Three-quarters of school leaders are struggling to recruit teaching assistants, while support staff are leaving at the highest rate since records began, a report has warned.
Support staff make up more than half of England’s school workforce. National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) analysis suggests they are leaving at higher rates than ever before.
Support staff “are essential to delivering high quality education”, said NFER education workforce lead Jack Worth.
Today’s NFER report suggests there are 10 per cent more support staff working in secondary schools than five years ago, and 20 per cent more in special schools.
This is due to both an increasing number of 11 to 16-year-olds and increasing demand for SEND provision.
Support staff ‘not feeling valued’
But the majority of school leaders are encountering difficulties hiring them.
This was particularly true for hiring teaching assistants. TAs make up 49 per cent of support staff roles. Seventy-five per cent of leaders said recruiting them is difficult.
NFER analysis also suggests exit rates for support staff have reached the highest level since records began in 2011-12.
The rate has risen in the last three years, with around one in five support staff leaving the school system between 2023-24 and 2024-25.
The research showed not feeling valued was the most common reason support staff gave (47 per cent) as to why they were considering leaving. Low staff morale, lack of staffing, lack of career progression and financial reasons were among other common reasons.
Leaders struggling to recruit support staff
Kathryn Morgan, leadership and workforce specialist at union ASCL, said pay “has not kept pace” with growing demands on support staff.
“Squeezed school budgets, combined with the opportunities available in other sectors, mean it is becoming more challenging to recruit and retain teaching assistants and other support staff.”
Support staff occupy a wide range of roles, with almost half (49 per cent) working as teaching assistants or in learning support positions.
In secondaries, around 22 per cent are pastoral and welfare staff, while another 21 per cent work in admin and finance. In primaries, around 21 per cent are lunchtime supervisors.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said schools “simply wouldn’t be able to function” without support staff, yet leaders “are having to reduce the number of teaching assistants they have in order to balance the books”.
“We also hear about TAs having to take second jobs, or even leave their jobs in schools because they know they can be paid more in the local supermarket.
“Schools want to be able to pay TAs what they are truly worth, but they just don’t have the funding to do so.”
The findings also raise questions about how the workforce will cope with planned SEND reforms.
DfE data suggests seven in 10 TAs and learning support staff, a third of
health, pastoral and welfare staff and around a quarter of midday supervisors spend all
or most of their time supporting pupils with SEND.
The drive for mainstream schools to support a wider range of needs is “likely to [mean] an expansion in demand for support staff,” says the NFER report.
Whiteman added that if the government wants a more inclusive school system, “it must ensure schools have the necessary funding for the staff required to deliver it.
Call for action
Worth said as demand for support staff – particularly TAs – continues to rise, “it is critical that the government tackles the growing challenges around recruitment and retention”.
He said schools can strengthen this by helping make sure support staff “feel recognised and valued”.
The NFER makes a number of other recommendations to government. This includes doing more to help schools recruit support staff, and increased focus on ensuring SEND training is available to both prospective and current TAs.
It also recommended the government and its new school support staff negotiating body “strongly consider whether low pay levels are driving the recruitment and retention challenges”.
It also recommended they explore what can be done to improve career progression opportunities.
The report also calls for DfE to improve data it collects on support staff, including monitoring vacancies.
The Department for Education was approached for comment.
DfE research shows salary dissatisfaction
Separate new research on the role and experience of support staff, carried out for the DfE by Government Social Research, also shows pay “is a key concern” for support staff.
Dissatisfaction with salaries “is widespread”, the DfE report found, with 72 per cent reporting dissatisfaction. This is highest among TAs, where dissatisfaction was 85 per cent.
“School leaders acknowledge that low pay hinders recruitment and retention,” it added.
The report also found use of formal flexible working arrangements “are uncommon” among support staff. “Lack of flexibility appears linked to lower job satisfaction,” it added.
The survey found 22 per cent of support staff said they were considering leaving the state school sector within a year, for reasons other than retirement.
This compares to around 29 per cent of teachers and leaders who indicated they were considering leaving in 2025, in the most recent working lives of teachers and leaders report.
Support staff cited dissatisfaction with pay (73 per cent), lack of progression (50 per cent), high workload (45 per cent) and pupil behaviour (39 per cent) as common reasons.
The report acknowledged career progression opportunities for support staff “are limited”, while retention is “a concern”.
Your thoughts