Striking teaching assistants say pay doesn’t reflect their responsibilities

Teaching assistants on strike at Pioneer School in Essex

Teaching assistants (TAs) in Essex began seven days of strikes over pay on Thursday.

The Unison union members provide support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) at Pioneer School in Basildon, Columbus School and College in Chelmsford and Lift Clacton.

Workers are fighting for the Lift Schools academy bosses to recognise their role in Send education and reflect it in their pay.

Linda is one of the Unison members at Pioneer School. “We enable our children with specialist needs, high medical needs and high behaviour needs to come into school,” she told Socialist Worker.

“Without us here, they won’t gain their education. But I don’t think that we are appreciated and the work we do isn’t reflected in the wages.”

Sarah, a learning support assistant (LSA) at Pioneer, added, “We have workers who have got second and third jobs to try and make ends meet.”

Miranda, another LSA at the school, wants bosses to “realise that we are teaching assistants, but also nurses”. “A lot of our children have oxygen or have epilepsy,” she told Socialist Worker.

“A lot of them have a physio plan which we implement. Our pay doesn’t reflect the amount of responsibility.”

Send teachers at Lift schools receive up to £5,500 extra a year for the extra skills and responsibilities that come with their roles.

“The teachers deserve it because our teachers are amazing,” Miranda said. “But we deserve it too and a lot of our teachers do support us in that.”

“When you break it down and look at what their job entails, it’s pretty much a mirror image of each.”

Workers said that there is a high turnover of TAs at the Lift schools. Sarah explained that an allowance would help retain experienced workers and “encourage the younger generations to come into this job”.

Mel Carrington is the Unison regional organiser. She told Socialist Worker that bosses only offered a pay re-banding scheme tied to gaining new qualifications, not an allowance recognising the work TAs already do.

Sarah said, “We haven’t taken the decision to strike lightly, we care for them like they’re our own children.”

But workers are determined to win and are not backing down. A protest is set to take place on Monday outside Lift’s London office. Find details of the picket lines here and get down to show your solidarity.

• All workers’ names have been changed.