Classroom support needs review agreed

The Highland Council has agreed that the budget for the service provided by classroom assistants in primary schools be reinstated in 2011-12 and that further work is carried out to redefine the role of classroom support needs to ensure that future support is child-centred and needs-driven.

The Council agreed recommendations of a cross-party Working Group, which received advice from a professsional task force. They agreed:-

 i) that a generic post, at two levels, be established to provide support to
    children in classrooms;

(ii) that a task force be established immediately to consider the details of job
    descriptions for the generic post and to consider implementation issues;

(iii) that the Cross Party Working Group should continue its work and should
    now monitor progress of the detailed work of the task group and make
    recommendations to the Council on the revised classroom support
    arrangements;

(iv) that implementation of the new generic post should be from August
    2012; and

(v) that the £319,000 savings in the financial year 2011/12 be met from
    funding allocated by the Scottish Government in relation to negotiations on
    teachers’ terms and conditions and that the funding implications of future
    support arrangements be considered as part of the Council’s ongoing
    budget setting process.

Council Leader Michael Foxley paid tribute to the work of the task group and the Working Group for achieving such a positive outcome. 

He said: “This is a good news story.  We strongly value the role played by our classroom staff.  However, the support needs of pupils have changed significantly over the past 10 years and I am certain finishing this review will give us a service that is based on our children's needs."

                                                             -ends-