Expand statutory SEN allowance entitlement to Teaching Assistants in SEN schools

Many SEN teaching assistants (TAs) handle complex behavioural, medical, and communication needs. We feel current pay doesn’t reflect the intensity or value of the work. Low pay contributes to recruitment & retention challenges. We believe TAs should receive SEN allowances.

TAs in SEN settings often take on duties beyond those of mainstream support staff, such as: managing complex behaviour plans, delivering therapy or intervention programmes, monitoring medical or sensory needs, and using specialist equipment or communication systems (e.g., PECS, Makaton, AAC).

We believe these responsibilities mirror tasks of higher-paid specialist roles, yet we feel TAs are not compensated accordingly. SEN TAs should receive the statutory SEN allowance because we believe the role demands specialist knowledge that significantly exceed standard classroom duties.

Teaching Assistants play an important role in supporting children to achieve and thrive in all schools, including special schools.

That is why the Employment Rights Act 2025 provides for the establishment of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB). Establishing the SSSNB was a manifesto commitment and is an important part of delivering both the government’s Plan to Make Work Pay and Opportunity Mission. The SSSNB will be a new statutory body with a remit to negotiate pay and conditions, and to advise on training and career progression. The body will give a sector specific voice to support staff, who make up roughly half of the directly employed school workforce, by bringing together employer and employee representatives.

Agreements ratified by the Secretary of State on pay, terms and conditions will be incorporated into individual employee contracts, where they are currently on terms below the new statutory minimums agreed by the SSSNB. This will establish a consistent national ‘floor’ that all school support staff can expect, whilst allowing more favourable terms beyond this and protecting individual employees from any changes to their detriment.

The scope of the SSSNB will cover support staff employed in maintained schools and academies, including those working in special schools.

To recognise that the majority of the school support staff workforce is female and facing recruitment and retention challenges, we have announced in the Schools White Paper earlier this year that we will remit and provide funding for the SSSNB to negotiate an improvement to maternity pay in its first year of operation.