TAs and cover

Date: 19.06.08

General Secretary interviewed on BBC Breakfast about teaching assistants and cover.

Interview with Voice General Secretary Philip Parkin, BBC Breakfast, 06.40, 19 June 2008  

 

Presenter: "Teaching Assistants across the country are saying they are being forced to take on the role of a qualified teacher.  So what are the implications for them and their pupils?  Let’s talk to Philip Parkin, the General Secretary of the teaching union, Voice.  Are you concerned about teaching assistants?"

 

Philip Parkin: "We are concerned about teaching assistants because we have teaching assistants in membership who are being asked, in some cases, to take on roles which they shouldn’t be taking on."

 

Presenter: "You say asked. What sort of roles are they?"

 

Philip Parkin: "They are being asked to provide cover for teachers in situations where they shouldn’t be asked to provide cover for teachers; in which they are not trained to provide cover for teachers."

 

Presenter: "What does that mean?  Does that mean covering for holidays, or sick leave? What does it mean?"

 

Philip Parkin: "There are two kinds of cover that are given: somebody’s unplanned cover, where somebody is sick and you can ask a teaching assistant to step in on a short-term basis – a very short-term basis – to provide cover for that class under supervision of another teacher.  But there are other absences where those absences are planned and when you know the teacher is going to be absent and teaching assistants shouldn’t be asked to provide cover in those situations."

 

Presenter: "Why not? People at home might say: ‘Well, why not? What’s the problem with them covering? They know the children quite well, possibly’."

 

Philip Parkin: "They do know the children quite well, but teaching assistants aren’t required to plan lessons and deliver lessons – it is not part of their contract, it is not part of their job description and so they shouldn’t be doing that. People who are properly qualified to do that should be doing so."

 

Presenter: "Are you concerned that will have an impact on learning as well?"

 

Philip Parkin: "It’s bound to have an impact on learning, but you are quite right that these people do know the children in their classes, but they aren’t trained teachers, or they aren’t trained higher level teaching assistants, who are trained to deliver lessons and take whole classes."

 

Presenter: "Why do you think this is happening?"

 

Philip Parkin: "I think it is complex. I think partly you can say it is to do with funding, because it is cheaper to put those people into the classroom than it is to put more highly qualified, more expensive people into the classroom.

 

"I think there’s also a degree of confusion amongst head teachers who haven’t fully grasped the guidance that they are given about the deployment of support staff in schools, and I think there is a bit of an education job there to do with head teachers."

 

Presenter: "And there’s quite a stark difference in both the way they’re paid – teachers and teaching assistants – and also the kind of training that they have."

 

Philip Parkin: "Absolutely, yes, yes."

 

Presenter: "So, just an example, what’s the difference in pay, for example?"

 

Philip Parkin: "Well a teacher would earn on average three to four times more than a teaching assistant, but a teacher would have gone through a degree training programme and be thoroughly assessed throughout their career as to their competence to be a teacher, whereas a teaching assistant wouldn’t have had any training to be a teacher."

 

Presenter: "Philip Parkin, thank you for your time."

 

Ends

 

Notes

 

WAMG: guidance on cover

 

Voice: Implementing  the National Workforce Agreement

 

Conference 2008 motion

 

Contact: philipparkin@voicetheunion.org.uk or pressoffice@voicetheunion.org.uk.