Education support staff crisis
Low pay and poor conditions leading to difficulties in recruiting and retaining vital education support staff.
1,705 items
7 sources
Strongest theme matches
Mixed across source types and ranked by classifier confidence plus text match strength.
Committee recommendation
95match
#63 - System risks losing experienced staff, leaving vulnerable pupils without essential support
These measures are essential. Without decisive action, the system will continue to lose experienced staff, leaving vulnerable pupils without the support they need and deserve. (Recommendation, Paragraph 226) 168
Matched on
terms: education, staff, support
Committee recommendation
93match
#62 - Issue guidance on TA-to-pupil ratios and develop comprehensive recruitment and retention strategy
The Department should issue guidance on teaching assistant-to-pupil ratios and urgently address the worsening crisis in recruiting and retaining TAs and learning support assistants to ensure these ratios can be met. These professionals are vital to the delivery of inclusive education, yet their contribution continues to be undervalued and under-supported. A robust and comprehensive strategy is urgently required....
Matched on
terms: crisi, education, support
Committee recommendation
90match
#64 - Address underlying reasons for recruitment and retention crisis among school and college teachers
The Department for Education must address the underlying and unresolved reasons for the recruitment and retention crisis amongst school and college teachers, which include pay disparities, excessive workloads, limited professional development and job insecurity. In so doing, it must develop incentives for all post-16 teaching staff to remain in the profession. It must include specialist colleges within the...
Matched on
terms: crisi, education, staff
Committee recommendation
82match
#20 - Experienced teachers lack financial incentives and structured support, limiting their retention in the profession.
The Department does not offer experienced teachers any financial incentives to stay, such as bursaries or retention payments, or structured support, such as the Early Career Framework for those with up to two years of experience. The Department’s ability to influence teacher workload and working patterns is limited, with school and college leaders responsible 46 Q 30; C&AG’s...
Matched on
terms: education, support
Committee recommendation
81match
#12 - Publish statutory requirements for minimum resources and expertise for SEN support
The Department should publish statutory requirements mandating the minimum resources, specialist expertise, and equipment that every educational setting must have access to as a part of their offer of SEN support and in order to deliver an inclusive education. This will establish a clear, enforceable baseline covering staffing, training, physical materials, and assistive technologies. This will also ensure...
Matched on
terms: education, staff, support
Committee recommendation
80match
#61 - Growing pay disparity between school and college teachers undermines retention and recruitment
There is a growing pay disparity between school and college teachers in England, with college staff earning significantly less—on average college teachers earn 15% less. This issue has led to staff dissatisfaction and has contributed to the recruitment and retention crisis. Whilst school-teacher pay is centrally reviewed and funded, college teacher pay decisions can be fragmented and underfunded,...
Matched on
terms: crisi, education, staff
Committee recommendation
78match
#14 - Further education colleges face significant challenges recruiting teachers and filling vacancies
In offering vocational training, further education colleges support the government’s missions for building skills for economic growth and spreading opportunities too all children. However, colleges struggle to compete with schools and industry to recruit the teachers required and have experienced more significant challenges than schools in getting a workforce with the relevant experience. This will impact the type...
Matched on
terms: education, support
LGO / SPSO decision
78match
21-001-380 - Staffordshire County Council
Mrs B complained the Council failed to secure the provision in her daughter’s Education, Health and Care plan since April 2020. Mrs B says her daughter lost provision and this affected her daughter’s health. The Council was at fault for failing to secure provision and this caused Mrs B and her daughter injustice. The Council will make a...
Matched on
terms: education, staff
Committee recommendation
77match
#21 - Poor pupil behaviour increasingly contributes to teacher stress and departure from the profession.
We challenged the Department on the extent to which poor pupil behaviour could negatively impact teachers’ mental health and wellbeing, as set out in written evidence from Education Support.56 60% of schoolteachers felt they spent too much time following up on behaviour incidents and the proportion of ex-teachers citing pupil behaviour as a reason for leaving rose from...
