Teaching assistants face the axe to save DfE £4bn

[Simona]

Is the DfE losing it?...everything is to do with cuts and nothing to do for the benefit of children or their education...

Army of teaching assistants faces the axe as Education department attempts to save some of the £4billion they cost each year | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2334853/Army-teaching-assistants-faces-axe-Education-department-attempts-save-4billion-cost-year.html)

[hectors house]

Can see a huge rise in unemployed womens figures after all the Nurseries sack their unqualified staff in favour of having qualified staff with double the ratio of children and then schools following suit with making redundant their unqualified teaching assistants - maybe these will be the people Barnardo's will be retraining as childminders!

[Simona]

Can see a huge rise in unemployed womens figures after all the Nurseries sack their unqualified staff in favour of having qualified staff with double the ratio of children and then schools following suit with making redundant their unqualified teaching assistants - maybe these will be the people Barnardo's will be retraining as childminders!

Which defeats the govt's own policy of getting women back to work in the first place....

[The Juggler]

Can see a huge rise in unemployed womens figures after all the Nurseries sack their unqualified staff in favour of having qualified staff with double the ratio of children and then schools following suit with making redundant their unqualified teaching assistants - maybe these will be the people Barnardo's will be retraining as childminders!

very confused by this article :panic::panic: most TA's are qualified - either level 2 or 3 (or now sometimes even higher). So if they replace them with even higher qualified staff it''ll cost even more for the government .

this government is only about saving money but then they are chucking it away. Reduce benefits for those who need it - then give some half baked childcare benefit to EVERYONE including super rich parents.

Reduce the higher rate tax for the superrich?????

Cut disability benefits

Cut SEN budgets so only statemented children will get any benefit unless a school is VERY caring and happy to use their own budgets to support children with lesser learning needs.

Carry on giving huge amounts of overseas benefits?? (sorry not against giving overseas but when we are cutting benefits and salaries to keyworkers here don't think we should be giving money away - this overseas aid would pay for a good few nurses payrises no doubt :panic::panic:)

Next will be - award nice big payrise to the MPs and their pension schemes :angry::rolleyes:

so so disappointed with this Gov't (not to mention ms Truss :angry::panic:)

[Optimalstar]

I agree TAs are normally qualified. In my town they have to hold some sort of teaching assistant qualification and to be on 17,000 a year they'd be higher level TAs and need to have a foundation degree. Most TAs don't earn anywhere near that. When i worked as a TA before going into teaching my hourly rate wasn't a lot more than the minimum wage. I'm in the north east so imagine London and the south may well pay higher than here.

[KatieK]

I was a TA until I retrained as a childminder at the end of last year. You'd be surprised how many TAs are employed with no qualification at all. I had my level 2 and a level 4 equivalent from the OU as I wanted to go into teaching. If they get rid of most of the TAs, in my opinion, teachers will be put under even more stress and it's the children who will also suffer. :-(

[Simona]

So the DfE is actually spreading tiny winy lies?...if TAs are qualified, and I know many who are, this is simply an exercise in saving money...same applies to Early years ratios, same applies to Ofsted, same to do with CRB checks subsidy, same to do with cutting LAs support and all the rest

But who will do anything about it?

[hectors house]

Maybe unqualified TA's do earn £17k in London but they certainly don't earn that here in rural Somerset. Again a case of take the highest figure and make out it is the norm!

I did work as a Learning Support Assistant in our local comp about 8 years ago - my badge should have said "Bouncer, babysitter and bodyguard" as I was rarely assisting the kids who needed the help, just trying to do crowd control to allow the teacher to "try" to teach, you don't need qualifications for that.

[munch149]

Ridiculous not much truth in that here. Don't know any unqualified tas don't know any earning 17000 and can't see how cutting tas and increasing class sizes can possibly help kids. It's all about saving money yet they aren't doing it in the right places. Maybe all these people in government shouldn't be so greedy themselves

[Simona]

This blog by the Institute of Education (IOE) gives 5 reasons against axing TAs...in their calculations there are 300,000....
will they turn to cminding??

Five reasons why any government should think twice about getting rid of teaching assistants | IOE London blog (http://ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/five-reasons-why-any-government-should-think-twice-about-getting-rid-of-teaching-assistants/)

[The Juggler]

Maybe unqualified TA's do earn £17k in London but they certainly don't earn that here in rural Somerset. Again a case of take the highest figure and make out it is the norm!

I did work as a Learning Support Assistant in our local comp about 8 years ago - my badge should have said "Bouncer, babysitter and bodyguard" as I was rarely assisting the kids who needed the help, just trying to do crowd control to allow the teacher to "try" to teach, you don't need qualifications for that.

i don't know ANY schools in my area or any or parts of london that have TA's that don't have at least a level 2 TA qualificiation. Most now won't employed without a level 3 - and they still only earn about £15k - unless they are in secondary education :panic::panic:

[Nickidela]

This is crazy if its true. I'm a TA (south-east) just waiting for Ofsted to come out to me to finalise the registration process of being a childminder. Every TA in my school is qualified to at least level 3, with. some of us holding degrees or are in the process of completing them. It's a brilliant job, but an attractive wage of £14k isn't quite true once you've taken pro-rata into account. I'm lucky if I earn £10k and I've been doing it 7 years (primary and secondary). For the work involved for such a small wage the government would be crazy to start making cuts there !! TA's are invaluable.

[The Juggler]

This is crazy if its true. I'm a TA (south-east) just waiting for Ofsted to come out to me to finalise the registration process of being a childminder. Every TA in my school is qualified to at least level 3, with. some of us holding degrees or are in the process of completing them. It's a brilliant job, but an attractive wage of £14k isn't quite true once you've taken pro-rata into account. I'm lucky if I earn £10k and I've been doing it 7 years (primary and secondary). For the work involved for such a small wage the government would be crazy to start making cuts there !! TA's are invaluable.

exactly. :thumbsup: