New jobs created in classroom assistant U-turn

TWENTY six new jobs to support pupils in schools across the Highlands will be created by the local authority - a year after it tried to axe 344 classroom assistant posts in a controversial cost cutting move.

A public outcry was sparked in February 2011 when Highland Council tried to scrap 344 mostly part-time jobs – the equivalent of 158 full-time posts - to save £1.5 million.

But in a remarkable U-turn the council’s budget leader has confirmed an extra £650,000 will be spent on establishing the newly created post of pupil support assistant in primary schools. The cash will also see the equivalent of 26 full-time jobs created.

The new position will replace the current classroom assistant and learning support auxiliary roles currently carried out by staff in primary schools across the region.

There will be two grades of salary with staff who carry out more demanding tasks with pupils, like toileting, paid more.

The proposals have come from the findings of a cross-party working group of councillors which reviewed the support provided for pupils. It was set up following the public furore which saw some parents take their children out of classes in protest.

Budget leader Councillor David Alston said it was too early to say in what schools the new jobs will be created but it would be decided on the “specific needs of pupils”. The money was found from other areas of the budget said Black Isle Councillor David Alston who defended the U-turn and he claimed a better organised system had now emerged.

“It will better training, better pay and I think it is a going to be a more rewarding post,” he said.

SNP group leader Councillor Drew Hendry said it represented a remarkable shift in 12 months and criticised the original “harmful” proposal from the Indepedent-Liberal Democrat-Labour administration.

“I am pleased that at last the stress and pressure has been reduced from the schools, the parents, children and most importantly the classroom assistant and their families,” said Aird and Loch Ness Councillor Drew Hendry.

“They needn’t have put everybody through all this and everything that we said a year ago has now come to pass. Our schools have been put under pressure and we always argued for better support and that additional money should be used from elsewhere in the budget.”

The SNP refused to take part in the working group claiming it was financially and not educationally driven.

However, the group’s chairman Councillor Drew Millar insisted it was based on pupils’ needs and finances had been put to one side.

“The group was therefore clear that there could be a need for more finance, not less,” said Councillor Millar.

The recommendation will go before the full council’s meeting in Inverness next week, when the authority’s total £602 million budget for 2012/13 will come under scrutiny.