Matched on
terms: education, support
Committee recommendation
76match
#16 - Forty-Second Report - Financial sustainability of schools in England
We have heard examples of local schools taking steps such as cutting staff, particularly teaching assistants, and reducing provision for pupils with SEND, in order to make savings.34 We also received written evidence from stakeholders in the sector about how schools had responded to financial pressures and the damaging impact that these measures could have on the support...
Matched on
terms: education, staff, support
Committee recommendation
74match
#26 - Colleges face significant staffing and financial challenges delivering T Levels.
Colleges play a critical role in providing T Levels – as well as sourcing industrial placements, they must have enough teaching staff with the right expertise, industry-standard facilities and specialist equipment to teach T Level students.79 Alongside introducing T Levels, colleges are also facing difficulties recruiting and retaining teachers and wider financial challenges. In 2021 the previous Public...
Matched on
terms: staff
Committee recommendation
74match
#60 - Learning Support Assistants and Teaching Assistants lack adequate SEND-specific training
Learning support assistants and teaching assistants are integral to the effective delivery of SEND support and resourcing their deployment properly can help reduce the need for expensive specialist placements. To sustain and strengthen their contribution, improvements are urgently needed in the recruitment, training, CPD and retention of this workforce. We are particularly concerned by evidence that many LSAs...
Matched on
terms: education, support
Committee recommendation
73match
#27 - Incentivise early years settings to provide higher pay for staff development and promotions.
Staff development and promotions in Early Years settings should be met with higher pay. We recommend the Government consider how best to incentivise and fund settings to do this, for example by setting standards for staff pay as a condition for receiving funding for the 30-hours entitlement. (Paragraph 155) Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Matched on
terms: education, staff
Committee recommendation
72match
#3 - Forty-Second Report - Financial sustainability of schools in England
We are concerned that financial pressures faced by schools could damage children’s education. Research by Ofsted in 2019 found that a high proportion of headteachers reported reducing staffing levels, narrowing the curriculum and changing how they support pupils with SEND because of financial pressures. We have heard similar examples of our own local schools having to curtail provision,...
Matched on
terms: education, staff, support
NAO recommendation
72match
Financial sustainability of schools in England
We recommend that the Department and the ESFA should take the following actions: a) Assess the impact on provision of the various measures adopted by schools in response to financial pressures, for example reducing staffing levels or changing support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. This work should include quantitative analysis and qualitative research to understand...
Matched on
terms: education, staff, support
Committee recommendation
70match
#5 - Understand why teachers leave and support schools in addressing workload and conditions.
Teachers’ working environment and conditions remain critically important to teacher retention, with workload cited as the top reason for teachers leaving, and pupil behaviour an escalating challenge. The Department does not offer payments or structured support for more experienced teachers, which means their working environment constitutes one of the main levers keeping them in the profession. The Department...
Matched on
terms: support
Committee recommendation
70match
#4 - Update Committee on recruitment and retention plans for the further education sector.
The Department has recently increased its focus on addressing the significant teacher gaps across further education colleges, but there remains much more to do. A shortage of further education college teachers, which impacts the type and extent of skills developed, puts the achievement of the government’s missions for opportunity and growth at risk. In general, further education colleges,...
Matched on
terms: education
Committee recommendation
69match
#6 - Develop understanding of college T Level funding pressures and a teacher recruitment strategy.
Various factors, such as teacher recruitment and awarding organisation fees, will influence colleges’ uptake of T Levels particularly given their wider financial challenges. The Department recognises the additional burden faced by colleges to recruit T Level teachers, especially given that T Levels themselves are addressing areas of skills shortages. It is working with industry to facilitate a teacher...
Matched on
terms: support
Committee recommendation
69match
#25 - Secondary school teaching vacancies significantly increased, impacting pupil achievement and specialist subjects.
