Comment: We must recognise the role teaching assistants play in our schools

3,500 teaching assistants face pay cuts of £3,600 from September next year.
By Tony Cunningham MP
As a result of Cumbria county council’s single-status review, full-time teaching assistants are facing enormous pay cuts, unheard of in the private sector. Many will lose a significant proportion of their salary. It is neither fair nor right. Many people have expressed concerns that the cuts will be too much and they may not be able to continue working.
I recently met a headteacher who reminded me that back in 1997 the only additional resources she had was a packet of felt tip pens. Now we have new class rooms, white boards, computers, but the most important additional resource over the last ten to 15 years has been the classroom assistants.
The last Labour government introduced a teaching programme in 1997. Our vision was to develop the full potential of the school workforce by developing the role of support staff, to help improve standards of teaching and learning. As one teaching assistant said, “we’ve come a long way from washing up paint pots and sweeping the floor”. These support staff, in their own right, enrich the experience of pupils.
If you ask the teachers and school governors they will say the assistants do a great job and they thoroughly deserve the pay they get. These people do not earn a lot. A full-time teaching assistant earns about £14,700 for 32.5 hour week; these cuts will see the salary reduced to £11,140. The council justifies the pay cuts by arguing that teaching assistants have a shorter working week and longer holidays than other staff. The council claim that the teaching assistants get paid for 37 hours a week and receiver 14 weeks paid holiday. This is refuted by the assistants, they are contracted for 32.5 hours are paid for 32.5 hours; as for holidays, they are paid term-time only, albeit in 12 equal monthly payments. The special educational needs allowance given to teaching assistants working in these schools is also to be abolished. The council argue that this can be more effectively allocated through the job-evaluation scheme.
There is an appeal process, however teaching assistants facing this pay slash are being denied the right to appeal in person against the pay cuts. A large number of those affected are appealing; however I understand that the council will hear appeals only from a “representative sample” of school-based staff. A spokesperson for the council said, “you don’t review every single person, you review the role and you take representative samples to do that.” The teaching assistants believe everyone should be allowed a voice and you cannot lump all teaching assistants together, the jobs they do are wide and varied. Just because the number of appeals is large should not be a reason to take away that person right to be heard. The appeal process is in three stages. Stage one is an informal review with HR staff. Stage two is heard by a head teacher and stage three by a governor from the schools employers’ reference group. However, as teaching assistants point out this means their appeals will be heard firstly by the very people who drew up the single-status criteria in the first place.
If this goes through it is not just about the money. It’s about the standing it gives to those in society who get little, but give a lot. It’s about people who are already on a low wage having that wage reduced even further, with no regard to the input these people make to our community. These people are not asking for thousands. They’re asking for their wages to stay the same – they’re not even asking for an increase. What does this say about our values, surely these people should not be subjected to a pay cut. This attack is just demoralising the very people we need to inspire our children. For my constituents it is vital that their children, our children in our society, are valued and that means we value and show we value the people who work with them. We don’t just give them warm word. We give them a decent wage and do not cut their wages by a third – in a horrendously unfair way.
We need to help our schools to continue to improve and to do this we need motivated staff; we need to recognise the value teaching assistants play in our schools.
Tony Cunningham is the Labour MP for Workington.
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