Remodelling - support staff
Main text
Legislation
Best practice
On 15 January 2003, the DfES signed a National Agreement with key partners including local authority employers and the majority of school workforce unions. Key features of the agreement include:
-
contractual changes for teachers to bring about a progressive reduction in teachers' overall hours
-
a concerted attack on unnecessary paperwork and bureaucratic processes
-
a national change management programme supported by a network of local authority based advisers and reform of support staff roles.
Support staff roles
Support staff have an important role to play in helping schools to run
smoothly and efficiently and in helping to raise educational standards, uphold
school policies and provide support for teachers so that they can better
concentrate on teaching. The term support staff is used by the Department
to cover all adults working in schools apart from headteachers and teachers,
and there are separate sections of the A to Z specifically covering teaching assistants and bursars.
There has been an increase in both the number and type of support staff working in schools over recent years. The number of full time equivalent (FTE) support staff employed in schools has almost doubled, with the latest figures showing that over 268 000 school support staff were employed in maintained schools in England in January 2005. This represents a rise of 132 100 on 1997.
The White Paper Higher Standards: Better schools for all, published in October 2005, sets out the Government's intention to extend school support staff roles, to support personalised learning and to support the expansion in out-of-hours opportunities.
There are no national requirements for qualifications, although some local authorities and schools do require them. The pay and contractual arrangements for school support staff are matters for local determination — see further information under legislation. In October 2003, the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government Services issued guidance on the employment and grading of school support staff.
Latest developments on workforce remodelling and guidance, including full guidance on The Education (Specified Work and Registration) (England) Regulations 2003 which clarify the roles of teachers and support staff, can be found on the National Remodelling Team's website.
Funding
For 2005-06 the School Development Grant (SDG) has been increased by 4
per cent. Schools will be free to spend their School Development Grant to
support improvements in teaching and learning. Further details, including for
future years, are available on the Standards
Fund website.
Last updated: 16 July 2007
