Jon Richards is head of education at Unison and represents 350,000 support staff in schools and colleges. Throughout his 23-year stint at the union, he has faced his fair share of battles, and is used to going toe to toe with employers and the government to ensure his members have fair pay and conditions. But the challenges of Covid-19 for support staff have meant his role has become more demanding than ever before. He talks to Tes about his school days in Lichfield, his leadership style and why he will never stop shouting “what about support staff?”.

1. Were you a good student?

I loved primary school. I had some great teachers, a couple of whom had just come out of the war, so they had a lot of experience and great stories to tell. My problem was, I was mischievous and challenging, and caused difficulty, particularly in secondary school. I was not an easy student to get on with.

2. What are your most memorable moments at school?

The first time I was ever hit was at primary school, and I remember the teacher who did it. My parents had never hit me before. My dad was huge because he was a farmhand, and I was always slightly aware that, if I ever got in trouble, he could have given me a hiding - but he never did. I remember that sense of outrage when I was slapped on the leg by a teacher; it has really stayed with me.

3. What are you most proud of in your career and what do you regret?

I worked for a bloke called Paul Marks, who designed the NHS pay structure, which was called Agenda for Change. Basically, I was his bag carrier, and to be part of that, as a young official, was just incredible.

The one piece of work I was allowed to do alone was around the working time agreement, which pushed boundaries. At that time, the working time directive was fairly new and it wasn’t clear whether “sleep ins” [where workers are required to sleep at work and be on call] were counted as work or not, so I negotiated a deal that said that sleep-ins would count as working time.

It was one of the first agreements across Europe that actually had been interpreted that way, so that was incredible. It still exists mostly in that form today, so I’m pretty proud of that.

I am not really one for regrets or guilt, to be honest. I like to work in the moment.

4. What has been your most memorable role to date?

At the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, I did a couple of years working in HIV and Aids [representation]. At that time, it was becoming a real issue. With my boss, we set up an HIV unit to support people. We did things like providing training for homecare workers - and you can see the parallels between then and now in the sense that homecare workers were very scared about going into people’s homes.

When the government was chucking money at us, we made a decision to transfer some of it to buy people washing machines and fridges. People were having night sweats, and they needed to keep the medicines cold. There were a lot of people living chaotic lives and they needed stability.

5. What kind of leader are you?

I allow collaboration. I want involvement and engagement, but I take the final decision. At the start of the year, clearly we had to do loads of work around updating guidance - and we made the decision around section 44 [helping school staff to refuse to work over Covid safety]. We were always in discussion with colleagues, with lawyers and others, and absolutely, I took on board everything they knew. I have staff who have a different range of views, and I would like to think I collaborate, engage and involve everyone. But I know, at the end of the day, the buck stops with me.

6. Why are support staff so important in education?

Schools and colleges cannot work without them. They are fundamental. If you look at what we’ve seen over the past year, it has really brought up the people who are crucial: it’s been homecare workers, it’s been cleaners, it’s been support staff.

When it comes to Covid testing, it is the admin workers who will be issuing those tests, and making sure the records are up to date and everything gets done. It is the catering staff who will be serving meals and seeing loads of pupils come in, all while working in cramped conditions.

There is also a real undervaluing of technical staff in this country because this government, for a long time, has talked about technical education, and the reality is that they talk a good game but they do not actually invest huge amounts in technical staff.

7. What is the one change you would make for teaching assistants?

There is an apprenticeship for teachers and there is one for teaching assistants, but they are not linked in any way. We have called for an apprenticeship in the middle to help teaching assistants on that pathway to becoming a teacher but the system is not built that way. That singularity is a real problem. Teaching assistants are a huge untapped potential in schools; they can do really great catch-up work with students.

We have done a lot of work with the Education Endowment Foundation and Rob Webster at [UCL] Institute of Education. Research shows that targeting teaching assistants in well-resourced programmes has a huge impact on disadvantaged pupils. Most schools use them as cover and do not use them the way they could. Our people are crying out to be used properly. There’s a real opportunity in the longer term, especially around Covid catch-up work. But the question is, will the government use them right or will they just focus on teachers and forget about this huge resource?

8. What concerns do you have for the education sector?

We need to look at the role of teaching assistants and really ensure they are valued - and we need to get back some of the outsourcing of private companies.

In further education, I am concerned that there isn’t enough investment in technical education and support.

9. What will our schools and colleges look like in 30 years’ time?

Hopefully, there will be a joined-up apprenticeship for teaching assistants. I would love it if there was an independent careers service again - Connexions was patchy and problematic but it was considerably better than what we have now.

Some form of democratic accountability is necessary, whether that means going back to local authorities or not, I am not sure, but there has to be some way of reconnecting some of the large multi-academy trusts with parents. The devolution conversation is fascinating and I think we are learning that the whole idea of central London imperialism is dead - there needs to be a transfer of power. I am keen that we have [a] more federalised [system with] more devolution on the whole.

10. Why do you love working in education and with support staff?

You can see change and the impact they have. I sponsored a locally based project with a primary school in Dulwich around handwriting. We provided the materials and the school introduced a system in which teaching assistants would take the handwriting class, and the teachers would go out with those who needed additional support. Some of the teaching assistants were very unhappy and worried about it at first. But, actually, they loved it. The ability to be on their own in the class and the responsibility that gave them was really great for their self-esteem. They said that, in the playground, the children saw them as equal to teachers and gave them a huge amount of respect.

That’s what I am passionate about: supporting our members. They love the children; they wouldn’t do [the work] otherwise. These are some of the worst-paid staff in the public sector. But they have such passion and that is really energising for us. Being able to go into schools and see the impact people have - that is wonderful.

Interview by Tes FE reporter Kate Parker

This article originally appeared in the 26 February 2021 issue