Developing a set of standards for Teaching AssistantsGovernment call for evidence response form

Launch date 28 October 2014Respond by 21 November 2014

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1 Your response

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Reason for confidentiality:

Name: Anne Fox

Please tick if you are responding on behalf of your organisation. X

Name of organisation (if applicable): The Communication Trust

Address: 8 Wakley Street, London, EC1V 7QE

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2 Please mark the box that best describes you as a respondent

Headteacher Teacher (other than a headteacher

Teaching Assistant/School Support Staff

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X Other

The Communication Trust is a coalition of 50 voluntary and community organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication. We harness our collective expertise to support the children's workforce and commissioners to meet the speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) of all children and young people, particularly those with SLCN.

We do this by raising awareness, providing information and workforce development opportunities, influencing policy, promoting best practice among the children's workforce and commissioning work from our members. The Trust is advised by specialist advisors and works with a broader network of partners.

The Trust, which is a partner of the Department for Education, was set up in 2007 by children's charities Afasic and I CAN, with BT and Council for Disabled Children.

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3 Call for evidence – specific questions

The expert panel has identified four broad themes as a basis for the new standards.

Question 1 – We identified the following key themes which may apply to all teaching assistants. For each of these themes, what specific standards or statements do you think they should include which would apply to all teaching assistants? Please could you highlight which standards you would consider as minimum or aspirational

Summary: The Communication Trust welcomes the development of a set of professional standards for all teaching assistants and would hope that these standards are clearly linked to available qualifications and sit within a clear context of effective deployment, training and direction within schools and settings. Recent research studies1 have examined how to maximise the impact of TAs on pupils’ learning, and we see these standards as being an important way of promoting the effective role of TAs in supporting pupils’ speech, language and communication.

As language development is central to all learning and pupils with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have the highest prevalence figures in SEN, we would like the Review Panel to ensure that there are minimum standards for all TAs to have the knowledge and skills to support pupils’ speech, language and communication (SLC) development. In addition, we would also like to see specific minimum TA standards relating to the knowledge and skills required for those TAs offering targeted or more specialised support to pupils with SLCN. We cite the evidence for this below and in question four; we also highlight examples of best practice in TAs supporting SLC development effectively.

The Communication Trust has a wide range of resources that are available to support our suggested standards and we would be delighted to discuss how our guidance, developed with funding from the Department for Education as their contract provider of specialist services for SLCN, can support the new TA standards.

a) Personal and Professional conduct (this includes professional values and qualities and how they are put into practice)

1 See the Institute of Education’s Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS) and Effective Deployment of Teaching Assistant (EDTA) projects, and Making a Statement Study (MAST)

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What statements/standards should be included?

Free text response

b) Knowledge and understanding (this covers TAs demonstrating that they have sufficient knowledge, expertise and awareness to help the pupils they work with make progress with their learning. This may also relate to a specialist area which could be subject-based or linked to a specific role eg support of a specific phase or SEND)

Whilst standards should make reference to a TA's knowledge and understanding we feel it is also essential to include and equally refer to the specific skills needed as part of this role. It is the specific application of knowledge that enables TAs to be skilled in enabling and supporting children's progress most effectively.

Speech, language and communication skills form the foundation of all pupils’ learning and development. In addition, speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) are the most common primary special educational need, yet are often missed or misinterpreted.2

We therefore believe it is vital that TA standards reflect the importance and inclusion of knowledge and skills relating to speech, language and communication.

It is recommended that as a minimum standard, all TAs working with children should:

have an awareness of typical language development and what would be expected at different ages and stages

know how to help spot children who have speech, language and communication needs (SLCN)

know what to do if there are concerns about a child's speech, language and communication

know how to best support children with SLCN (with the right training) be able to work effectively and collaboratively with other professionals to

support a child's speech, language and communication skills

As the Call for Evidence states, some TAs will have a specific role, for example supporting a child with specific SEND, including those pupils with SLCN. For TAs who work with pupils with SLCN as a central part of their role, a greater level of knowledge and skill is required and so we believe the following additional minimum standards for these TAs should therefore also include:

an awareness of how a child's speech, language and communication skills are assessed and their needs identified

an understanding that some children who have speech, language and commu-nication needs also have behaviour, social or emotional difficulties

an awareness of the different factors, including SLC, that can affect a child's learning and progress

being able to deliver appropriate interventions with appropriate training and sup-port

knowing the procedure for referring on to other agencies being able to understand and use a range of strategies to support children with