In 2023–24, 46% of secondary schools in England reported at least one vacant teaching position, more than double the figure of 17% in 2010–11.72 When we asked the Department how this has affected student outcomes, it told us the quality of teaching was the “single most significant factor” in schools impacting pupil’s achievement.73 However, the Department commented that...
Matched on
terms: education, staff
Committee recommendation
69match
#22 - Teacher pay has significantly declined in real terms, impacting recruitment and retention competitiveness.
The Department regards pay as its strongest lever in recruiting and retaining teachers. For example, following the most recent 5.5% pay award, the Department reduced its teacher trainee targets as it expected 2,500 more teachers to stay. However, teacher pay has lagged behind others – in 2024, those working in the education sector were paid around 10% less...
Matched on
terms: education
Committee recommendation
66match
#27 - Further education colleges struggle with high specialist teaching vacancies due to uncompetitive salaries.
Further education colleges have higher vacancy rates than schools, with challenges across certain subjects, particularly those that are more specialist.82 We asked the Department why further education colleges find it difficult to keep specialist teachers. The Department said it sees more recruitment challenges where there are shortages in the labour market, for example in construction, where 9.6% of...
Matched on
terms: education
Committee recommendation
66match
#18 - Education sector suffers lower long-term teacher retention compared to other public and private sectors.
We asked the Department what it was doing to understand why fewer people stay working in the education sector compared with other sectors – 38% of those who had worked within the education sector at some point between the ages of 17 and 29 were still doing so at age 30, compared with 44% in health, 48% in...
Matched on
terms: education
Committee recommendation
66match
#15 - Further education teacher recruitment receives insufficient focus and funding compared to schools.
We asked the Department if it thought there has been less focus on recruitment in further education than there should have been given the need to increase skills across the UK economy. For example, written evidence we received from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Association of Colleges highlighted the £10,000 pay gap between teachers in schools and...
Matched on
terms: education
Committee recommendation
65match
#27 - Colleges still face significant teacher recruitment and retention challenges for T Levels.
The Department told us it recognises the additional burden of T Levels on colleges. It had sought to address this, and help colleges transition to T Levels from other level 3 programmes, by providing a 10% funding uplift in 2023/24 and 2024/25. This reduced to a 5% funding uplift for 2025/26.81 The Department explained that colleges received a...
Matched on
terms: education, support
Committee recommendation
65match
#10 - Insufficient funding and resources hinder adequate SEN provision and support
Insufficient funding and resources and a mismatch between local authority responsibilities and powers negatively impacts the adequacy of ordinarily available provision and SEN support. We have heard from school leaders and SENCOs that without sufficient resources, settings are struggling to provide the high quality, consistent support necessary to achieve inclusive mainstream education. (Conclusion, Paragraph 73)
Matched on
terms: education, support
NAO recommendation
65match
Support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in England
The Department should identify and share good practice on how mainstream schools can effectively meet the needs of those pupils with SEND who do not have EHC plans.
Matched on
terms: education, support
LGO / SPSO decision
64match
24-018-160 - Sheffield City Council
Summary: Mrs Y complained the Council failed to secure part of the special educational provision set out in her child, Z’s Education Health and Care Plan. We have found fault causing injustice by the Council because of its service failure in failing to deliver support for Z to attend the physical activity provision in their Plan. The Council...
Matched on
terms: education, support
IMB annual report
64match
Parc young person’s unit (2023)
HMP/YOI Parc Young Person’s Unit maintained its reputation as a leading YOI, lauded for its strong leadership, innovative programmes, and compassionate staff-child relationships. The unit successfully reduced violence and improved time out of cells, alongside excellent family contact. However, the report raised concerns regarding the challenged healthcare provision following a staff departure and the quality of education delivered...
Matched on
terms: education, staff
Committee recommendation
62match
#26 - Disadvantaged schools suffer higher teacher turnover, fewer experienced staff, and limited pupil opportunities.
