Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the change in responsibilities of teaching assistants since 2010; and what steps her Department takes to support teaching assistants who have taken on additional responsibilities.

Head teachers are responsible for the deployment of their teaching assistants, which is based on the existing guidance available such as the Education Endowment Foundation’s report “Making Best Use of Teaching Assistants”.

The report offers the latest evidence and identifies ways that schools can deploy teaching assistants in different contexts to deliver high quality support to pupils. It also recommends that teaching assistants should be fully prepared for their role by having the knowledge and training necessary to carry out their work. The report is available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/pdf/TA_Guidance_Report_Interactive.pdf