Ofsted finds schools are failing to support non-teaching staff

The inspectorate’s latest report Workforce Reform in Schools: Has it Made a Difference? focused on the experiences of 30 schools in developing these non-teaching roles.

Just six schools were found to be effectively using such roles to raise standards or were providing them with good training and professional support.

In 18 schools the deployment of such roles had made little difference to attainment. Six schools were criticised for not measuring the effectiveness of its wider school workforce, in terms of the impact on pupils' school lives and whether the deployment of such roles freed up teacher time.

Such evaluation would be particularly useful in ensuring extra support from professionals was carried on when pupils moved from primary to secondary school, says Ofsted.

Ofsted also found that many schools knew nothing about the Training and Development Agency’s career development framework for the wider schools workforce.

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said: "The effectiveness of the workforce reforms put in place in 2003 depends on all school staff being valued and treated as professionals.

"Staff are most effective when they have good training, when their skills are carefully deployed, and when they are held accountable for their contribution to pupils’ learning."

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "I am not surprised that Ofsted could only identify six schools which followed the intentions of workforce reform. The reforms blur the roles of support staff leading to confusion and their inappropriate deployment, particularly for children with the greatest needs, such as those with special educational needs." 

This is the fifth report on the wider school workforce since 2003’s National Workforce Agreement expanded such roles within schools.