Those schools with higher proportions of disadvantaged pupils tend to have higher turnover rates and less experienced teachers.77 This impacts the government’s mission of breaking down the barriers to opportunity and means disadvantaged children are at risk of being locked out from particular careers.78 In 2023–24, 34% of teachers in the most disadvantaged schools had up to five...
Matched on
terms: staff
Committee recommendation
61match
#3 - Understand reasons for teacher variations in deprived areas and core subjects.
Teacher vacancies and the challenges of retaining experienced teachers are greater for schools in deprived areas, and across some core subjects, leading to inequities in provision and career opportunities. Schools and colleges decide their own staffing model and have discretion around how they chose to use funding which may, for example, lead to variances in the use of...
Matched on
terms: staff
Committee recommendation
61match
#23 - Department's influence on teacher pay varies, with no pay review body for further education colleges.
The Department’s influence on teacher pay differs across schools and colleges. For secondary schools, the Department sets teacher pay ranges based on advice from a pay review body. Local-authority- maintained schools must apply these ranges, whilst academies set their own pay although many follow the Department’s guidance.64 We asked the Department how it would ensure schools can afford...
Matched on
terms: education
Committee recommendation
60match
#61 - Integrate SEND content into teaching assistant training with regular CPD opportunities
SEND content should be an integral part of teaching assistant training, and they should be provided with regular opportunities for CPD and peer support. This could be through incentivised or ring-fenced funding for schools and multi-academy trusts to release teaching assistants and learning support assistants for SEND CPD, removing practical barriers to participation and ensuring consistent take-up across...
Matched on
terms: education, support
Committee recommendation
60match
#5 - Thirtieth Report - Developing workforce skills for a strong economy
We are concerned that continuing financial pressures and workforce challenges are hampering colleges’ ability to play a full part in the skills system. Colleges play an important role in reaching disadvantaged groups and giving people opportunities they would not otherwise have to develop their skills. In January 2021, we reported that there was clear evidence of the college...
Matched on
terms: staff, support
LGO / SPSO decision
60match
21-019-010 - Lincolnshire County Council
Summary: Miss X complains the Council gave inaccurate advice and failed to provide her son, Y, with suitable or alternative education provision. We have concluded our investigation having not made a finding of fault by the Council. The Council followed its Emotional Based Support Avoidance (EBSA) ladder to assist Y back into school, and education provision remained accessible...
Matched on
terms: education, support
IMB annual report
59match
Drake Hall (2022)
Drake Hall generally provides a safe and humane environment, with commendable staff efforts and good healthcare provision. Key concerns persist regarding the unfit condition of two accommodation units, persistent issues with lost property on transfer, and challenges in education provision post-pandemic. The Board also highlights the difficulty in preparing women transferred close to their release dates for resettlement...
Matched on
terms: education, staff
PFD report
57match
Owen Williams
The electronic release of A-level results at 6:00 am, hours before student support was available, left vulnerable students without immediate guidance, contributing to a tragic outcome after disappointing grades.
Matched on
terms: support
Committee recommendation
57match
#2 - Develop a whole-system strategy to recruit and retain school and college teachers.
The Department has no clear or coherent approach bringing together its various initiatives on teacher recruitment and retention. In 2024–25, the Department had a £700 million package, excluding pay and pensions, for recruitment and retention initiatives which the Department has allocated in a way to make as much progress as possible. This includes bursaries and scholarships to recruit...
Matched on
terms: support
LGO / SPSO decision
57match
21-011-049 - Surrey County Council
Summary: There was delay in an EHC needs assessment which delayed the issue of a final EHC plan. This in turn delayed when a child could receive the special educational provision they required. The Council will apologise and make a financial payment to acknowledge the impact of the delay.
Matched on
terms: education
LGO / SPSO decision
57match
21-012-499 - Kent County Council
Summary: Miss X complained the Council delayed finalising her son’s Education, Health and Care Plan causing distress and financial loss. We found the Council at fault. We recommended the Council provide Miss X with an apology and payment for distress, and act to prevent recurrence.
