Written question WQ88293

Teaching Assistants are a valued and integral part of the school workforce and we recognise and appreciate their hard work and dedication to support our young people in Wales.

The National Professional Learning Entitlement sets out the support every practitioner in Wales, including teaching assistants, should be entitled to. The Teaching Assistants Learning Pathway (TALP) was developed in partnership with the regional consortia and is a key element of the professional learning offer to support them throughout their career. Programmes currently available include Induction, Practising, Aspiring Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA), HLTA and experienced teaching assistants. The Welsh Government invests £1m per annum to support the delivery of the TALP.

To help us further develop the professional learning offer, the Welsh Government has established a teaching assistant professional learning steering group, which continues to consider issues of equality of access to targeted, high quality and consistent training for our teaching assistants. A key aim for the steering group is to map the current professional learning offer and identify any gaps in provision.

The steering group is also developing further resources for leaders and Governors on the deployment of teaching assistants. Other issues that are being discussed include consideration of setting minimum entry requirements to the profession and ensuring that all Governing bodies have a teaching assistant Champion who fully understands the role that they play in schools supporting our learners.

The pay and conditions for all non-teaching local government staff, such as school support staff, form part of the pay negotiations for local authority employees in Wales and England. As such the Welsh Government does not have the ability to set pay and conditions for teaching assistants.

However, a Social Partnership Forum Task and Finish Group is looking into a variety of issues relating to teaching assistants, including standardisation of roles; consistency in deployment; and a move towards common pay scales across Wales. The work being taken forward on standardisation of roles can bring greater coherence to support pay discussions, reflecting the important role that teaching assistants play. We are expecting the Social Partnership Forum to report by July 2023.