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.

I think that since TA use became fairly widespread (early-mid 2000s?) a narrative has evolved where questioning the worth of the role is seen as both arrogant and as a sort of admission of your own incompetence: we can see that in the replies above.

A TA explaining a task to a student isn’t a magical formula. A teacher should be equally capable of ensuring everyone in the classroom can access the work, and this is often not done verbally. A ta working one to one with a student can check understanding but this can be disruptive and it creates a culture of reliance.

The provision of schools that cater for SEN students is a bit of a red herring as a lot of students who TAs work with can cope fine in mainstream. Being below average, even significantly so, doesn’t = special school.

It was always a cheap and lazy way of ticking the SEN box: we’ve provided a TA for support, now off you pop. When you boil down the effectiveness of TAs the input is minimal but it still can’t be called into question. Why is that?

Reiteration but the above is about the role, not individuals performing the role.

While I really can’t speak about the competence of your specific example, IME some of the absolutely stand-out examples of 1:1 TAs working successfully to calm and integrate very complex boys who display challenging behaviour have been men who were perhaps not dissimilar in their own school days. This was when the ‘conventional’ well-educated, model citizens had taken on those TA roles and failed.

A good, well trained TA deployed correctly promotes independence, not dependence and over reliance.

A 1:1 in mainstream isn’t always the cheaper option, in DS’s case it isn’t. He copes fine in mainstream because he has 1:1 and other support/therapies. If you removed the 1:1 support he wouldn’t cope ‘fine’.

I suppose that’s the thing @TheReallyUsefulCrew - some time ago it was decided this was how children with SEN would be supported and so it is.

Of course I don’t know your boy and I take your word for it. But then also, you may have to take mine that TAs are perhaps not as essential to school and learning as some believe them to be. Special education aside.

The provision of schools that cater for SEN students is a bit of a red herring as a lot of students who TAs work with can cope fine in mainstream. Being below average, even significantly so, doesn’t = special school.

Again, this shows the difference in our experience. Ime, to qualify for an EHCP and funded TA in today’s primary environment, children generally display a level of need that entitles those children to special school places for secondary, where parents agree to such a placement. The only exception is those children with severe autism but no learning needs, who do progress to mainstream secondary with support… and occasionally the children with extreme behaviour, just because that is the most crowded Special School locally, and those transfers tend to take place a little later as a result.

If you have TAs working 1:1 with children who are simply ‘below average’, then this is not a situation I recognise at all.

I suppose then to put that another way, not everybody with an EHCP is a good fit for a special school.

I’ve just started looking for a job, and EVERYTHING is through agency. It’s like there’s a whole ‘nother layer of money making recruitment out there nobody needs, but everyone must pay for. Like estate agents. We don’t need them, we have rightmove. We can all take the pictures now.

When I was last looking for a job (admittedly 20 years ago) there were only temp agencies, bulk recruitment of high turnover low paid workers, or very highly skilled headhunted people that used agencies.

The faff to work for public service is unbelievable. I’ve been waiting for a start date for a job I accepted in the NHS since August. I’ve filled in 30 page forms, jumped through interminable hoops, submitted the same information in multiple formats, chased references (they want 3!) and waited and waited. And every week I go to Aldi, where they are advertising for staff on similar rates. Bet I could have started there months ago!

As an example, at the moment I don't really 'explain a task' to the child...I often have to manage a whole different activity to achieve a target, working within the parameters of the classroom and in the context of the lesson. I do this whilst managing sensory needs, medical needs and stopping the child getting up and walking out of the class! Whilst trying to balance the need for the child to being the class with their peers, whilst minimising disruption to those peers.
I also don't think this is a helpful statement...Being below average, even significantly so, doesn’t = special school. Its less about being 'below average' and often more about accessing the curriculum within a classroom of peers working at a different level and managing an environment that the child finds overwhelming or within which they are vulnerable. I'm curious as to how you manage that without TAs.

The only way to give the role more 'value' is to have minimum entry requirements across the board. GCSE maths and English and an NVQ Level 3 in something related.

Then the extra pay is justified.

Until then, anyone can become a TA as its a role that doesn't require skill. Hence the low pay

(Yes I'm aware that there will be some TAs with extra quals and training! And that's great - those individuals should be paid accordingly. This is about the riff raff)

@HazeyjaneIII at the risk of sounding more argumentative than perhaps I mean or want to, I don’t understand how people can’t. You have a range of abilities and needs and you plan the lesson to fit them.

Brilliant! We can all rock when we feel like it for a day now and then, make whatever policy decisions serve our own best interests, hang the consequences to everyone else, schools, the nhs and the economy and go home early. After all, it’s what the current lot do.

What needs do your EHCP students have, in general? As I said, severe autism without additional learning needs would be our most usual ‘remain in mainstream’ group, but to get a full EHCP for autism is rare - MyPlan + is far more usual, and would typically be unsupported. To get an EHCP for learning needs alone is almost unknown unless the deficit is about 5 years by the age of 10 (so generally at the early stages of learning to read and write in upper KS2)and even then I have known it only with significant complicating factors.

