'First in line for cuts'
School support staff 'low hanging fruit' in school funding cuts
Reading time: 3 min
Unite delegate Vicky Thompson is a senior technician employed by a local authority in Scotland and school support worker. As TUC Congress debated a motion on school funding on Monday (September 14), Vicky shared with us the following comment piece.
Local authorities in Scotland have been chronically underfunded for decades. And when the Scottish government has ringfenced funding for teachers, school support staff have borne the brunt of cuts.
While we have our issues in Scotland, our sisters and brothers south of the border face an even more challenging situation.
In Scotland we have been spared academisation, but in England and Wales the sector has been cut to pieces, and budgetary decisions are pushed onto individual schools.
The impact on school support staff has been atrocious. And the sooner the promised negotiating body is reestablished and functioning, the better.
Cuts to school support staff are hugely detrimental to our teaching colleagues. The support they need disappears. And the provision of Additional Support Needs to pupils, which is completely manageable with enough well qualified staff, becomes a crisis in the classroom.
Education workers are impacted twice over by this. Firstly, our ability to manage difficult behaviour is reduced. And we also become vulnerable, sometimes even in physical danger.
Secondly, our ability to support these pupils who deserve the best possible start in life is diminished.
Our members are under physical, emotional and mental strain as they are forced to absorb higher workloads with fewer staff.
Students have a statutory right to a certain amount of teaching. They have no such right to any level of school support.
This makes school support staff – me — the low hanging fruit, first in line for cuts time and time again.
Paying teachers while cutting support staff is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Without enough staff, and enough funding, my members suffer, teachers suffer, the children suffer. This is obvious to everyone.
By Vicky Thompson
Photo by Mark Thomas
