Teaching assistants

Public services union UNISON says its investigation of teaching assistants’ pay and conditions has uncovered “a catalogue of unpaid overtime, low pay, increased workload and violence and abuse”.

A UNISON survey found that average monthly take home pay for full-time teaching assistants (TAs) is £758 a month; that TAs work an additional 12% above contracted hours, with most of it as unpaid overtime; two-thirds (65%) reported an increased workload; and half (49%) had experienced violence or abuse at work.

General secretary Dave Prentis said that while schools increasingly rely on support staff to deliver key learning priorities and to cover for absent teachers, “too many are not prepared to pay for this”.