Protect School Support Staff

27 Jan 2011

GMB call on the Government to amend its proposals to include school support staff, otherwise Gove’s discipline revolution could be stopped in its tracks.

GMB, the union for school support staff, complained that new legislation to give protection to teachers in cases where they are accused by school pupils of wrong doing does not provide the same level of protection for school support staff who make up half of the school workforce. The Government’s Education Bill extends the power of school staff to search pupils without consent and also promises teachers anonymity if accused by pupils of wrong doing.

All school staff currently have a legal power to use reasonable force to control or restrain pupils. Part 2 of the draft legislation extends this legal power. It adds new items to the list of “prohibited items” which (under the Education Act 1996 and Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009) can be searched for by teachers or any other person who “has lawful control or charge of pupils for whom education is being provided at the school”. Part 3 of the draft legislation introduces restrictions on the public reporting of allegations made against teachers but does not include the restrictions for the school support staff.

This cuts across existing legislation which does include the school support staff. It says, “All school staff members have a legal power to use reasonable force to prevent pupils committing a criminal offence, injuring themselves or others or damaging property, and to maintain good order and discipline”. See Department for Children, Schools and Families, “The use of force to control or restrain pupils: Guidance for schools in England”, April 2010.

GMB National Officer Sharon Holder said: “School support staff make up half of the school workforce. This proposed legislation leaves them between a rock and a hard place without the necessary protection afforded to the teachers.

These days school support staff such as Teaching Assistants and Cover Supervisors are often left in sole charge of a class. They will be expected to use these new disciplinary powers, yet they won’t be given the same protection from allegations that teachers will. This is palpably unfair.

Staff will rightly be wary of exercising any disciplinary powers unless Michael Gove ensures equal protection for all.

GMB call on the Government to amend its proposals to include school support staff, otherwise Gove’s discipline revolution could be stopped in its tracks.”