To think TAs/support staff should get a pay rise as well as teachers?

[Opensea]

Just read that teachers are getting a well earned 5% increase - okay it’s more likely a pay cut in real terms in the current climate.

But what really riles me is that TAs and support staff haven’t been given a mention.
I was a TA and a one to one for almost 10 years and I know what an increasingly difficult job it’s become, much more responsibility too.

We were talking about this seaelier - are Support staff def not getting a rise? Crap if true

The pay rises for NHS only ever mention doctors and nurses and not the many other professionals working in hospitals (like my husband). We only get the headlines but I've no idea if TAs etc are getting a rise. They should obviously.

It is getting so much harder to recruit in schools - the TA job role in woefully underpaid and no longer as attractive given people have more flexibility to WFH.

They will won't they? Surely the news is just the headlines.

TAs absolutely deserve a rise. They get awful money and do a fantastic job

YANBU. Whoever makes these decisions clearly has no idea how crucial TA support in school is. But you see that reflected in some schools still. I’ve been a TA and am now a teacher. In one school I taught I had a TA who was also a cover supervisor - so she was barely in my class. I brought this up with SLT and they essentially made me feel like an idiot for not managing on my own. It’s not about me managing it’s about me trying to do two people’s jobs and the children not getting the additional support they need. I didn’t work there long, where I am now TA work is appreciated and if a TA is absent another TA will flit between to classes to help support. Implying that them being there or not should make no difference is completely undermining the hard work they do and the contribution they make to the children’s learning. But I think they are just seen as a nice ‘extra’ by the people in power. They are not, they are essential to the running of a school and class and should be appreciated as such by being paid accordingly.

TAs don’t have a National pay scale, schools are free to set their own salary, or the local authorities sometimes have a local pay scale.

Don’t disagree but since I am a teacher who works in an Academy (as most Secondary teachers do) I doubt I will get anything either.

They are criminally underpaid. The government doesn't value their role though, so a pay rise would be unthinkable to them.

The teaching unions are working alongside the other unions to negotiate for support staff to also get a pay rise. However the teachers and the TAs are actually receiving a pay cut in real terms. I suspect this will be the same for many other areas of work.

TAs are not mentioned because the government doesn't set their pay.

Of course they deserve a pay rise. What they're actually going to get is made redundant, because the government have not funded this teacher pay rise and have also only increased school funding by 1.9%.

I'm support staff in an academy and got 1.75% rise in April (which added an awesome £6 to my monthly salary) so I guess that my lot for a while.

5% of a piss poor wage would still be crap.

The STRB is for the School TEACHERS' Review Body and they make recommendations to the government, as they decide the levels of pay, hours of work, terms of contracts for teachers, which can change in each academic year.

Support staff rises are arranged separately and at different times, as the contracts are completely different (they usually don't have to resign by 31st May to go somewhere else on 1st September, for example!)

Once its worked out its 2.75% for experienced teachers and 8% for new starters.

My LA area TAs will be getting between 4% and 7% depending on their band.

Plus, the trouble is with % rises across the board is it just makes the pay gap wider. Those that earn more, get bigger rises.

I think the support staff should get the 3K the ECTs are getting. Not the same percentage, but the same actual rise in salary.
TAs get paid so woefully, even if they got 10%, the gap between teachers and support will just widen further.

Snap, Kite!

This is the harsh reality.
Support staff will be made redundant. Teachers won't get a pay rise, because the budget won't stretch. All the "nice to haves" - if schools have them still - will go. Class sizes will increase.

The reason they are not mentioned today is because they are not on the list of the staff under the mass negotiation schemes where pay was announced today. That's all.

This is the same for police staff, fire & rescue staff and prison staff who are not in regulated roles like Police Officers, Firefighter, Prison Officer etc who were announced today.

The announcements today are SOLELY for specific agencies and roles.

Have another read of the news articles and you'll spot the lists: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62228522

Armed Forces, Police, Prisons, NHS staff (where they are directly employed by an NHS Trust), Teachers are on the list.

It only covers 25% of all the public sector employees in the UK. The rest of us have separate negotiations ongoing.

Any support staff rise (and they aren't by any means guaranteed) is around/often less than half that of teachers. In 2021, they got 1.75%. Although academies didn't have to pay that at all. So many didn't.

Can make 5-8.9% for those in the first five years of teaching seem a bit of a kick in the teeth, really.

Will these pay rises even happen at all for teachers? Given that lots of schools are or will become academies who set their own pay policies.
ECTs will have signed contracts on the starting salary of ~£25k, I wonder when/if they will actually get a raise 🤔

And also agree, TAs absolutely deserve a pay rise!

1.75! Think yourself lucky, I got 1%.
Our TAs get paid less per year than people working in shops. No wonder there’s a recruitment problem.

Well if Penny Mordant has her way there won’t be any support staff in schools at all. The pay is atrocious but also the lack of recognition for how essential support staff are is deeply demoralising.