Huge increase in support staff training

Getting time off is the biggest barrier to training for school support staff, says new research.
The report from Unison says there has been a "transformation" in the provision of training for school support staff in England over the past five years.
But although three quarters of staff had received some sort of training over the previous year, it wasn't all high quality or relevant to their jobs.
Half of all staff said they experience no barriers to training, but the other half did identify barriers.
One in four said time off for training and lack of cover were the biggest issues. They were worried that if they took time for training during their working day they would return to an even higher workload.
Some staff mentioned training outside of their working hours and in their own time, for example INSET days which they weren't paid for.
If the training was outside school hours, childcare was often a problem.
The report recommends that support staff should have an entitlement to high quality training and development, and calls on the new negotiation body for support staff pay and conditions to address the issue of paid time off for training.
You can read a summary of the report in Unison's latest bulletin for school staff, In Schools.