OVER 1,750 support staff working in UK state-funded schools responded to a questionnaire stating that they are ‘overworked, underpaid and taken for granted’, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) reports.
Support staff are being expected to provide cover for classes and work longer hours, for little pay, according to a survey by ATL. Over 1,750 support staff working in UK state-funded schools responded to the survey and over six-in-ten (64%) said they do not consider the work they do when acting as cover supervisor to be different to that done by supply teachers.
Generally, the role of a cover supervisor is to supervise children’s work but not teach. Seventy-one per cent of support staff believe it is not possible to simply supervise a class when providing cover supervision without actually delivering classes.
A cover supervisor at a secondary school in Kent said: ‘In any given week I can cover up to 30 lessons plus two registrations a day. The work is exhausting. Pupils do not treat support staff with the same respect as teaching staff. We are teaching lessons, not delivering them. Our pay rate does not reflect our responsibility levels.’
A teaching assistant in a primary in Warwickshire said: ‘I understand that budgets are tight in schools but that is no excuse for how support staff are treated. I cover teachers two days a week during which time I teach the class. The financial reward for doing this is barely noticeable in my wages. Workload is as big a problem for support staff as it is for teachers.’
A cover supervisor in a secondary school in England said: ‘Too much is expected of cover supervisors. Assessing, marking and planning are not supposed to be undertaken but are regularly expected of cover supervisors who feel they cannot say no because it may not be seen favourably.’
Support staff also reported they have to work over and above their contracted hours each week with 12% working more than seven extra hours a week and a third working more than four hours than contracted per week. And of those having to work extra hours a week, 75% said they do so because their workload demands it. Twenty-two per cent said they work extra hours as it is ‘expected of them’.
Seventy-three per cent of respondents do not get paid for doing any extra hours of work. A learning support assistant from an infant school in Hampshire said: ‘Having worked in education for many years, the responsibilities linked to the role of the teaching assistant increase every year.
‘Sadly the recognition for loyalty, experience and pay seem to do the opposite.’
With support staff feeling they are already overworked, around a fifth (21.4%) of respondents said this is worsened by support staff redundancies made at their school in the last 12 months.
Just over a quarter (26%) said the redundancies were compulsory. Unsurprisingly, 61% said the support staff redundancies had been made because of financial shortages, with school budgets being ever-squeezed. Twenty-six per cent said redundancies had been made due to re-organisation at their school.
A technician in a secondary school in North Somerset said: ‘Support staff morale is at an all-time-low. People are stressed, overworked and under-appreciated, and yet more cuts are needed apparently.’
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of ATL, said: ‘Support staff are struggling under excessive workloads as much as teachers and this survey shows that, sadly, support staff feel over-utilised and under-valued. It is unacceptable that so many support staff are working longer hours than they are contracted for. Even more so, they feel they have to work longer hours because their workload demands it.
‘The government needs to address workload issues for all education staff as we know that the hours worked, and the type and impact of some of that work, is becoming too much for them, resulting in stress and illness. It is driving experienced and valuable staff from the profession.
‘This is why ATL has launched its work-life campaign “It’s about time” which aims to empower our members and colleagues to find ways to tackle the issue, to reduce hours, to reduce unnecessary workload and to give professionals the time and trust to make the maximum impact on pupils’ learning.’
The survey also found that support staff are struggling to get the training and continuing professional development (CPD) they need, with 41% saying their school does not regularly organise CPD for support staff. Forty-seven per cent said this was because of a lack of funds and 30% said it was due to lack of time.
• Teachers unions have responded to the National Audit Office’s statement on the teacher recruitment crisis. Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said: ‘The fact that government has missed its recruitment figures for the past four years is a sad indictment of the effect their education policies are having on the profession.
‘Under this government teaching has become an unattractive profession and graduates are looking elsewhere for a career. Teachers’ pay has fallen behind other graduate professions. Excessive working hours and a punishing accountability agenda are making what should be one of the best jobs into a very difficult one.
‘Teachers are leaving in unsustainable numbers and, as the NAO’s figures show, not enough new people are being attracted into teaching. Schools are struggling to fill posts and children are being taught in larger class sizes, often with a teacher who does not have the specialisation in the subject they are taking.
‘This will clearly impact on children’s education. Unless Government radically tackles the pay, workload and excessive accountability that teachers currently suffer, this is a situation that will get increasingly worse.’
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in UK, said: ‘This report vindicates the findings of the extensive research carried out by the NASUWT. Even when it is spending £700m annually on recruiting and training new teachers, the government cannot meet its recruitment targets.
‘Not even that level of expenditure can compensate for government policies which have made the profession so uncompetitive and unattractive that they have generated a teacher supply crisis.
‘With deep cuts to teachers’ pay year-on-year since 2011, increased pension contributions and excessive workload blighting the working lives, health and well-being of teachers, is it any wonder that applications to join the profession are down and resignations are up?
‘It is not only teachers who are suffering as a result of these policies, children and young people are being denied their entitlement to qualified teachers. Yet the government remains in arrogant denial about the crisis it has created. Teachers, parents and pupils deserve better. It’s about time ministers faced up to the chaos and crisis they have created, admit they got it wrong and start to value, support and invest in the teaching workforce.’
