Support staff in schools

Growth and development

Before the advent of Local Management of Schools (LMS) in 1988, school-based employees covered by the local government salary scales, rather than teachers’ pay and conditions, were usually described as ‘non-teaching staff’, and were also known as administrative, professional, clerical and technical staff (APT&C). Caretakers, cleaners, cooks, canteen supervisors and a few general assistants were paid on the separate manual workers’ scale.

The term ‘non-teaching staff’ emphasised the difference between teachers and the rest in terms of pay and status, and failed to acknowledge the extent to which successful schools thrived on teamwork by the whole staff. Instead, office and manual workers often seemed to belong to a separate world, with a slightly old-fashioned, local government ethos. There were a limited number of APT&C staff, so teachers had to complete a great many administrative and clerical routines themselves, including collecting dinner money, supervising the lunch hall and chasing attendance.

LMS (and later Grant Maintained Status – GMS) brought about important changes both in the management of schools and for the staff who worked in them. Headteachers controlled all the resources available to the school and were no longer governed by staffing establishments or quotas. The school, rather than the local authority, became the unit that mattered to employees, encouraging managers to emphasise the whole staff team rather than separate grades and scales. GMS schools became the legal employers of all grades of staff, and were permitted to opt out of national pay and conditions agreements if they wished.

Schools became responsible for almost all their own administration. Growing numbers of staff were appointed to manage delegated budgets, personnel administration, payroll and other responsibilities that came with self-management. As new initiatives and funding streams came online, schools further expanded the number of support staff they employed, particularly learning support assistants concerned with special needs, exclusion and supervision. The use of the term ‘support staff’ became nearly universal, although the phrase does not well define the role of a financial, office or site manager, for example.