More than one in four teaching assistants said they are having to cover classes because of teacher shortages at their school, according to a major staff survey.
The poll, carried out by Unison and shared with Tes, also reveals that two out of five TAs cover for class teachers for at least five hours per week, which the union says is equivalent to an entire school day.
The survey suggests the vast majority of TAs (85 per cent) are covering lessons for more than an hour a week.
Teaching assistants covering lessons
The most common reasons for TAs to be covering lessons are staff sickness and teachers using planning, preparation and assessment time, which were cited by more than two-thirds of respondents.
But about one in four said they cover lessons because of teacher shortages and a similar proportion said they are doing so because their school has been unable to get supply teachers in.
Four in five TAs (81 per cent) reported being concerned that this cover work negatively impacts provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The findings also suggest that this is a growing issue in many schools, as almost half of TAs (45 per cent) said they are covering classes more than they did last year.
A Unison report warns that a “brewing” TA workload, recruitment and retention crisis is “connected to the crisis facing teachers” and that there is now a “clear-cut case for a national strategy for TAs”.
Unison’s head of education Mike Short said that schools are being put in an “impossible position”.
He added: “Schools’ budgets are so tight that instead of getting in supply teachers to cover classes, heads are having to use teaching assistants on the cheap.
“Ministers are entirely responsible for the funding crisis that’s putting schools in this impossible position.
“The government must ensure all schools have the budget and staff to provide the education they’re meant to deliver. This over-reliance on unsatisfactory stop-gap measures and overburdening teaching assistants in this way has to stop.”
Schools battle supply crisis
The findings come as schools battle a long-term supply crisis and after the government once again missed its target for recruiting secondary teacher trainees by 50 per cent last year.
Last week, a report revealed that nearly three-quarters of leaders in primary schools have had to cut teaching assistant roles amid financial struggles.
This is despite the number of children with SEND significantly increasing, with a 19 per cent rise between 2018-19 and 2022-23.
The Unison survey, which included responses from nearly 6,000 TAs in England and Wales, also revealed concerns about the impact of increased cover work on staff retention.
Some 85 per cent of TAs said covering classes has a negative impact on their workload, while more than four in five (82 per cent) said it has an impact on their health and wellbeing.
Most TAs reported that covering classes impacts their regular duties. Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) said covering lessons leads to pupils missing out on classroom support. Some 58 per cent said it affects intervention sessions, while 52 per cent said it means pupils with an education, health and care plan miss out on one-to-one support.
The survey also revealed that half of TAs (50 per cent) cover classes without a lesson plan or support from another TA, while three-quarters of TAs said that covering classes inevitably involves them having to teach pupils.
Schools have ‘literally no other choice’
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the report was “symptomatic of the recruitment and retention crisis that this government has overseen in our schools”.
“It is not right that teaching assistants should be asked to routinely cover classes but, sadly, sometimes schools have literally no other choice.”
Mr Whiteman said the government needed to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis “so there is a sufficient supply of teachers for all subjects, across all parts of the country”.
And Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, also argued that schools are being left “with nowhere to go other than to ask teaching assistants to find cover”.
“These findings reflect the fact it is increasingly a struggle simply to put a qualified teacher at the front of every class.”
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