[senco-forum] SEN select committee report

Whilst I agree that having more disabled staff would be a

Hi Mark,

> Whilst I agree that having more disabled staff would be a
> great ideal (who better to judge how 'diability friendly' a
> school is), there is a fundamental problem.

> Many, many schools are finding it almost impossible to
> recruit and retain _any_ staff let alone disabled ones.

I was thinking rather more long term here as it's going to take a long
time to fully address the chronic underrepresentation of disabled
people working in schools today.

> I know of several schools who have told me that they have had zero
> applicants for vacancies. Many others have had to take on staff they
> really don't think are up to the job (albeit on a temporary
> contract) simply because they only had one or two applicants and had
> to fill the post.

Are we talking just teachers here or TAs as well?

> The problem is that,in these times of plenty (and house
> prices to match) schools and school wages are very
> unattractive.

It's a big problem isn't it. Furthermore this isn't restricted just to
teaching and classroom support staff. For example the salaries most
schools are willing to pay experienced IT support people tends to be
very low compared with the industry norm. This of course means these
schools often end up employing less able IT people who obviously
wouldn't make it in the far more demanding world of commerce.

> Either schools need to be made much more attractive places
> to work in (and I'm not just talking about wages but issues
> such as status, workplace bullying, violence, discipline,
> curriculum and resources) or we need a recession. Then
> schools might at least be in a position where there are
> sufficient applicants for them to be able to properly
> choose.

I agree. Or alternatively schools need more freedom to offer salaries
adjusted to local demand and other factors such as house prices.

David Bowles