Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to help ensure that teaching assistants providing SEND and mental health support are trained and remunerated in provision of those specialists skills.

The Department values and appreciates the dedication, professionalism, and hard work of Teaching Assistants (TAs) and recognises the valuable contribution they make to pupils’ education alongside teachers, particularly when supporting pupils with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Support staff play a key role in supporting pupils with SEND. On 2 March 2023, the Department published the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement plan in response to the Green Paper published in March 2022. This outlines the Government’s plan for the SEND and AP system to fulfil pupils’ potential, build parents’ trust and provide financial sustainability. The plan can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1139561/SEND_and_alternative_provision_improvement_plan.pdf.

In the SEND and AP Improvement Plan, the Department confirmed its commitment to setting out clear guidance on the effective use and deployment of TAs to support pupils with SEND. This will be done through the new SEND and AP practice guides, enabling TAs and learning support assistants to make best use of the available provision set out in the National Standards and setting expectations for good practice in meeting the needs of individual pupils.

Reaching over 70% of schools and further education colleges, the Universal Services programme will help the school and further education workforce to identify and meet the needs of pupils with SEND earlier and more effectively. It will also help them to successfully prepare pupils for adulthood, including employment. So far, over 5,700 school and college staff, including TAs, have accessed free online training modules, and over 70 schools and 135 colleges have identified and led their own SEND focused school improvement project. These have focused on SEND Governance, TA deployment and early identification of SEND. Universal training modules are available to all school and college staff at all stages of their careers, at the point of need, with a particular focus on mainstream settings.

Ultimately, schools are best placed to make decisions on the continuing professional development (CPD) that best meets the needs of their support staff, as they do for teachers' CPD.

The Government’s education reforms gave schools the freedom to make their own decisions about recruitment, pay, conditions, and use of TAs. Schools should have the freedom to make these decisions, as they are best placed to understand their pupils’ needs.

Many schools pay TAs according to local Government pay scales. These are set through negotiations between the Local Government Association, which represents the employer, and Local Government trade unions (UNISON, Unite, and the GMB), which represent the employee. Central Government does not have any formal role in these matters.