NEU Survey finds workload increases for support staff in schools as staff are cut

Teaching assistants, school librarians and lab technicians are facing a soaring workload as staff are cut and they are increasingly being expected to teach, according to a National Education Union (NEU) survey of over 1,700 support staff members.

More than half (54%) of respondents find they are carrying out more tasks that used to be performed by teachers in the past such as marking pupils’ work and data entry. A cover supervisor in Rotherham said: “Teaching is required every lesson, usually with some prep”.

Cover supervisors are meant to be “suitably-trained school staff who supervise pupils carrying out pre-prepared exercises when teaching staff are on short-term absence. The cover supervisor’s main job is to manage a classroom, ensuring that students remain on task with the work they have been set”, according to skillsforschools.org.uk.1

A learning support assistant (LSA) in a secondary school in Lambeth gave a lengthy list of teaching tasks LSAs were doing in their school: “Planning differentiation materials, planning for lessons, creating resources, contacting parents about pupils’ progress, running curriculum clubs, supporting enrichment for year 11 pupils”.

Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: “This survey shows the worrying use of support staff who are being over-worked and used as cheap labour to teach. With school budgets cut to the bone, it is easy to see why this is happening. Schools are woefully underfunded and struggling to make ends meet. But this needs to stop. Support staff are being exploited and it is children’s education that suffers, if they are not being taught by qualified teachers and supported adequately by the valuable support staff. Support staff need to be paid fairly for the work they do, and for the hours they work.”

60 per cent of respondents report that the number of support staff has decreased in their school. The cut in support staff places more pressure on the workload of the remaining support staff. In Lincolnshire, one TA noted that the “remaining TAs are pulled all over the place”.

Figures for secondary schools for 2016 show support staff numbers have declined by nearly five thousand compared to the previous year and by almost ten thousand compared to three years previously, while teacher numbers have fallen by six thousand since 2013.2

Member comments expressed in the NEU survey included: “There aren’t enough hours in the day to cover all paper work”, “To do my roles as well as I can requires 55-60 hours per week plus school holidays”, “minimal staffing means that we have all taken on extra workload”.

Thirteen per cent of respondents said they regularly work over seven extra hours a week above their contracted hours, which equates to one extra day a week. One third (32%) work more than two days extra a month. Worryingly, almost two thirds (60%) of respondents said any overtime they did was unpaid work.

A pastoral leader in Herefordshire said: “There seems to be confusion as to whether I should be paid; not paid or given time off in lieu…I'm not paid enough for the hours I do”.

Nearly one thousand respondents (72%) said the extra hours they worked were a result of a demanding workload. Nearly one quarter said that there is an expectation to take on extra work (24%) and five per cent that the school demands it.

An HLTA in York said: “I am paid for running a breakfast club each morning before school but this is not part of my contracted hours and therefore not pensionable. I work an additional 4 - 5 hours a week unpaid to mark books for the lessons I prepare and teach as PPA cover (planning, preparation and assessment)”.

A Head of Careers from a school in Barnet said: “I sometimes take time in lieu but it is never a true reflection of what I have done and continued to do at home”.

Almost half (41%) of respondents who cover classes for teachers stated that the role nearly always requires an element of teaching, and the majority (75%) considered their work to be identical to that of a teacher, despite being paid at a support staff rate. A technician in Leeds remarked, “the boundaries are blurred”.

A Hertfordshire technician said: “It is rare that the pupils can work entirely independently and I feel they often benefit from input and encouragement”.

A cover supervisor in Staffordshire said: “I teach. Complex work is left and expected to be delivered at a high standard using SIMS (School Information Management System software) and technology”.

A higher learning teaching assistant (HLTA) in Cardiff said she had to teach all subjects and “mark books of any classes I cover”. On average, she covered classes three days a week.

An HLTA from a primary school in Cheshire said: “Whenever I cover, it's always teaching a class”.

An HLTA from North Tyneside said: “I plan and deliver the sessions, mark and assess them”.

The National Education Union (ATL section) held their support staff annual conference in London on Saturday 10th March 2018.

ENDS

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• The National Education Union stands up for the future of education. It brings together the voices of more than 450,000 teachers, lecturers, support staff and leaders working in maintained and independent schools and colleges across the UK, to form the largest education union in Europe.
• It is an independent, registered trade union and professional association, representing its members in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

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Further notes:

Responses are taken from the Support Staff (Maintained and Academies) Survey 2017, carried out in Winter 2017. It involved 1741 Support Staff in maintained and academy schools in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands

1 http://www.skillsforschools.org.uk/roles-in-schools/cover-supervisor

2 Support staff in State funded secondary schools total number 2016: 166,400; 2015: 170,600; 2013: 175,500. FTE regular teachers in State funded secondary schools: 2016: 208,200; 2013: 214,200;     Data taken from DfE: School workforce in England: November 2016 (Tables 2a & 2b)

Pupil numbers have grown rapidly in primary schools, by 15% since 2010, while in secondary schools, the population bulge in primaries has started to filter through and in the last two years, pupil numbers have risen by 2% (almost 60,000 pupils). By 2024 there are forecast to be over half a million more secondary students than in 2017, a rise of 19%. Data taken from DfE: National pupil projections: July 2017 (Table 1)