Zarah ChoudharyUnite has expressed concerns about a race-to-the-bottom on classroom assistant positions at special educational needs (SEN) schools in Northern Ireland.
The union submitted Freedom of Information requests to all 39 SEN schools in Northern Ireland to ask how many were working in the position of temporary classroom assistants and how many of those workers held essential criteria for the job, how many had completed Access NI checks and where they did not, how many risk assessments had been conducted for the positions involved.
With responses in from all 39 SEN schools, a total of 1,179 classroom assistants were reported as being engaged through a temporary engagement form.
Only three schools said that all temporary classroom assistants at the school held the essential job criteria.
A majority (21) did not provide a response to whether temporary CAs held essential criteria stating “that they did not hold the information requested”.
Responses indicated that 1,071 of the 1,179 temporary classroom assistants (90.8%) had completed their Access NI checks –however almost 10 per cent were working without these in place.
At the same time, schools responded that they had conducted a total of 277 risk assessments for temporary classroom assistants whose Access NI checks were not completed.
Kieran Ellison, regional officer at Unite said: “These figures reveal the fast and loose approach encouraged by the education authority (EA).
“SEN schools prefer to take classroom assistants on temporary engagement forms with few employment protections and no job security.
“Temporary posts are being used to sidestep employing those holding essential employment criteria and are Access NI compliant. Qualified workers are being excluded.
“Unite has exposed a race to the bottom that reinforces the problem of low pay and poor conditions in this sector.
“There are obvious concerns for safety of the most vulnerable children.
“The department of education needs to level up employment practices across all SEN schools and ensure the professionalisation of this sector.
“Classroom assistants must be paid properly, treated with respect and given long-term job security.”
Workplace Journal has contacted SEN for a comment.
