The government should widen its teacher workforce strategy to target the tide of teaching assistants taking second jobs or leaving education to work in better-paid roles amid cost-of-living pressures, a report has warned.
Around three in four senior leaders said that some TAs in their schools have taken up additional employment to supplement their income, according to a survey.
The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) report - which polled senior leaders in schools - suggests that some TAs have left school work altogether in favour of better-paid roles in sectors such as hospitality and retail.
The think tank recommends the government should extend its scope of the teacher recruitment and retention strategy, and ensure TAs are included in a wider education workforce strategy.
It comes after Tes revealed last week that the DfE is planning to update its teacher recruitment and retention strategy amid a supply crisis.
Cost-saving measures by schools in response to cost-of-living increases have “intensified” pressures on staff and made retention harder, the report warns.
It adds that cost-of-living increases have “compounded pressures” on school budgets, limiting the salaries schools are able to offer potential TAs and other support staff.
Nearly half (45 per cent) of senior leaders in secondary schools, and more than a third (34 per cent) of leaders in primary schools, said low salaries were the single biggest barrier to recruiting TAs.
The survey, of 1,354 senior leaders in mainstream primary and secondary schools in England in April and May, found that the majority are struggling to recruit TAs and other support staff.
The report, conducted in collaboration with ASK Research and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, also included survey responses from 87 senior leaders in special schools.
Three-quarters of senior leaders in secondary schools and almost the same proportion of primary school leaders surveyed said that some of their TAs are taking second jobs alongside their role for the first time.
Meanwhile, a greater proportion of senior leaders in special schools (82 per cent) said their TAs were having to take on work outside of schools.
TA pay should be ‘revisited’
The report concludes that “pay for TAs should be revisited” owing to the findings.
Report co-author Jenna Julius, NFER research director, said: “The cost-of-living pressures are intensifying existing recruitment and retention challenges.
“Staff and potential applicants are more likely to look for higher paying and less pressurised jobs outside the sector while budget pressures are limiting the salaries which schools can afford.”
This week, the government announced the creation of a new task force - of unions, teachers and sector leaders - aimed at easing the workload on under-pressure teachers.
The move came amid concerns about teacher shortages, with ministers hoping to cut working hours for teachers and leaders by five hours a week over the next three years.
Ms Julius said: “A new long-term workforce strategy, including teaching assistants, school support staff and tutors alongside teachers and leaders, is needed.
“For wider support staff, this should include looking at whether pay is competitive enough to attract and retain sufficient high-quality staff.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said TAs are the “unsung heroes of the education system” who ensured schools are “able to do the things they need to help catch up from Covid, for example, or to support children with SEND [special educational needs and disabilities]”.
He added: “Schools want to be able to pay TAs what they are truly worth, but they just don’t have the funding to do so. It’s a real bind and school leaders are very concerned about it.”
A government spokesperson said that their education reforms “gave schools the freedom to make their own decisions about recruitment, pay and conditions and most schools pay teaching assistants according to local government pay scales”.
