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.

Schools need to be paying more than the supermarkets to retain staff. Basic economics

Basic economics is if the govt doesn’t give schools enough money, they can’t afford to pay staff properly. That’s what’s happening.

I agree Ridingladybugs, poor practice and goes against the SENCOP. If confidentiality was the issue schools could disclose parts of the EHCP in full, as LAs sometimes do when disclosing EHCPs to others, which is also covered by the SENCOP. I also don’t see how staff can know they have all the relevant information.

As a primary teacher, I would see the EHCP of every child in my class with one, and would be very heavily involved in planning how to implement its recommendations, carry out target-setting and differentiation based on it and would attend annual reviews. However, I would see a limited number of such EHCPs each year.

I can see that as a secondary teacher, rather than having very in-depth knowledge of (and full time daily contact with) a small number of pupils with EHCPs, I might over a fortnight's rolling timetable of classes, see a very large number of such pupils but for a limited time. For small departments with limited staff teaching e.g. every child in KS3 but only for 1 or 2 lessons a cycle, it might well be more practical to have a standard summary than to require such staff to read every full EHCP document for every Y7-Y9 pupil with one as well as those from Y10-13 who continue to study the subject as an option.

I am glad DS’s secondary school doesn’t summarise the EHCP and his teachers and TAs have full knowledge of his EHCP as per the SENCOP. I don’t see how teachers can ensure all needs are met and provide all the SEP if they haven’t actually read at least B&F - and that’s not a criticism of the teachers, but of the policy.

By summary I mean 'sections B and F' - ie the most teaching-relevant bits! As a primary teacher, I see the full document, but I can see that a document for a secondary school teacher that extracted B and F (and C if relevant to the child's needs in class) for every child in that class, class by class, might be a practical way forward, with access to the full document if a teacher needed specific additional information?

I am thinking of that fine line between a counsel of perfection, in which every teacher reads every child's EHCP from start to finish including all associated documents, and a pragmatic solution in which every teacher has an accessible and implementable version that they are much more likely to assimilate?

[I am talking in a theoretical sense here - as I say I am used to having full access to the full document, but then I am also talking about a situation in which I would have a small number each year - not a small number of SEN children, of course, but a small number with full EHCPs in place by KS2]

cant I assumed a summary would more like the detail in an IEP, which wouldn’t be detailed enough, rather than whole sections. If a summary includes, at least, the whole of B&F why not just disclose the actual EHCP in full or part as per the SENCOP? Why make extra work by making an extra document if it’s exactly the same information in full?

I've never seen an ehcp in full and don't think secondary teachers are expected to. I've worked in fe and 3 schools, one outstanding, and the senco provides us with all the sen data etc, pen pictures.

9.212 of the SENCOP states “…It is important that teachers or other educational professionals working closely with the child or young person should have full knowledge of the child or young person’s EHC plan. School governing bodies should have access to a child or young person’s EHC plan...”

To me, any teacher actually teaching the pupil is “working closely” therefore should have “full knowledge of the… EHCP”. Even if the whole EHCP isn’t disclosed, it should be disclosed in part, at the very least the whole of B&F. SEN data and pen pictures aren’t enough detail. How can a teacher know they are delivering all the required SEP and how can they know they are meeting all the pupil’s needs?

Schools, early years, and care sector are all going to do the same thing, up the cash they offer.

Unfortunately all of these areas are reliant on government funding so can't increase salaries without an increase in funding.

Schools etc will be making staff redundant not increasing salaries due to the lack of funding they receive

I teach over 40 children with an EHCP. It is a lot to read and remember.

No, they aren’t.

My school is making support staff redundant to pay for energy bills. There is no spare money to ‘up the cash they offer’!

*It is an unskilled job though? As in you don't need any formal training/qualifications that can't be done 'on the job'.

It's a bloody demanding job that deserves a hell of a lot more recognition then it gets, but saying it is unskilled is factual.*

It depends on the school.
We require certain entry requirements for all of our TA roles, regardless of level of TA pay.
Our level 3s are expected to have a level 3 TA qualification or equivalent.
Our HLTAs are expected to have a a HLTA qualification, or a level 3 TA one and currently working towards HLTA level award, or an equivalent.

And once that training 'on the job' is done then it's no longer unskilled.

Obviously there may be some schools still willing to take in anyone as a TA but not all schools are. Some expect qualifications and training, as well as experience.

Well if they are paying them off they won't need to worry about them leaving to work

Sorry posted too soon

Work in a supermarket.
How is the school proposing to plug the gap that the TAs will leave?

Put more pressure on the teachers and they will leave too?

I'm a TA currently covering class on my own all week as teacher has Covid. Does this count as unskilled work?

@Dinoteeth teachers are already leaving

Put more pressure on the teachers and they will leave too?

That was a different thread www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4573302-fears-grow-over-shortage-of-qualified-teachers

I watched a bit of PMQT today. A lot of questions raised re energy bills, mortgage interest rates, NHS, nurse pay, fracking, etc. I didn't hear anybody talking about the Education crises.
And crises it is.

@mewkins, just wondering if your sister is a qualified teacher, why is she working as a TA and not a teacher? Then she would not be paid a pittance.

I have worked with a number of qualified-teacher TAs. While they are obviously woefully underpaid for their qualifications, they do have a job that is fairly compatible with a normal family life - regular hours, no weekend working, no late nights, very little if anything taken home to do - and in general is almost all working with children. Teaching is a very family-unfriendly profession, in terms of hours, responsibility, mental load etc, and so some qualified teachers do step into TA roles especially when their families are young.

she left teaching after a few years when she found she was doing more paperwork than teaching. She then had a baby and decided that it was unfair on her dc as her dh works long hours. She would be paid lots more if working as a teacher but doesn't want to just yet. She enjoys being a TA mostly but has the occasional nightmare year group.

Quite a few TAs at my ds' school have previously been teachers too but gave up because of the stress of it.

I’m amazed at the idea of TA with no qualifications in the last 15 years where I am in the a NE there’s little employment opportunities so schools could as for the max ie educated to degree level must have the NVQ 3 in supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools

I wonder if I’d lived somewhere down south where employment opportunities are so much better I wouldn’t have needed any of that

@Myjobisanightmare if a school is doing well, and it's a good place to work, they can ask for qualifications. My school (primary) used to ask for NVQ3 minimum and at least 5 years experience. Current climate, experienced TAs have left because of being expected to teach 30 children with no other adult support for days on end for no extra money. So now the school are desperate. This September 6 new TAs were taken on, all mums at the school, maybe have qualifications/degrees but no classroom or behaviour management experience. (The ad said all considered). Already one is covering PPA. It's not good.