Jeannie Mackenzie Gateside Place, Johnstone, Renfrewshire
Librarians are not the only school-based professionals who may suffer as the result of job evaluation tools that do not recognise their contribution as educators (last week’s TESS).
Also vulnerable may be sports co-ordinators, health co-ordinators, community learning and development workers, and family learning or home school workers.
Due to the diverse range of tools being used across Scotland, it may be some time before the full picture emerges, although already it seems likely that these predominantly female professions will lose out in what was originally intended to be a drive for equal pay.
As we move towards integrated children’s services, is it also time to adopt a proper generic term for all school-based professionals, including school nurses and social workers, thus avoiding the current demeaning “non-teaching” staff description?
Are there any readers out there with ideas for what that term might be? May I start the ball rolling with “affiliated professionals”?