Press Release – Union Newswire

Struggling schools forced to rely on teaching assistants as cheap cover for teachers

Pupils are missing out on essential support as teaching assistants increasingly provide cover for absent teachers, without lesson plans or help from other colleagues, according to a report released by UNISON today (Saturday).

The report Teaching on the Cheap? is based on survey responses from almost 6,000 teaching assistants covering classes in England and Wales. It suggests ongoing teacher shortages mean support staff are increasingly having to lead lessons and manage whole classes by themselves.

The research finds 45% say they are covering more classes now than they were the previous school year (2022/2023).

The report, commissioned by UNISON and written by researcher Rob Webster, found three quarters of survey respondents (75%) say looking after an entire class means they end up teaching rather than supervising pupils.

This is despite national guidance stating school support staff should not ‘actively teach’ any classes they cover, says the research. This will also come as a surprise to many parents, says UNISON, who will assume their children are being taught in the classroom by teachers.

UNISON says too many low-paid teaching assistants end up performing roles for which they are neither trained nor paid. This results in pupils being taught on the cheap, as three quarters (75%) of support staff say they receive no additional money for stepping up.

According to the findings, almost two in five (39%) report covering classes for at least five hours per week. That, says the research, is equivalent to roughly one school day a week, or half a term’s cover over a school year. Additionally, another 15% say they lead full classes for at least 11 hours a week.

Half (51%) of the teaching assistants in both secondary and special schools have been deployed to cover classes because their schools don’t have enough teachers. In primary schools, this was the case for almost a quarter (24%) of support staff.

But providing cover for teaching colleagues means teaching assistants’ normal tasks are not being done. Three quarters (74%) say this is the case and leaves the pupils they support without any assistance.

In primary schools, almost half the teaching assistants (49%) say they rarely or never have support to help them cover classes, even though teachers would usually have an assistant on hand in the classroom.

And only half (51%) of the support staff who cover classes are provided with lesson plans. Eight in ten (81%) teaching assistants believe their deployment to cover classes is having a negative impact on the quality of special educational needs provision in their schools.

Six in ten (63%) of those based in primary schools say pupils are missing out on critical catch-up sessions, as well as on literacy and numeracy support.

Assistants describe regularly being told to lead classes ranging from nursery to year 6, with just minutes to spare.

Those working in secondary schools report planning and teaching subjects at GCSE level where teachers have left and not been replaced. Many feel they are used as cheap substitutes for teachers and are unable to give pupils the quality lessons they need.

Adding such intense duties and responsibilities to their workloads is pushing many to think about leaving education for jobs elsewhere, warns UNISON.

The union is calling for a review of the role of teaching assistants as they’re now providing cover in circumstances way beyond what has been nationally agreed. Their skills must also be better recognised and their pay negotiated by a new, independent body, it adds.

UNISON head of education Mike Short said: “The strain imposed on teaching assistants is both unacceptable and exploitative. When they’re leading full classes, teaching assistants are being diverted from what they do best and pupils who need additional support are missing out.

“Schools’ budgets are so tight that, instead of getting in supply teachers to cover classes, heads are having to use teaching assistants on the cheap. Ministers are entirely responsible for the funding crisis that’s putting schools in this impossible position.

“Many children can’t grasp the basics without the critical assistance of teaching assistants. Redeploying them to other roles is unfair on everyone. Parents will rightly assume their children are being taught by teachers, not teaching assistants.

“The government must ensure all schools have the budget and staff to provide the education they’re meant to deliver. This over-reliance on unsatisfactory stopgap measures and overburdening teaching assistants in this way has to stop.”

Researcher and expert on teaching assistants Rob Webster said: “This study reveals the hidden costs of deploying teaching assistants to plug gaps in the teacher workforce.

“It disrupts support for pupils who need it, and prevents teaching assistants from doing their essential work.

“The special educational needs system in England is already at breaking point. Parents of children with additional needs will wonder what effect this considerable loss of teaching assistant capacity is having on their child’s provision.

“The current situation is having a detrimental effect on teaching assistants’ workload and wellbeing too. Left unaddressed, it could exacerbate the existing recruitment and retention crisis facing schools.”

Notes to editors:
– Teaching on the Cheap? is based on the survey responses of 5,989 teaching assistants in England and Wales located in primary/infant (84%), secondary (5%) and special schools (11%). The survey was conducted online between January and February 2024.
– An executive summary of the findings is available here.

