Pield Heath House School finds TA hiring success through Inspire ATA
Pield Heath House School in Uxbridge is a non-maintained special school catering for children and young people between the age of 7-19 with additional learning needs. It is under the Trusteeship of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
The school offers day provision to 100 students with a diverse range of needs, including moderate to severe and complex learning needs, sensory processing difficulties and associated speech, language and communication difficulties, including autistic spectrum disorders.
Students’ needs are such that the school needs a very high number of support staff in its classrooms. A class of eight pupils will typically have five TAs – or Special Support Assistants – so finding the right people to fill these roles is a continuous challenge in most schools, and especially so at Pield Heath.
“The Special Support Assistant role here at Pield Heath does take a very dedicated and well-rounded person,” says Karolina Pelikan, an Associate Principal and Head of Sixth Form. “Hiring for these roles directly is one route for us but it doesn't always allow us to immediately grow them into who we want them to be. That’s where the apprenticeship route differs. Most apprentices are starting from scratch so it gives us a blank canvas that we can build on.”
For the past five years the school has been working with Inspire-ATA, a government approved Flexi-Job Apprenticeship Agency which recruits, employs and supports the apprentice, so aid its recruitment of specialist support staff.
Pield Heath currently has one apprentice who has completed her endpoint assessment and another who started at the school in September. Five apprentices have worked at the school in the last five years who have either stayed to build their careers at Pield Heath as teachers or moved on to successful careers at other schools.
Karolina says the support provided by Inspire-ATA is invaluable. Inspire-ATA handle all the administrative processes associated with Teaching Assistant apprentice recruitment, from devising job specifications and advertising, through to initial screening of applicants, contracts, HR support and pay.
Professional development and support of the apprentices is a central part of the apprenticeship set-up. “It’s not just learning on the job with us – there’s a structured support and development programme underpinning the placement,” she says. “They follow an apprenticeship study programme which is provided and administered by Inspire-ATA, and they also do all of the back-office processes such as HR and pay.”
She adds: “The apprentices follow a very structured professional development qualification programme alongside their work in school, including modules on child development, behaviour and communication challenges. As well as helping us in terms of time it also creates well-rounded colleagues who as well as developing practical classroom skills on the job, they are also building a rich understanding of the principles behind their work, and a commitment to their own professional development.”
The filtering of potential apprentice Special Support Assistants provided by the Inspire-ATA team helps Pield Heath to make the right decisions about which people to bring on board. “Young people with additional needs have the same right to education as any other young person or child out there and I feel that Inspire-ATA understands that,” she says. “They're on the same wavelength, know what we need and will continuously scan for people who might be the right fit for us. It's definitely more time efficient than employing people directly and it's cost effective as well,” she says.
Recruitment of Special Support Assistants is ongoing at Pield Heath. “We are very demanding school because our students deserve the right support and we will only take on people that can provide that support,” Karolina adds. “Our ratio of shortlisting to hiring is probably 10 to 1. We are very selective and we don't make the decision to bring on an apprentice lightly because of the of the needs of our students, but with this apprenticeship process and the support of Inspire-ATA I feel more confident that we can find the right people.”
If you would like to find out more about working in partnership with Inspire ATA contact us at info@inspire-ata.co.uk
