Changes to the roles of school support staff

[Deleted]

I was talking to a friend about the remodelling of the workforce last night.
The proposed changes strike me as a bit of a bureaucratic red herring, in that behavioural support staff will be answerable to teachers.
I really don't think the changes they're proposing are positive ones.
Essentially (it seems to me) that this new system will interfere with the ability of counsellors and behavioural support staff to do their job to the best of their ability. It says in the guidance notes that ”experienced support staff with appropriate training and qualifications, may be given greater autonomy…..within the framework set by the teacher’. Placing a professional who is trained to recognise the signs of psychological distress in children, able to act as an objective party between the school/the parents and the child and deliver objective behavioural/emotional support in a position where they're answerable to a teacher seems a ridiculous idea.

I'm not entirely sure to what extent it'll impact behavioural support because I can't seem to find anything that will tell me the difference between a level three and a level four behavioural support assistant is (i.e. what level of qualification and experience a person in that role would need to be allowed any autonomy in managing the care of a child or liaising with outside agencies on their behalf) but from what I've read so far I must say I'm rather concerned.

I know there's at least a couple of you on here who work in these areas and can probably expand more on what I've picked up so far, or fill in the gaps where the qualification levels are concerned, so I thought I'd ask .... have I understood this properly, is this really what they're proposing, what on earth constitutes a level three and level four behavioural support assistant and how do those of you who work within the education system or child support services feel about the changes they're proposing?

[littleraven]

I can understand the frustration you would feel, but the significant issue is the context. In the school it is the role of the teacher, perhaps more specifically the SENCO, to ensure that the various services are integrated properly. Recently there is a movement to move to a more integrated approach in education, so ther will need to be a more central co-ordinating role.

As a secondary teacher (ex HoD, Asst HoF) whose academic background is in psychology, I can tell you from experience that the majority of teachers don't have the first idea what happens in the special needs context, or how to dealwith children who don't fit the behavioural norm.

Now, how this will happen is going to be interesting. Teachers wil automatically assume they know best because they are teachers, Support staff with more specialist training will be fighting teachers interested in league tables and SATs results than whether someone can function effectively.

But if you let me know if it's primary or secondary I'll get on the case for you. I have direct access the primary documents as Cath (other half) is heavily involved in integrated services in Childrens centres and into primary schools. She effectively tells the heads how to do it.

[Deleted]

If it was a case of one person taking the role of SENCO and both teachers and support staff being answerable to them for their own part in supporting the child, that would make sense. It appears to be more that the support staff will be answerable to the teacher though.
As you pointed out, most teachers don't have a clue how to deal with children who don't fit the norm and that already causes conflict between them and behavioural support staff in many cases. I recently had a conversation with a friend who counsels children in a local secondary chool and had been yelled at and called an anarchist for saying that while he didn't condone the actions of a child, he understood why they had taken that course of action and endeavoured to explain why. In situations like this, where there's a child/teacher conflict if counsellors are answerable to the teacher there's likely to be a lot of kids who are penalised without any understanding of the mitigating factors motivating their behaviour because as you said, the teachers know best and don't really understand kids who don't fit the ideal behavioural norm.

I'm aware the restructure applies on a secondary level, but I'm not sure about primary. I really hope not, I remember when Dylan's school counsellor diagnosed him with a mild case of Aspergers and his teacher's response was to ignore the recommendations of the counsellor and punish him for not paying enough attention at times.
It'd be a serious problem if the new changes gave teachers the authority to ignore issues the children in their care are facing and simply demand they "conform to the norm, or else" with no support or additional assistance to enable them to do so.

And yes, I'd really appreciate it if you could look into it for me. Thanks LR