– Quotes from the report include:
“My role has become increasingly one of cover for absent teachers in my department. Last year about 50% of my time was spent doing this.” Secondary higher level teaching assistant

“It is an expectation. If a teacher is off and has provided work, the teaching assistants are expected to teach the lesson.” Special school support assistant

“I’m told I have to plan and deliver a lesson every Monday as our class teacher does not work on this day. I am given no time to plan lessons, nor am I confident in doing this as I’ve not been trained. But I was told it’s in my contract.” Special school teaching assistant

“I’m having to cover an average of 3 to 4.5 days a week on a regular basis. This is partly because of the lack of funds to employ the extra staff needed or a supply.” Primary/infant teaching assistant

“I have led reception class every afternoon since November. The head implied that another member of staff would be taken on, but they haven’t been.” Primary/infant teaching assistant

“My school has used agency teachers to fill vacancies. The agency teacher in my class left so I was asked to step up and teach my class until a new teacher can be recruited. I am teaching my class on a full-term basis for the foreseeable future.” Special school teaching assistant

“I have been given a teaching timetable. Some was to cover maternity leave, some to fill a gap where a teacher had left and no one had been recruited to fill the space.” Secondary cover supervisor

“My school cannot afford supply teachers, so more teaching assistants than ever before are having to step in for teaching colleagues.” Primary/infant teaching assistant

“Teaching assistants should not be used to cover teachers’ lessons. We are not qualified teachers and the students deserve a good quality education. This can’t happen if lessons are being covered by support staff.” Special school teaching assistant

“I don’t think parents have any idea about how much of their children’s education is being delivered by unqualified teaching assistants.” Primary/infant higher level teaching assistant

“I only get 20p per hour more than my basic teaching assistant pay for covering lessons. I receive a total of 74p extra for covering a whole afternoon. The additional payment for this morning is approximately £2.50 net. Supply staff would have been paid £150 for the same work.” Primary/infant teaching assistant

“A supply teacher would get sometimes in excess of £100 per day, whereas we get barely £1 an hour extra. For about 30 hours of cover a month, I earned about £40 more. It doesn’t seem fair.” Primary/infant teaching assistant

– UNISON is the UK’s largest union, with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Fatima Ayad M: 07508 080383 E: f.ayad@unison.co.uk
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk

The article Struggling schools forced to rely on teaching assistants as cheap cover for teachers first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Government’s failure to implement Windrush decisions is unlawful

The government’s decision to scrap recommendations made by an independent review into the Windrush scandal was unlawful, says UNISON today (Tuesday).

Over the next two days at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, the union will be putting forward legal arguments to support the case brought by Windrush scandal victim Trevor Donald.

Mr Donald is challenging the decision taken in early 2023 by the then home secretary Suella Braverman to scrap three of the recommendations hailing from the Windrush Learned Lessons Review.

When Wendy Williams first published her independent review into the government’s treatment of the Windrush generation in 2020, Priti Patel, who was home secretary at the time, had accepted all 30 of them.

Back in December 2023, Mr Donald was granted permission to seek a judicial review of Suella Braverman’s actions. At the same time UNISON and the Black Equity Organisation were also given the go-ahead to join his case.

All parties are arguing that the Home Office acted unlawfully when it ditched the three recommendations.

These covered a commitment to establish a migrants commissioner, a strengthening of the powers of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, and the holding of reconciliation events for affected individuals and their families.

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “People who had come to Britain to live and work legally – many of them in the UK’s key public services –found themselves stripped of their rights, with their lives in ruins.

“The public was horrified at the hostile environment being whipped up by the government and appalled at the vile treatment of so many ordinary working people, too many of whom had already faced racism throughout their lives.

“The Learned Lessons Review was an attempt to put right the damage. All its recommendations had been accepted, but then Suella Braverman came along and threw a wrecking ball into the proceedings.

“This judicial review will hopefully right those wrongs and win for the many people in the Windrush generation who’ve been treated so very badly by the government.”

The 2018 Windrush scandal revealed that numerous individuals who’d come to Britain from the Caribbean had been treated appallingly. They’d been wrongly detained, threatened with deportation or kicked out of the country entirely. People affected lost their homes, their jobs, contact with their families and were denied access to health services and benefits.

