the year.