Teaching assistant removed

[Mellymiller1]

Hello, my daughter has dyslexia and has a SEN plan. We've just found out that her school have removed all teaching assistants except one who will float around 150 kids!! Previously there was one TA per class! No consultation and no communication. Just wondered if anyone has any experience of this and could offer tips as planning to write to the Governors. Also keen to understand what best practice is if there is any advice on this. Statutory guidance looks like just one teacher per 30 kinds, Many thanks!

Are you in England?

How many hours is your daughter funded for?
Very normal to have no LSAs in schools now unfortunately

That's it. One teacher per class, only 30 in KS1, other classes have no legal maximum size. The only exception is if a child has an EHCP that specifically states 1:1 support.

Why this comes as a surprise, I don't know. Schools have been banging on for ages about underfunding and budgets. The vast majority of expenditure is, not surprisingly , on salaries and this is the only area that can be cut to any degree.

Write to governors all you like, they have had to set the budget so will be well aware of what they can and can't afford.

Or try writing to your MP and the government instead.

Sadly that sounds very standard, and wouldn't need a consultation.

Does she have an ehcp specifying 1-1 or small group work?

I was deleted a post very similar to what @spanieleyes has said because i thought it was a bit of a Sunday morning buzz kill. But yeah. What they said.

Former clerk to governing body here - if the teaching assistant is a general class one who helps as needed, rather than your daughter having allocated hours with 1 to 1 support, I doubt there is much you can do unfortunately. It will be down to the need to manage the school budget which is getting more and more difficult.

Has your dd got an EHCP with specified 1:1 hours (not just ‘access to’ as that means sharing any TA available)?

Schools have had to slash budgets so hard this year. On paper, your ‘floating’ TA will probably be designated as working to the actions on your dd’s SEN plan, but they will also be designated for all the other SEN plans and their time will be incredibly stretched. They will also be likely to be covering for teachers as and when required.

Schools can’t change this. Only the Govt can.

There’s a difference between a SEN plan and an EHCP. If your daughter has the latter, it depends on what support is specified in it and funded. If it’s the former, I’m afraid that, has PPs have said, that’s how things are now. There is no money and there won’t be unless and until a government funds education properly. Which is vanishingly unlikely.

Unfortunately this is happening in more and more schools. They have had such a reduction in funding that this is now the only way most schools can make the cuts they need to set a budget. There's little point in writing to the governors as they will have approved the school's budget plan - they won't have agreed the cuts lightly but this is almost certainly there only way they could set a balanced budget. If your daughter has an agreed EHCP rather than having been identified as having special needs, the school will get some funding to provide extra support for her, but this is very unlikely to be for a significant amount of time and won't necessarily be one to one. The challenges schools are having to face at the moment are horrendous.

Do you mean they have a APDR IEP type plan rather than an EHCP?

Unlrss they have an EHCP with quantified support in Section F, there’s nothing you can do. Schools have nothing, no money, no staff, no resources. We have made redundancies as well-no TAs left unless there’s additional funding. The governors will know there are no TAs as they set the budget.

Write to your MP and don’t vote Tory.

Is the SEN plan something agreed with the school/SENCO only? What is specified in it? Or is it an EHCP?

For a school to let all their TA's go (bar one) , it must be in serious financial difficulties. No one get rid of their staff for shits and giggles.

Parents epithet bet consulted. They can't afford them.

Schools have been woefully underfunded for over a decade. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to what body of people don't care about the population's children, especially those with SEN.
Only answer is to change the top decision makers.

It’s happening in a lot of schools. Schools are struggling with funding and budgets and having to make cutbacks. Write to your MP.

Schools have no money, they are given a budget and about 80/90% of that budget goes on staffing, they won't have wanted to get rid of any TA's, but to balance the budget they will have had to. They can't get rid of teachers.

Well, to be fair, they could! Lots of schools are employing "cover supervisors " or unqualified teachers instead. Our budget is 82% on salaries, the rest goes on utilities( we already restrict heating until after half term) which we can't cut back on any further, consumables( staff already fund extras themselves- even though we wish they didn't,) which we try to cut down on, we shop around, buy the cheaper exercise books, etc. Anything that can be cut already has been. The government keeps telling us we have more money than ever before, seemingly ignoring the fact that we have more students than ever, higher energy costs, higher pension contributions, higher everything!
The only thing left to cut is staffing.

They can’t afford TA’s. You know the strikes and the teachers banging on about the cuts to education budgets? This is what it looks like in practice.

you can write to the governors, but unless you are prepared to fund £180,000 + a year for 7 TA’s (remember the cost to school is more than their salary by the time they’ve paid national insurance, pension etc etc) then they’re not changing anything.

Yep, they don't have to consult you ir inform you. They cannot pay for what they can't afford, sadly.

This is awful. I am very grateful that DS's primary have a TA in every class full time plus LSAs in the SEN department attached to certain classes, I assume depending on particular needs in that class . That's a 4 form intake primary, so a big school and must cost a lot. I was worried about such a big school but I guess there are economies of scale not available to smaller schools

Our schools have made redundancies and TA roles are being removed. There is no money for it.

As others have said,perfectly normal, part of the reason teacher went on strike was under funding and under resourced.
You need ehcp with 1:1 stated otherwise sge will nit get any support at school.

Just to add as others have said dobt vote tory and do write to MP. I'm still amazed no one took any notice when teachers said this was the wY it was going!

Holy shitballs… nobody is paid enough to deserve that! These kids are our future. We are going to blather on about the importance of education - especially early education - and do this?

And the government have just reduced funding to cut the number of EHCPs by 20% so even those jobs will be going soon!

Welcome to state education under the Tories.

There is no money, it’s that simple.