School support staff vacancies have almost doubled since before the pandemic, new analysis suggests.
An analysis of school and college job pages shows support roles were mentioned an additional 14,200 times in 2021-22, compared to pre-pandemic 2018-19.
The research by SchoolDash, shared exclusively with Schools Week, also shows a year-on-year increase in vacant roles at the start of the school year, when schools would normally have filled all their positions.
At one school, children with complex needs had to be sent home because staff members were unable to accommodate one-to-one support. Some headteachers have also been forced to take up caretaker duties such as opening up the school in the morning.
