Essential Information for School Support Staff

The following information will be of interest to those seeking jobs or, considering a career in the early years sector. Teaching agencies and employers of nursery staff may also find this of value.

• Who are school support staff?
• What is the work like?
• What qualifications are needed?
• How can you find work?
• Other key information

Who are school support staff?

Support staff are employed in a variety of functions in support of teachers and pupils and what they do varies between schools. Support staff may provide administrative support, technical support (e.g. science or ICT technicians), or be involved in pastoral care, site management, midday supervision and so on. Ultimately it is a matter for individual schools how support staff are deployed.

School support staff could for example, be employed in any one of the following roles:

• Teaching Assistants
• Cover Supervisors
• Learning Support Workers
• Examination Invigilators
• ICT technicians
• Bursars
• School Office & Secretaries
• Caretakers…and more!

There are around 243,000 support staff in England and Wales. As a result of the governments ‘Remodelling of the School Workforce’ agenda, ( see www.remodelling.org ), schools have been recruiting record numbers of support staff and at the most recent count, there has been an increase of over 106,000 since 1997.

The prospects for support staff have never been better. A far wider range of jobs & opportunities are now available and a proper career structure is emerging for them, such as the chance to train as a high level teaching assistants ( see www.teaching-assistants.co.uk )

Back to top

What is the work like?

Because school support staff cover such a wide range of jobs, it is very difficult to provide a detailed breakdown of each of the roles. There are a number of sites that provide useful information for the respective roles, please go to our ‘Links’ section for a list of these.

In general terms, it is fair to say that since all of these roles are school based, one can expect good professional working conditions with opportunities for training and career development.

Clearly the working hours will usually reflect school opening times, although some roles (such as teaching assistants/ caretakers) may require out of school hours.
Jobs offered to support staff can be both temporary or permanent in nature, as well as either full time or part time. It is also quite likely that some positions are term time only.

As far as salaries are concerned, the Government believes that decisions on pay and contractual arrangements for school support staff are best taken at local level, thus schools and LEA’s will usually determine pay rates. However, the National Agreement on raising standards and tackling workload makes it clear that support staffs’ pay to reflect their level of training, skills and responsibilities.

Back to top

What qualifications are needed?

Because school support staff cover such a variety of roles, we are unable to provide a detailed breakdown of the qualifications required. However, there are a number of sites that provide useful information for the respective roles, please go to our ‘Links’ section for a list of these

As a general rule, it is a matter for local employers to decide what skills, experience and qualifications are necessary when recruiting for any school support staff post bearing in mind the nature of the support required for the specific posts they wish to fill.

It is understood that there is currently a new vocational qualification being developed by a partnership led by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the Qualifications and Curriculum Agency, and a consortium of four awarding bodies.

It is expected that this new, flexible qualification will be tailored to the work which school staff do - whether directly with children, or indirectly in one of many professional back-up roles. (For more information click here )

Back to top

How can you find work?

There are numerous sources available to help you to identify jobs as a school support worker, including our message boards and our free online newsletters (Subscribe Now!).

There are also a wide variety of education recruitment agencies (sometimes known as ‘Teaching Agencies’), who can help you to find work that suits.

Teaching Agencies

There are hundreds of recruitment agencies nationwide, dedicated to the task of helping to find you work. Some agencies are well known national high street names such as Reed, Select Education, Protocol and Celsian, however there are also many local agencies available too.

The standard of agencies can vary from area to area and it cannot be assumed that a national agency will be any better at finding you work than a local agency. A guide to Teaching Agencies, the services they offer and a comprehensive list can be found at: www.teachingagencies.co.uk

Alternatives to recruitment agencies include:

• Contact local schools directly
• Contacting your LEA (Local Education Authority)
• Local jobs papers.
• National jobs papers such as the TES (Times Education Supplement), The Guardian or, The Independent.
• Contact local Jobcentres
• Search online – see Links

Back to top

Other key information

Training for support staff

The DfES developed an introductory training package for school support staff in 2003. The training consists of five two-hour modules and aims to equip support staff with skills and knowledge that will enable them to contribute to raising educational standards, uphold school policies and provide appropriate and reliable support for teachers so that they can better concentrate on teaching. This course is not designed to substitute for proper school-based induction or any job-specific induction into the roles of the support staff concerned. Click here to see the introductory training materials.

Funding for support staff recruitment from government: (see link for update on funding from ICT training from DfES


Back to top