Matched on
terms: education
LGO / SPSO decision
57match
21-005-410 - London Borough of Bromley
Summary: Mrs J complains the Council delayed issuing a final EHC Plan for her grandson and has failed to provide him with a full-time education or with a personal budget for education out of school. We have found fault causing injustice. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mrs J and review its procedures.
Matched on
terms: education
IMB recommendation
56match
Foston Hall (2022)
Education delivery being seriously impacted by operational staff shortages and regime restrictions (see paragraph 7.1.1)
Matched on
terms: education, staff
Committee recommendation
53match
#40 - Embed commitment for Best Start Family Hubs to include dedicated SENCOs, EPs, and SLTs.
The commitment for every Best Start Family Hub to have a dedicated SENCO should be embedded within the SEND workforce strategy and extend to educational psychologists and speech and language therapists. (Recommendation, Paragraph 176)
Matched on
terms: education
Committee recommendation
53match
#65 - Provide realistic assessment of construction workforce numbers and skills needed for housing and climate targets
We recommend that the Government, in response to this report, should: • Provide a realistic assessment of the construction workforce and what is needed to deliver the Government’s housing targets for each remaining year of this Parliament. This should include: ○ Annual estimates of the number of construction workers needed to meet the Government’s yearly and five-year home...
Matched on
terms: support
Committee recommendation
53match
#55 - Invest in ecology training and establish local ecological resource hubs by July 2026.
We recommend that the Government should invest in and prioritise the training and upskilling of talent in ecology as a priority. As a temporary measure, to address current staff shortages, the Government should pilot and establish local ecological resource hubs, consisting of qualified ecologists and environmental planners, who are available to local authorities facing acute resource challenges. The...
Matched on
terms: staff
Committee recommendation
53match
#54 - Ensure local planning authorities are adequately resourced to hire and train ecological experts.
One of the strongest messages we have heard throughout this inquiry is that local planning authorities are severely under-resourced in terms of ecological expertise. Addressing this should be a priority, as without rapid and meaningful support, the Government will struggle to meet its house building targets while adhering to environmental standards. The Government must ensure that local planning...
Matched on
terms: support
Committee recommendation
53match
#5 - Accelerate initiatives promoting clean energy and retrofit careers for under-represented groups and new workforce entrants.
The Government should continue to develop and launch further initiatives to promote clean energy and retrofit careers among under-represented groups and those outside the existing workforce; the actions set out in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper should be accelerated to bring down the barriers to new entrants from these groups taking up such roles in time...
Matched on
terms: education
LGO / SPSO decision
53match
21-006-802 - Kent County Council
Summary: Mrs K complains about a lack of suitable education being provided to her son (Child X) who has special educational needs. Mrs K also complains the Council failed to identify a suitable school placement for Child X and has not updated his Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP). We found the Council used reasonable endeavours to find...
Matched on
terms: education
LGO / SPSO decision
53match
21-017-554 - Liverpool City Council
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X's complaint about the Council’s special education needs team’s actions. We will not get involved with the Tribunal’s actions and it is unlikely we would find fault in the Council’s decision to consult the child’s mother.
Matched on
terms: education
Committee recommendation
52match
#24 - Thirtieth Report - Developing workforce skills for a strong economy
Our 2021 report also noted, however, that the financial health of the college sector had previously been, and remained, fragile and that financial pressures were affecting provision for students. These pressures had caused some colleges to narrow their curriculum and reduce the length of courses. Some colleges had significantly reduced enrichment activities for students, such as careers advice...
Matched on
terms: support
LGO / SPSO decision
52match
PSOW-202207770 - Estyn
The Ombudsman received a complaint from a local authority in Wales, making a complaint on behalf of several individuals (“the Council”),regarding the way His Majesty’s Inspectorate for Education and Training in Wales (“Estyn”) had dealt with a complaint it had raised on behalf of several individuals. The complaint was about the professional conduct of one of His Majesty’s...
Matched on
terms: education