SLCN being able to contribute positively to effective multi-agency working for children

2 DfE (2014) Special Educational Needs in England: January 2014 (Statistical First Release)

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with SLCN being able to provide relevant information to others in relation to a child’s SLCN as appropriate to their role, be able to monitor and report on the progress of

children they are working with as appropriate to their role, contribute to the evaluation of effectiveness of

support, strategies and interventions with appropriate guidance and support, be able to adapt resources and

materials to support SLCN

We suggest that the Speech, Language and Communication Framework (SLCF)3 is used to further support the identification of appropriate knowledge and skill standards for TAs. The SLCF provides a clear and detailed framework of skills and knowledge in speech, language and communication which are important for everyone who works with children and young people. The 'universal' competencies in the framework could be used to identify core skills required by all TAs to support the speech, language and communication skills of all children.

The SLCF includes different stages of competencies. The enhanced level descriptors could be used to indicate a TA's progression in skill, knowledge and expertise, especially for those TAs who need a more detailed understanding of speech, language and communication development as supporting children with identified SLCN is a central part of their role. We would be very happy to support the review group on further developing specific standards in relation to speech, language and communication.

We propose that TA professional standards should include opportunities for progression to encourage and support the development of a skilled workforce working with children. This should include TAs being given opportunities to access relevant professional development on speech, language and communication. We would also recommend the development of a more highly skilled workforce, for example through accessing accredited training. There are a number of accredited qualifications at level 2 and 3, for example, available in relation to speech, language and communication and SLCN.4

We would also like to support the specific specialist competencies put forward by our Communication Consortium members with regards to pupils with hearing impairment through the submissions to this consultation from NDCS and NatSIP, which includes our members Sense, BATOD and NDCS. NatSIP’s response highlights that there are a range of specialist roles (such as Intervenors, Communication Support Workers and Habilitation workers) that support pupils with sensory impairments; we support their suggestion for specific recognition of the roles and responsibilities these have.

c) Teaching and learning (this covers structuring teaching and learning activities as well as managing behaviour to enable learning to take place)

At TCT we are concerned that standards relating to teaching and learning will be applied to the role of the TA, specifically in relation to TAs being in any way accountable for pupil progress. Research shows that when TAs have been independently responsible for planning and delivering teaching and learning, pupils’ learning experiences were often less good5 and outcomes less positive.6 Typically, TAs are not trained in

3 The Speech, Language and Communication Framework- www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/slcf4 A number of our not-for-profit Consortium members offer accredited training or qualifications – more detail on these is available in the Speech, Language and Communication Framework. 5 Webster, R. and Blatchford, P. (2014) Worlds apart? The nature and quality of the educational experiences of pupils with a Statement for special educational needs in mainstream primary schools, British Educational Research Journal, published online, 21st April

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educational pedagogy, teaching and learning, yet they often have the most responsibility for children who find accessing a curriculum most challenging.

Instead, we propose that standards should include TAs being appropriately trained and working under the guidance of teachers to effectively deliver and implement evidence-based interventions such as those included on the What Works database.7 What Works is a database of evidenced interventions to support children's speech, language and communication. It is recommended that standards include a TA's responsibilities working under the supervision and guidance of the class teacher to track and monitor children's progress and intervention outcomes.

d) Working with others (this covers working collectively with teachers, parents and other professionals. The theme will recognise particular specialisms supported by teaching assistants)

Children with SLCN often have other agencies and professionals involved who are not necessarily based in school or within education. TA standards should reflect the importance of being able to work effectively and collaboratively with a range of professionals across and within different agencies.

TA standards should also reflect the significance of being able to work effectively with parents, as part of their role in supporting speech, language and communication.

6 Blatchford, P., Bassett, P., Brown, P., Martin, C., Russell, A., Webster, R. (2009). Deployment and impact of support staff project. London: Institute of Education, University of London.7 What Works – http://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/projects/what-works/

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Question 2 – Do you consider that any other themes should be included in the new standards? If so, what specific standards or statements do you think they should include which would apply to all teaching assistants?