Notes to editors:
– The claimant in the judicial review, Trevor Donald, arrived in the UK in 1967, aged 12, and was granted indefinite leave to remain in 1971. But when he visited Jamaica in 2010 to attend his mother’s funeral, he was prevented from returning to the UK and exiled for nine years before the scandal finally came to light.
– UNISON’s application to the High Court was supported by evidence from UNISON member Michael Braithwaite, a London teaching assistant, who works in particular with children with special educational needs. Michael lost his job due to the Windrush scandal, which he called “a total nightmare that destroyed my life.”

– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contact:
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk

The article Government’s failure to implement Windrush decisions is unlawful first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Government’s failure to implement Windrush decisions is unlawful

The government’s decision to scrap recommendations made by an independent review into the Windrush scandal was unlawful, says UNISON today (Tuesday).

Over the next two days at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, the union will be putting forward legal arguments to support the case brought by Windrush scandal victim Trevor Donald.

Mr Donald is challenging the decision taken in early 2023 by the then home secretary Suella Braverman to scrap three of the recommendations hailing from the Windrush Learned Lessons Review.

All parties are arguing that the Home Office acted unlawfully when it ditched the three recommendations.

“The Learned Lessons Review was an attempt to put right the damage. All its recommendations had been accepted, but then Suella Braverman came along and threw a wrecking ball into the proceedings.

“This judicial review will hopefully right those wrongs and win for the many people in the Windrush generation who’ve been treated so very badly by the government.”

Media contact:
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk

The article Government’s failure to implement Windrush decisions is unlawful first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Government should be ashamed of trading lives for votes over Rwanda

Commenting on the Rwanda bill clearing its final parliamentary hurdle, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said today (Tuesday):

“Nothing more clearly demonstrates the cruelty and moral bankruptcy of this government than the ghastly Rwanda law it has finally pushed through parliament.

“For ministers to be gleeful at the export of vulnerable people, including children and victims of modern slavery, is a disgrace.

“The UK is trading away its humanitarian duties and turning its back on people in genuine need, who get no second chance.

“There’s no proof that any of this will stop the boats as the Prime Minister says it will. He and the rest of the government should hang their heads in shame for gambling with people’s lives in a desperate and costly electioneering stunt.”

Notes to editors:
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union, with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk

The article Government should be ashamed of trading lives for votes over Rwanda first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Government should be ashamed of trading lives for votes over Rwanda

Commenting on the Rwanda bill clearing its final parliamentary hurdle, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said today (Tuesday):

“Nothing more clearly demonstrates the cruelty and moral bankruptcy of this government than the ghastly Rwanda law it has finally pushed through parliament.

“For ministers to be gleeful at the export of vulnerable people, including children and victims of modern slavery, is a disgrace.

“The UK is trading away its humanitarian duties and turning its back on people in genuine need, who get no second chance.

Media contacts:
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk

The article Government should be ashamed of trading lives for votes over Rwanda first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Prime Minister should focus on the NHS, not demonise those too sick to work

Commenting on the Prime Minister’s proposals on welfare reform today (Friday), UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:

“The Prime Minister has promised and failed to cut NHS waiting lists.
“Worse still, his government has damaged the public services people were once able to rely upon to get better and stay healthy.

“Lengthy waits for NHS operations and treatment have left people languishing at home, too sick or injured to work. That’s a personal tragedy for them and terrible for the economy too.

“Instead of hostile rhetoric on benefits, ministers should be recruiting to fill the huge gaps in the NHS workforce. That would increase capacity and allow more patients to be seen.

“Boosting pay to persuade experienced staff to remain in the health service is key too. But it’s now more than a fortnight since the government should have announced this year’s NHS pay rise.

“Threatening to remove benefits and forcing sick and disabled people further into poverty is most definitely not the way to increase the health of our sick nation.”

Notes to editors:
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk
Fatima Ayad M: 07508 080383 E: f.ayad@unison.co.uk

The article Prime Minister should focus on the NHS, not demonise those too sick to work first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Prime Minister should focus on the NHS, not demonise those too sick to work

Commenting on the Prime Minister’s proposals on welfare reform today (Friday), UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:

“Lengthy waits for NHS operations and treatment have left people languishing at home, too sick or injured to work. That’s a personal tragedy for them and terrible for the economy too.

“Instead of hostile rhetoric on benefits, ministers should be recruiting to fill the huge gaps in the NHS workforce. That would increase capacity and allow more patients to be seen.

