A consultation by the Department for Education and Skills on how to develop the role of support staff in schools had 698 responses, of which 297 came from support staff, and 178 from head teachers and teachers. Others contributing to the debate included local education officers, librarians, school governors, training providers and voluntary groups.
In a report on the consultation findings, the DfES said just under two-thirds (65 per cent) of respondents gave positive replies to each question, and 42 per cent indicated that support staff were already taking on key roles in teaching work, pastoral care, technical support, special educational needs and library work.
The report said support staff 'already offer much more to the education system than the outdated view that the role merely comprises collecting dinner money and washing paint pots' and that they wanted to progress their careers. However, 66 per cent of respondents 'were concerned that adequate funding and other resources would not be available to support the implementation process and ongoing development for support staff'.
Asked about risks in developing the role of support staff, 27 per cent said they feared the teacher's role would be undermined, while 22 per cent felt support staff were regarded as cheap labour and were anxious that they should not replace teachers in the classroom. One in five (21 per cent) believed teachers would be overburdened with new management responsibilities, while support staff feared teaching assistants could be overwhelmed without proper training in pedagogical skills and behaviour management.
Three-quarters of respondents said they wanted training for higher-level teaching assistants either to be accredited in its own right or to lead to credits towards other qualifications, including qualified teacher status, foundation or other degrees and NVQs.
Jane Cole of Early Education said the valuable role that teaching assistants can play was being threatened by the current shortfalls in education budgets. 'This is a terrible situation, particularly in the south-east,' she said. 'We need more assistants, not less, and there is no way a single teacher can deliver the Foundation Stage curriculum without that help and essential teamwork.'
The full report is on the website www.dfes.gov.uk.