As mentioned above, it is essential that TA standards include a requirement for all TAs to have the knowledge and skills required to understand and support children's speech, language and communication, as SLC are essential skills that have a significant and lifelong impact on children’s academic attainment, social relationships, and emotional well-being.

Question 3 – What purpose would you use the new standards for and how do you see them being best used by schools?

Whilst we welcome introducing new standards for TAs, we recognise that these should be part of a whole school accountability framework, with schools taking responsibility for employing and deploying TAs appropriately within school. This includes class teachers being directly accountable for using TAs in the most effective way.

Purposeful TA standards could be used by schools to support TAs’ CPD and skill progression, whilst also helping to clarify the role of the TA. The recent ‘Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS)’ Project by the Institute of Education noted the ambiguity that exists around the effective use of TAs and in situations where TAs were given pupil progress responsibilities and were unsupported and untrained in their role, TAs had a negative impact on pupils’ academic progress.8 It is therefore essential that TAs are fully supported to undertake their roles in relation to all children’s speech, language and communication.

Schools could also use the standards as an opportunity to provide a comprehensive framework outlining what training, support and opportunities they will provide for TAs in their commitment to build a skilled children's workforce.

We suggest that the standards present an opportunity to create a reliable professional model for TAs and a clear career path, which would include information on:

Structured training (basic and targeted); CPD and qualifications Recognition and status Salary structure

Question 4 – Recognising the context and aims of this review (see sections 1 and 2 of the outline document), are there any further comments you would like to make?

At TCT we welcome the proposal to have a set of professional standards applicable to all TAs.

We recognise that professional standards would help to specify and make clear the levels of knowledge,

8 Webster, R., Blatchford, P., Bassett, P., Brown, P., Martin, C. and Russell, A. (2011) The wider pedagogical role of teaching assistants, School Leadership and Management, 31(1) pp. 3-20

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skill and understanding required to fulfil the role of being a TA and the responsibilities this involves.

Evidence demonstrates that TAs are most effective when they are well trained, well supported and well deployed.9 Standards should be based on the recognition that schools and class teachers should be accountable and responsible for developing TAs’ skills and supporting and supervising their work.

It is essential that TAs are given supported opportunities to progress and achieve accredited training awards and qualifications. It is especially important that TAs working with students with particular needs such as SLCN have the relevant training or qualifications to support those needs.

We would be very pleased to discuss any of these points further to support the development of robust, purposeful TA standards.

We recommend that the Review Panel consider the below examples of best practice in terms of how Teaching Assistants can effectively support and develop pupils’ speech, language and communication skills.

Talk of the Town (ToTT)Talk of the Town, a project of The Communication Trust, aims to test the efficacy of a systematic whole school approach to supporting speech, language and communication in schools, through a randomised controlled trial with 64 schools in three different areas of England. This trial is being independently evaluated by Queens University Belfast and funded by The Education Endowment Foundation.

A quote from the year 1 findings report, compiled by the internal evaluation team at Manchester University, illustrates the important role of TAs in schools:

TAs play a critical role in ToTT. They have worked directly with the SaLTs [Speech and Language Therapists] throughout Year 1 and many have attended some form of ToTT training – either coming to whole-school sessions led by the SaLT, or separate sessions typically led by the Communication Lead. TAs have been responsible for running interventions (and are often described as ‘owning’ these) and often also for completing progression tools. Some TAs have played a central role in training other staff to deliver interventions and to use progression tools, replicating the process they initially followed with the SaLT.  TAs have, in some instances, also been central to implementing universal strategies in the classroom.

The brief goes on to note that there are several models used for deploying TAs involved in ToTT. Some TAs are entirely class-based, trained to deliver interventions to that class; some TAs are attached to a class but also work cross-phase, delivering interventions to classes across a phase; and some are non-class based TAs and their role is dedicated to delivering interventions. Crucially, the high quality training that TAs receive within TOTT and their partnership working with SaLTs and teachers, ensures that TAs are prepared and knowledgeable in delivering targeted interventions and supporting everyday, whole-class good communication practice. TAs working within TOTT have an important role supporting the implementation of universal strategies as well as working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, focussed on delivering specific outcomes for children’s speech, language and communication.

