1. Portfolio/Number/Name:EYP/T2 - Use of classroom assistants |
2. Programme/Activity: The provision of additional support staff will ease the administrative burdens on teachers. There is also evidence from the Classroom Assistant Initiative that Classroom Assistants play an important role in keeping children on task and help improve the learning environment. Their presence in a classroom allows teachers to concentrate more on individual pupils. |
3. Efficiency | 3.1 Current target; £m | | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Cash | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Time | 9.0 | 33.0 | 47.4 |
3.2 Efficiencies delivered; £m | | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Cash | 0 | - | - |
Time | 10.7 | - | - |
4. Accountable Officer for delivery | Colin MacLean, Head of Department |
5. Project Manager | Donald Henderson |
6. EGDD Portfolio Manager | Fiona Page |
7. Description of efficiency and actions to be taken | 7.1 What is the efficiency improvement? How will the efficiencies be made? Additional resources (approx £7m/£11m/£16m over the Spending Review period) have been allocated to local authorities to allow increases in support staff in schools. These will relieve pressure and take non-teaching duties from teachers and head teachers, for example by helping prepare lesson material, photocopying, playground supervision, administrative duties, reducing disruption in classrooms and assisting learning. By delegating the non-teaching duties of teachers and head teachers, these professionals can use their time more efficiently to maximise service delivery. The estimated value of time released at section 3 is based on the differences in salary levels between teachers and support staff and the time released where support staff undertake teachers' non-teaching duties. For the basis of these calculation salary costs for both teachers and classroom assistants have been adjusted upwards by 21% to account for employer's costs. To take account of future salary increases in 2006-07 and 2007-08, a 2.5% uplift has been assumed. As classroom assistants also potentially save time for individuals in promoted posts an estimated average teacher salary has been used. Efficiency targets for 2006-07 and 2007-08 have been recalculated following publication of an Equal Opportunities Commission report. This report suggests that classroom assistant salaries are in the region of £9,600 rather than the £15,000 (as used previously for the efficiency calculation. On that basis the efficiency targets have been recalculated for 2006-07 and 2007-08. |
7.2 What are the main actions that are needed to secure the delivery of this efficiency improvement? Local authorities have to commit money to education departments. Most LAs devolve spending power to school level (in pursuit of the parallel Executive policy that 80-90% of education resources should be devolved to head teacher control). |
8. Associated costs | 8.1 Are there any development or redundancy costs associated with the delivery of this efficiency? None. |
9. Measurement | 9.1 What are the inputs that will be measured? Regular census information is collected on education staffing levels and the split non-teaching staff into a variety of categories eg special educational auxiliaries, classroom assistants etc. In addition details of the number employed for the funding available through the National Priorities Action Fund are collected annually |
9.2 What are the outputs that will be measured? The output is the increased time a teacher spends on direct teaching activities. As we do not currently have a mechanism to record this across schools, the proxy measure used is the increased number of classroom assistants employed as a result of the National Priorities for Action Funding ( NPAF) and the salary differential between the average employer costs for classroom assistants compared to that of teachers. An enhanced learning experience for children is also anticipated as a direct results of the use of a classroom assistant. However this cannot be quantified. |
9.3 What is the baseline for inputs and outputs? 2004/05 is the baseline for inputs and outputs. |
10. Quality cross-check | 10.1 What quality indicators are being used to ensure that quality of service is maintained or improved? Our expectation is of strongly positive effect on service delivery. Research carried out by the Scottish Centre for Research in Education on a previous Classroom Assistants initiative in primary schools indicated that most teachers thought they now had more time to spend on teaching, planning and managing learning. Half reported that the quality of teaching time improved. |
11. Monitoring | 11.1 What are the arrangements for monitoring the delivery of efficiencies? Funding is delivered through the National Priorities Action Fund. Local authorities are required to report annually on the use of the funds including identifying the number of classroom assistants they have employed as a result of the funding. |
12. Reporting | 12.1 What are the arrangements for reporting the delivery of efficiencies? Local authorities report each year on their use of the funding delivered through the National Priorities Action Fund. This reporting includes the number of classroom assistants employed by the funds. |
13. Dependencies | 13.1 Explain if your efficiencies are dependant on legislation or other structural changes being achieved. Funding has been transferred to Council budgets using the normal distribution mechanism. Local Authorities then determine the allocation of resources in their area. |
14. Use of efficiencies | 14.1 How are the efficiencies released from improvement activity being used to improve front-line services? The time released by the presence of classroom assistants will enable teachers to commit a higher proportion of their time to teaching. Consequently there will be an improvement in frontline services. |