Disability and Special Educational Needs: Classroom Assistants

(asked on 22nd March 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national pay, terms and conditions structure for teaching assistants working with children and young people with SEND.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 30th March 2023

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published 2 March 2023, set out that the Department will develop a longer term approach for teaching assistants to ensure their responsibilities and effect is consistent across the system. The Department will commission a research project to develop an evidence base on current school approaches, demand, and best practice. The Department will work with the sector to develop an approach.

In the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, the Department committed to developing new SEND and AP practice guides. These will set out evidence based best practice in meeting individual needs, and will cover guidance on the effective use and deployment of teaching assistants. The Department will start by building on existing best practice, including on early language support, autism and mental health and wellbeing, and will publish three practice guides by the end of 2025.

The Government’s education reforms gave schools freedom to make their own decisions regarding budgets. For most staff, including teaching assistants, schools have the freedom to recruit according to their own circumstances and set pay and conditions.

Many schools pay teaching assistants according to Local Government pay scales. These are set through negotiations between the Local Government Association, which represents the employer, and Local Government trade unions, which represent the employee. The Government does not have any formal role in these matters.

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