What WorksWhat Works is a moderated online library of evidenced interventions aiming to support children’s speech, language and communication, hosted by The Communication Trust.

Below are some examples of evidenced interventions listed on What Works that are delivered by TAs.

9 Webster, R., Russell, A. and Blatchford, P. (2013) Teaching Assistants. A guide to good practice, Oxford University Press.

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Oral Language Programme – aims to support the language skills of reception-age children with language difficulties, with TAs running individual and group sessions. In a study by Bower-Crane et al, TAs had four days of training prior to beginning the programme, and one day during; they also took part in fortnightly group tutori-als with the research team and were observed teaching to ensure fidelity to the programme.

Reading and Language Intervention for Children with Down Syndrome – designed to be delivered by teaching assistants running two daily individual sessions with primary-aged children, one session focussed on language and one on reading.

Nuffield Early Language Intervention – an oral language intervention programme for nursery and reception aged children where TAs deliver individual and group sessions, with three days of training and support from a specialist in speech, lan-guage and communication.

NATSIP guidanceThis guidance on ‘Effective working with TAs in schools’ for pupils with hearing impairment was set out by NATSIP (the National Sensory Impairment Partnership), an organisation that includes Communication Consortium members Sense, NDCS and BATOD.

Below is one of the case studies included in the guidance:

Supporting the Development of Literacy SkillsThe Teacher of the Deaf recommended a programme using cued speech aimed at developing the literacy skills of a pupil with profound hearing loss, a cochlear implant and a language disorder. Training was provided to the class teacher and TA. The pupil’s mother was also offered training and supported by the TA to enable her to support her child at home.

Targets for developing literacy skills were agreed with the school’s special educational needs co-ordinator (e.g. to be able to cue some single words, a group of THRASS words and then to cue a reading book). The Teacher of the Deaf visited weekly and provided written guidance for the class teacher and TA on next steps. These were followed with the TA taking notes on the pupil’s progress.

Over a 12 month period the pupil expanded her use of some spoken vocabulary at home and school which had previously been very limited, she started reading books that were previously signed and began writing words using her phonological knowledge from a cue given rather than finger spelling the whole word.

No Pens Day Wednesday guidanceThis guidance on involving TAs in speaking and listening activities was developed for No Pens Day Wednesday, the annual event developed by The Communication Trust that encourages schools to put down their pens and focus on speaking and listening activities for the day.

This guidance includes some tips on how TAs can be effectively deployed to support all pupils’ speaking and listening, for example:

It’s essential that TAs are involved in or informed about lesson plans TAs should be aware of the importance of pupils doing more of the talking, and

are able to apply strategies for effective talk Make the most of any TAs with specialisms in speech and language TAs should be able to model good speaking and listening Teachers should make time to review activities with TAs to check how they went

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TAs can play an important role in recording during activities and recognising par-ticular examples of good speaking and listening from pupils

Elklan CICThis training organisation running courses exclusively written by Speech and Language Therapists specific-ally supports TAs to work more effectively with children and young people with a wide range of SLCN. All courses for TAs are accredited at levels 2 and 3. Learners gain 9 credits in an Award in the course com-pleted which best suits the age range or disability with which they work. Elklan is the largest provider of TA accredited training in the UK, over 35,000 have received an apt awards (formerly Open College Network South West) accredited qualification. All TA qualifications are on the Qualifications and Curriculum Frame-work (QCF) in England. Courses are of a high quality because they are taught by Speech and Language Therapists and in a very small number of cases Specialist Teachers who have been trained by Elklan as assessors and tutors. Evidence from the Elklan CIC ‘Building a Communication Friendly School’ initiative funded by the Dept of Education through The Communication Trust showed that following completion of the level 3 course, ‘Speech and Language Support for 5-11s’

TA’s demonstrated:1. Increased skills and knowledge

100% of TAs achieved accreditation at level 3. 100% of TAs reported a significant improvement in their ability to collaborate and share information with other colleagues regarding children’ speech, language and communication skills.

