Schools will undergo a “crisis of support” without urgent action to improve pay and training for teaching assistants, a charity will warn in a report to be published this week.
The NCFE, an educational charity that also provides qualifications for those in the teaching sector, carried out a snapshot survey of 150 teaching assistants (TAs) across the UK and found that three-quarters had thought about leaving in the past year. Only one in 10 felt it was a well respected and valued role.
A TA who supports children with special educational needs (SEN) in a secondary school in West Yorkshire, and who spoke to the Observer on condition of anonymity, said her pay did not reflect her role or skills and was not enough to live on. “A few times I’ve had to use a food bank that my child’s school runs,” she said.
The single mother, who works in the school holidays, also has a second evening job as a youth theatre leader during term-time “because I wouldn’t be able to pay rent otherwise”. She said when her child finished school in two years she would be reconsidering her options despite loving her job.
“The students we are seeing are in dire need of emotional support – Covid has really affected them,” she added. “It is becoming more and more difficult not to burn out with the things we deal with.”
A second TA, who supports SEN children and teaches a phonics class in a primary in the north of England, said: “I had to turn down more hours at school because I’d have had to pay a dog walker more than my wage.”
She added that without her husband’s earnings there would be “absolutely no way” she could continue her job. “Another TA I work with has just applied to Sainsbury’s. It’s the same everywhere and it’s a massive loss for schools.”
Jen Winkley resigned last year after eight years as a TA in a primary school in West Sussex and now earns considerably more working in customer services. She worked five practically full school days a week as a TA, but still did not earn enough to pay tax.
“It was hard to walk away. I cried for three days after I left,” she said. “I got to know the children really well.
“To start with, the job feels brilliant as it fits around your children, but then you realise you can’t even afford to take them on days out in the school holidays.”
Winkley and her husband live in a two-bed flat with their three children and felt they would never be able to upsize on her school salary. “I have a shared ownership flat and almost all my wages went on paying the rent.”
Stewart Gynn, headteacher of Bishop Bronescombe CoE primary in St Austell, Cornwall, who contributed to the NCFE report, said his school relied heavily on TAs to support children with additional needs who would otherwise be shut out from learning, as well as providing backup for teachers during lessons. One is leaving at half term due to the low pay.
He said: “My concern is that we will just lose these people. It used to be a big selling point for mums that you didn’t have to work in the holidays, but now some supermarkets are saying the same thing and paying more.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the headteachers’ union NAHT, said: “TAs do an incredible job – they are the unsung heroes of the education system, providing the support for vulnerable children that is so vital.”
He added: “There’s a knock-on impact for the whole classroom if teachers’ time is taken up with things they usually rely on TAs to do.”
Angie Rogers, subject specialist in teaching and learning at NCFE, said: “There’s a real risk of skilled TAs being forced out of education and into other sectors. Relying on passion alone is not sustainable.”
The Department for Education said: “Schools have the freedom to make their own decisions about budgets and are able to recruit teaching assistants, according to their own circumstances.” It said they could set their own pay and conditions, but most mirrored local government pay scales.
