Introduction

Learning support assistants are increasingly being employed in schools as part of a professional team to support both pupils and teachers. The impetus for this change has come from several factors including:

the inclusion of children in mainstream schools who would have previously been educated in specialist provision, linked with the growth in numbers of pupils formally identified with special educational needs;

the push to raise standards in education: the vision for the future laid out in the Labour Education Manifesto (2001) asked for 20,000 new LSAs to be recruited, with the somewhat contentious suggestion that they have a bigger part to play in the teaching role including supervising groups and classes when teachers are absent; and

Local management of schools, which has given schools more control over their own budgets and made them more aware of financial constraints — the recruitment of LSAs seems to be very cost-effective.