2. Increased ability to support communication development 100% of TAs reported a significant improvement in being able to support the

communication skills of all children in the classroom. 100% of TAs reported a significant improvement in being able to support the

communication communications skills of children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

3. Improvement in children 72% of TAs reported that children had made better or much better progress than

they would have expected at this stage in the school year. This was corroborated by the class teacher.

Similar outcomes were found when Sandwell PCT delivered the course The course was attended by 12 learners who came from different school settings, all of whom were employed as Learning Support Assistants in schools.The results from the pre vs post feedback questionnaires showed an overall Increase in the TAs’ confidence to support speech, language and communication in the classroom. There was also an increase in the number and quality of specific strategies learners identified to support children with their communication skills, for example:

There was an 80% increase in TAs giving at least 2 examples of how they adapt their language..

There was a 70% increase in TAs giving at least 2 examples of strategies they used to support children’s speech sound difficulties.

There was a 60% increase in TAs giving at least 2 examples of strategies they used to help children to understand and name new vocabulary.

A case study of a twelve-year-old conducted by Susan Lyon, SLT, Great Yarmouth and Waveney demonstrated that following his TA completing Elklan Training ‘Speech and Language Support for 11-16s’ and guidance to teaching staff, based on Elklan principles, the child 18 months after initial referral had receptive language standardised scores on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) between 6 and 8 (average range 8 – 10) and expressive language standard scores between 8 and 10. These were previously both at 3, percentile rank 1. Following this period of intervention his school predicted his grades as C to D at GCSE, he was happier and the SENCO reported that TAs who attended Elklan training were able to reword/rephrase information for J very efficiently.

Talk BoostTalk Boost is a targeted and evidence-based intervention developed by I CAN and The Communication

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Trust, supporting language-delayed children aged 4-7 to make significant progress with their communica-tion skills. Talk Boost involves small group activities, led by trained TAs, which are undertaken three times a week for ten weeks; and is supported by a progression tool for identifying children needing support and a weekly classroom activity delivered by teachers trained in the intervention.

TAs receive a day’s training alongside the class teacher prior to delivering the intervention. They have a detailed Intervention Manual which specifically outlines the role of the TA in: preparing for and delivering sessions; supporting identification of children to be included in the group; record keeping; supporting the teacher in delivering the whole class activity; and liaison with parents. The Teacher Manual guides teach-ers into how best to support the TA in their work with guidelines for moderating the quality of the TA led in-tervention groups.

Talk Boost was developed as part of a wider pilot study of a three wave model of intervention, ‘A Chance to Talk’. 611 children with delayed language had intervention from trained teaching assistants using Talk Boost. They had made significant progress after the 10 week intervention as measured by language tests – making gains of between 9 and 18 months progress. Talk Boost was shown to be effective for children in all three year groups although year 1 children made the most progress. It was also reported that 90% of the children with delayed language made or exceeded the progress expected for all children in reading.

A couple of quotes from the trained TAs involved in the piloting of Talk Boost: “One boy who was very reluctant to speak in class…..will now answer in a large

group.” “Talk Boost has helped with their sentence building immensely. It has given them

a lot more confidence in class to speak out.”

One Headteacher commented, “…our staff team are now trained and confident in identifying children with delayed language…we are able to offer the right support at the right time…to ensure children can fulfil their potential at school.”

We would be delighted to discuss any aspect of this response in more detail with the Review Panel.

You are also welcome to write to us directly at TAstandards.REVIEW@education.gsi.gov.uk

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Next stepsThank you for taking time to respond to this consultation.

Completed responses should be sent to the address shown below by 21 November 2014.

By email

TAstandards.REVIEW@education.gsi.gov.uk

By post

John Motley

Department for Education

Mowden Hall

Staindrop Road

Darlington

DL3 3BG

AcknowledgementsWe do not intend to acknowledge individual responses unless you place an 'X' in the box below.

Please acknowledge this reply X

Email address for acknowledgement: lsfothringham@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk

Taking part in future consultationsHere at the Department for Education we carry out our research on many different topics and consultations. As your views are valuable to us, please confirm below if you would be willing to be contacted again from time to time either for research or to send through consultation documents.

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