The local schools advertise the role on Facebook only.

Who follows their Facebook page? Parents.

So who applies? Parents with no skills who want to work few hours and term time only.

We don't have agency TAs in my area. But I think if they did, they'd be much better!! At least they'd have experience and maybe some qualifications

No, I don’t have to take your word for it because it is utter nonsense. It is ignorant and verging on arrogant to suggest you can meet all pupils needs in a class without a TA even when a pupil in the class has an EHCP that states they require 1:1.

Each child is assessed individually. No one is given 1:1 just because society thinks pupils with SEN should be supported that way. Provision in EHCPs is informed by professional reports, so unless you are questioning the skills and knowledge of those professionals you cannot conclude they aren’t essential.

DS is in secondary and doesn’t need, nor would he want, a SS placement. The best placement for him is MS with 1:1 support and additional therapies. He is happy and thriving there, but if the SEP was removed the placement would fail.

@cantkeepawayforever

I don’t think that’s is true re EHCPs. My DC has one - his needs are almost entirely learning based and he has ADHD.

He certainly does not have a deficit of 5 years plus - far from it. He has a fully funded EHCP.

There are others in the school in a similar position.

I effectively did the EHCP application. Yes it was a bit of a fight but it is achievable.

Saying this puts parents off applying.

As you say, I don't want to be argumentative, I just don't understand how a teacher with 30 kids, could ensure that one child with complex needs can even access the planning - reading and understanding what is required of them, staying focused and on task, writing ability ...that's without things like medical needs or continence needs, behavioural needs and the fact the child may be reluctant to engage, incorporating speech therapy etc....
I'm in awe if you are able to manage it, but I just can't imagine how!

@TheReallyUsefulCrew no one is saying that your son should be in a special school: the opposite in fact.

However, I don’t think TA provision is the only ‘bridge’ if you like between special provision and mainstream schooling. The fact that some think this statement is somehow wildly contentious is what I addressed in my post up there. Low pay is made up for in gushing ‘we simply couldn’t survive without …’ and over time it’s been believed.

Have you ever responded to a government consultation before? That's a good number of responses to a government consultation. Often there will be single responses from professional organisations that several people will have had input into or that they will have consulted on, and others will feel that those professional responses reflect their views and they don't need to submit an individual response (or that they don't have the expertise required to answer the questions).

Medical needs is one area I would agree with you.

However the rest is just teaching. I could just as easily ask what the TA does that means he / she can access it. Whatever they can do, the teacher can do too.

@HazeyjaneIII I don't know how to say this so I'm just going to blurt it out 😆 but you sound so switched on. Don't waste your potential x (although I know you need flexibility and term time etc!)

@Ridingladybugs Apologies - putting parents off applying was absolutely not my intention.

I should have clarified that I am speaking from my own experience in a poorly-funded county, as EHCPs are something of a postcode lottery and the level of need required to obtain one without a huge fight seems to be becoming higher and higher (which is another appalling situation).

I apologise that in making a point to someone who genuinely believes that all children’s needs in an average mainstream primary can be met by a single teacher who ‘prefers to have a silent classroom’, I have inadvertently created a different difficulty.

No, TA support should not be the only recourse for children with SEN - but ime in primary, children who do have 1:1 to support their access to learning would very seldom manage well without. If the 1:1 isn’t adding value, then they should be better directed, either by the SENCo or by the class teacher.

It seems a bit pointless to argue, because I just don't think you'd have time to sit for the whole lesson with the child, support them reading the question, explain what is required, use additional aids required to help them understand and complete the task (whether that be visuals, AAC, Clickr, a game to access maths etc) make sure they actually stay sitting...bearing in mind they might only be able to focus for short periods...so include some movement breaks...but they might still have finished before the end of the lesson....all whilst meeting the needs of the other, very patient, children!! However if you can do this, then hats off to you!

Yes, I have. Just because other consultations also receive a low number of responses doesn’t mean the number of responses for one particular consultation aren’t pitiful. If people are up in arms at what is happening in the SEN system they should make the effort to reply to consultations, in my opinion. You have a different opinion and that is fine, but in my opinion the number of responses is low and should be better.

However the rest is just teaching. I could just as easily ask what the TA does that means he / she can access it. Whatever they can do, the teacher can do too.

The thing is, if as a teacher I am reading the differentiated task to the child who cannot read, and scribing their verbal answers, and redirecting the attention of the child with autism and ADHD every 10 seconds as required, and closely monitoring the behaviour of the explosive child to defuse triggers immediately and translating key words for the child with no English and managing the sensory overload of another child that requires them to leave the room to a safe space…. Yes, all this IS teaching, but I cannot sensibly or safely manage them all while also making sure the whole class of 32 makes progress in their learning….

No one said TA support was the only support, it isn’t for DS.

The bit about SS wasn’t in reply to you. It was in reply to the post ”Ime, to qualify for an EHCP and funded TA in today’s primary environment, children generally display a level of need that entitles those children to special school places for secondary, where parents agree to such a placement.”.