Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to help ensure schools use contracts that remunerate teaching assistants for work undertaken during the school holiday period rather than use of term-time only contracts for those support staff.

The Government’s education reforms gives schools the freedom to make their own decisions about recruitment, pay, conditions, and use of teaching assistants. Schools should have the freedom to make these decisions, as they are best placed to understand their pupils’ needs.

Many schools pay teaching assistants according to local government pay scales. These are set through negotiations between the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents the employer, and Local Government trade unions (UNISON, Unite, and the GMB), which represent the employee. Support staff on these pay scales, or in schools that mirror them, will receive a pay rise of 10% on average. This will be backdated to April 2022.

The 2022 Autumn Statement underlines the priority the Government attaches to schools, delivering a significant uplift in funding in this Spending Review period. Core schools funding will increase by £2 billion in both 2023/24 and 2024/25.

It is for schools to decide how to use teaching assistants and other support staff in activities outside the classroom, such as holiday activities and breakfast clubs.