Categories of other roles

Schools employ a variety of staff other than teachers, and the numbers of employees who are not teachers has increased in recent years. In November 2017 (SFR25/2018), just under 48% of the schools’ workforce in England were teachers, compared with almost 28% who were teaching assistants, and around 25% who were non-classroom based support staff.

The article on ‘Education Staff Responsible for Guidance in Early Childhood and School Education’ covers some support staff roles, including Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs); Education Welfare Officers (EWOs); careers guidance staff; and educational psychologists.

Other roles can be grouped into five categories - learning support staff; welfare and pupil support staff; specialist and technical staff; administrative staff; and site staff. These roles are described below. Specific job titles vary as they are decided locally.

Learning support staff

This category of staff includes:

• Teaching assistants (TAs), learning support assistants (LSAs), or classroom assistants who work alongside teachers in the classroom, helping pupils with their learning on an individual or group basis. Some specialise in areas such as literacy, numeracy, special educational needs (SEN), music, or English as an additional language (these may be known as bilingual [teaching] assistants). The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has produced guidance and resources to help schools make best use of TAs.
• Higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs), who are experienced teaching assistants. Their role is to plan and deliver learning activities under the direction of a teacher and assess, record and report on pupils’ progress. They may also guide the work of other adults supporting teaching and learning in the classroom, or may supervise a class in a teacher’s absence. This role was created in 2003 as part of the National Workload Agreement, intended to help raise standards and tackle teacher workload issues in schools. 
• Early years teaching assistants who work in cooperation with a teacher, looking after the social and educational development of children aged three to five. 
• Cover supervisors who provide replacement cover for teachers who are absent.

Welfare and pupil support staff

This category of staff includes:

• Midday supervisors / lunchtime controllers who look after the welfare of pupils in the dinner hall and playground during the lunch break. 
• Learning mentors who support, motivate and challenge pupils who are underachieving and help them overcome barriers to learning caused by social, emotional and behavioural problems. 
• Attendance officers who work alongside school staff to promote school attendance, and home-school liaison officers / parent support advisers who provide support and advice to parents and carers.
• School nurses, who work to improve the health and well-being of children and young people. They are community-based, so not directly employed by the school, but are usually linked to a school or group of schools and work across education and health services. 

Specialist and technical staff

This category of staff includes:

• librarians / media resources officers 
• ICT technicians / network managers 
• data managers 
• science technicians / design technology technicians. 

Administrative staff

These staff include:

• school business managers / bursars / finance officers 
• administrative and clerical assistants 
• examinations officers / managers (in secondary schools only, who are responsible for submitting exam entries, organising exam timetables, overseeing the exams and processing the results). 

Site staff

These staff include:

• premises managers; cleaning, caretaking and catering staff. 

Training and qualifications

Training opportunities for support staff employed in schools include programmes, such as apprenticeships in supporting teaching and learning, which lead to accredited qualifications at Level 2 and Level 3 of the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF).

For higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs), there are national professional standards. To be awarded HLTA status, candidates must present a portfolio of evidence for assessment against the HLTA standards.

For other roles, there are no mandatory standards.

Non-statutory standards for teaching assistants were published in 2016 by a group of school workforce unions. The standards were originally developed by a working group of experts commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE), which chose not to publish them but gave permission for the unions to do so. The standards set out the role and purpose of teaching assistants (TAs), with the aim of helping schools to maximise the educational value and contribution of their TAs.

For school business managers, there is a school business management competency framework which provides a common training platform for the profession. The School Business Management Partnership (SBMP) is responsible for the design, delivery and updating of qualifications for school business managers.

Performance management

It is not mandatory for support staff to participate in performance management, although many schools do have arrangements in place. The Department for Education (DfE) has produced a model policy on teacher appraisal and capability, which schools are free to adapt for support staff.

Pay and conditions of employment

Like teachers and headteachers, support staff working in schools are not civil servants. They are employees of the local authority (LA) in community schools and voluntary controlled schools, or of the school governing body in the case of foundation schools and voluntary-aided schools.  The academy trust is the employer for staff in academies.

There is no agreed national framework for support staff pay or conditions of service, but the National Agreement on Pay and Conditions of Service (known as ‘the Green Book’), has a bearing on many support staff contracts. The Green Book is produced by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services and was last updated in May 2018.

All employees who are not teachers must have access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

The Department for Education (DfE) provides non-statutory guidance for schools on managing staff and employment issues. For advice on making support staff appointments, pay and grading decisions, see page 8 of the guidance.

Historical note: The establishment of a national framework for pay and conditions was the remit of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body for England (SSSNB), which was set up in 2009. In October 2010, having concluded that the SSSNB did not fit well with its priorities for greater deregulation of the pay and conditions arrangements for the school workforce, the Government legislated for the abolition of the SSSNB. This took effect on 1 February 2012. 

Article last reviewed December 2020.