(2) how many teaching assistants were employed in (a) pupil referral units, (b) special needs units attached to mainstream schools, (c) resourced provision, units and special classes in maintained mainstream schools and (d) maintained special schools in each year between 1997 and 2007;
(3) how many learning support assistants there were in (a) pupil referral units, (b) special needs units attached to mainstream schools, (c) resourced provision, units and special classes in maintained mainstream schools and (d) maintained special schools in each of the years between 1997 and 2007.
Information on the salaries paid to learning support assistants, teaching assistants and other school support staff is not collected centrally.
“The Deployment and Impact of Support Staff in Schools” is an ongoing research project commissioned by the Department. It started in 2004 and will run to 2009. One strand of the project is a survey conducted in 2004 with a sample of support staff. The sample was not representative but the results were weighted to account for any bias in the sample. Amongst other things, the questionnaire asked about their pay. Support staff in special schools reported a mean hourly wage of £9.06. This compared with £7.90 and £9.55 for support staff in primary and secondary schools respectively. Teaching assistant equivalent staff across the maintained sector reported a mean hourly wage of £8.66. “Teaching Assistant Equivalent” includes teaching assistants, learning support assistants for SEN pupils, nursery nurses and therapists. The full wave one report can be found at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR776.pdf and the next interim report is due during summer 2007.
Information on learning support assistants is collected within the overall number of teaching assistants but is not available as a separate category. Numbers of special needs support staff are however available separately. In addition numbers cannot be provided separately for units and classes within mainstream schools.
The following table provides the number of full-time equivalent teaching assistants employed in pupil referral units, maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools and maintained special schools in England from January 1997 to 2006 and is the latest information available. The number of those who are special needs support staff are also provided.
Thousand Pupil referral units Maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools Maintained special schools Teaching assistants Of which: Special needs support staff1 Teaching assistants Of which: Special needs support staff Teaching assistants Of which: Special needs support staff1 1997 — 260 49,690 24,250 10,620 — 1998 — 370 53,800 25,680 11,370 — 1999 — 430 57,240 29,110 11,930 — 2000 — 540 65,830 31,890 12,650 — 2001 — 620 80,970 37,040 13,400 — 20022 890 310 91,310 39,310 13,160 7,000 2003 1,330 490 104,540 39,930 15,320 5,880 2004 1,830 490 114,500 40,620 15,730 5,300 2005 2,070 530 127,880 41,020 17,050 6,440 2006 1,970 430 132,530 40,980 18,610 6,130 1 Whilst the overall collection of support staff data for schools was successful, it is possible that some discontinuity in the time series data has resulted from underlying change in data collection. 2 When PLASC was introduced in 2002 data collection forms were standardised throughout all sectors. Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Annual School Census