Unlike teachers, support staff in schools can carry out a much wider variety of working duties, depending on their specific role.
These duties can range from administrative work to classroom support, pastoral care, IT and technical support, and catering and facilities support.
Due to ongoing systemic factors such as the recruitment and retention crisis in schools and a lack of funding from the government, workload for support staff has increased dramatically in recent years. Consequently, there are often blurred lines between the different roles that are carried out to cut back on costs, particularly for classroom-based roles such as teaching assistants (TAs), higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs) and cover supervisors, who are often expected to take on the tasks and responsibilities expected of a fully qualified teacher.
Some of the most common workload concerns for support staff in schools are as follows:
Excessive workload
Support staff often juggle multiple responsibilities, such as administrative tasks, classroom assistance, student support and extra duties like lunch time supervision, which leads to an unrealistic and unmanageable workload.
Lack of time for planning and preparation
Many support staff, particularly TAs and HLTAs, do not have adequate time built into their schedule to prepare for lessons, set up materials or review student progress.
This can make it difficult to provide effective support during class or to meet the needs of individual students.
Understaffing
Many schools face staffing shortages, which leads to support staff taking on more responsibilities than originally intended. For example, one staff member may be asked to support more students or supervise larger groups, increasing pressure and reducing the quality of support they can provide.
Emotional and physical strain
Support staff working with students with special educational needs (SEN), additional learning needs (ALN) or behavioural challenges often experience high emotional and physical demands.
Some roles, such as those in catering, cleaning or facilities management, require physical labour, which can lead to fatigue, stress or injury over time.
Job creep
Job creep refers to the gradual expansion of a person’s job responsibilities beyond their original role without proper adjustments to compensation, time or expectations. Over time, small tasks or duties might be added, often without formal discussion or agreement, leading to an increased workload that can cause stress or burnout.
In some cases, support staff find themselves taking on roles that overlap with those of other staff members, such as administrative assistants doing work typically done by teachers or vice versa.
Support staff members experiencing job creep can and should request a job evaluation, which is the process of assessing the value of individual jobs to determine their remuneration.
Read more on job creep and available resources for members and reps, and guidance on job evaluation.
Limited training and professional development
Support staff often do not receive the necessary training to effectively carry out all aspects of their role, especially when dealing with students with complex needs.
Further, there is often a lack of professional development opportunities compared to teachers, leaving support staff feeling devalued and unmotivated.
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Pressure from increased student needs
With increasing numbers of students requiring personalised attention, particularly those with additional learning needs, support staff are being stretched too thinly and often do not have proper support or backup from other staff members to handle difficult students with behavioural issues.
Actions for reps
- Raise the issue of job descriptions at a members’ meeting and follow up with support staff members to check whether their job descriptions genuinely reflect the work they do. If not, ask them to request an informal meeting with their line manager and that you attend as their rep.
- Members should review their job descriptions in advance, ensuring they are accurate and up to date, and highlight any duties added since they started the role.
- Explain that the outcome of the meeting should be either the removal or reallocation of additional duties, or a pay upgrade to reflect the work required.
- If no agreement is reached and the issue affects an individual member, raise it with the school’s management. If it still cannot be resolved, inform the member that they can escalate by submitting a grievance through the employer’s grievance procedure or using the locally agreed job evaluation process.
- If more than one member is affected, collectivise the issue, raise it with the school’s management as part of the bargaining cycle (see section 2), and escalate as appropriate.