“Boosting pay to persuade experienced staff to remain in the health service is key too. But it’s now more than a fortnight since the government should have announced this year’s NHS pay rise.

“Threatening to remove benefits and forcing sick and disabled people further into poverty is most definitely not the way to increase the health of our sick nation.”

Media contacts:
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk
Fatima Ayad M: 07508 080383 E: f.ayad@unison.co.uk

The article Prime Minister should focus on the NHS, not demonise those too sick to work first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Supreme Court judgment stops bad bosses from punishing striking workers

Judges have told employers they’ll no longer be able to discipline their staff for taking part in legal strike action in a UK Supreme Court ruling today (Wednesday), says UNISON.

The union, which took the case on behalf of care worker Fiona Mercer, says the government must now act quickly to change the law and ensure no other employees are treated unfairly.

Today’s judgment follows a two-day hearing in December. UNISON took the case to the Supreme Court to overturn an earlier Court of Appeal decision. The union had argued this had left the UK in breach of international law and striking employees without proper protection.

The Supreme Court judges were scathing of the government’s failure to provide the minimum protection UK workers should have been granted, says UNISON.

UK law prevents employers from sacking employees who take legal strike action, but until today, it offered no protection to anyone subsequently picked upon for walking out in a dispute.

Fiona had originally taken a case against her then employer, Alternative Futures Group (AFG), a charity based in the north west of England, to an employment tribunal in 2020.

She had been involved in a dispute over AFG’s plans to cut payments to care staff who did sleep-in shifts. Fiona’s employer wasn’t happy, singled her out, suspended her and barred her from going into work or contacting colleagues during the action.

Fiona’s case wound up at an employment appeal tribunal (EAT) in 2021, which found in her favour. It said UK law must protect her from being victimised for going on strike.

That should have been it, says UNISON, as the charity had then decided it wasn’t prepared to proceed any further.

But the then business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng intervened and took the case to the Court of Appeal, which subsequently decided to reverse the EAT decision in March 2022.

Back to where it started, UNISON sought permission on behalf of Fiona to take the case to the highest court in the land, and this led to the judgment handed down today.

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “This is the most important industrial action case for decades. It’s a victory for every employee who might one day want to challenge something bad or unfair their employer has done.

“Rogue bosses won’t like it one bit. They’ll no longer be able to punish or ill-treat anyone who dares to take strike action to try to solve any problems at work.

“No one strikes on a whim. There are many legal hoops to be jumped through first. But when a worker decides to walk out, they should be able to do so, safe in the knowledge they won’t be victimised by a spiteful boss.

“The government must now close this loophole promptly. It won’t cost any money and isn’t difficult to do. Today is a day to celebrate.”

Fiona Mercer said: “I’m delighted at today’s outcome. Although it won’t change the way I was treated, it means irresponsible employers will now think twice before behaving badly towards their unhappy staff. If they single strikers out for ill-treatment, they’ll now be breaking the law.”

Notes to editors:
– The judgment says: “If employees can only take strike action by exposing themselves to detrimental treatment, the right dissolves. Nor is it clear what legitimate aim a complete absence of such protection serves. In the context of the scheme of protection that is available, it is hard to see what pressing social need is served by a general rule that has the effect of excluding protection from sanctions short of dismissal for taking lawful strike action”. The full text can be found here.
– Fiona had originally taken AFG to an employment tribunal in April 2020. There, the union argued that Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998 – protects workers who take industrial action against their employer. UNISON said this meant employees should not be disciplined or treated unfairly because they had taken part in industrial action. The tribunal disagreed, although it found the Trade Union Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 was likely to be incompatible with international human rights law. UNISON supported Fiona’s appeal, and an employment appeal tribunal (EAT) found in her favour. The EAT President said that UK law was not compliant with Article 11 of the ECHR and added wording to section 146 of the Trade Union Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act as a protection for striking workers. However, Kwasi Kwarteng took the case to the Court of Appeal, which overturned the EAT decision. The government’s intervention meant a loophole in protection for striking workers continued. The Supreme Court has now found that section 146 of the Trade Union Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act is incompatible with Article 11. This is because it fails to provide any protection against sanctions short of dismissal, which are intended to deter or penalise workers from taking part in lawful strike action organised by their union.
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union, with more than 1.3 million members providing public services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Liz Chinchen M: 07778 158175 E: press@unison.co.uk
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk

The article Supreme Court judgment stops bad bosses from punishing striking workers first appeared on the UNISON National site.