How do views of working conditions vary across school staff?

Abstract

There has been much recent interest in working conditions in schools. Yet most existing studies are based upon samples of teachers, without capturing the views of other members of staff. This is despite individuals in non-teaching roles (teaching assistants, office staff, pastoral care) accounting for around half of England’s school employees and who make a considerable contribution to the work environment shared amongst staff. The present paper therefore presents new evidence on how working conditions compare across different staff groups. We find that, while workload is the fundamental issue facing teachers, pay is a relatively more important amongst teaching assistants, pastoral workers and office staff. The strong association between the views of those in teaching and non-teaching roles within the same school nevertheless means that samples comprised of only teachers are likely to be a reasonable proxy for the school working environment as a whole. Senior leaders are also found to be consistently more positive about working conditions than the staff they employ.