Wales to upgrade all Level 1 teaching assistants to higher pay grade from September
The Welsh Government has confirmed that all Level 1 teaching assistants in Wales will move to Level 2 from September 2026, in what it describes as the first step toward fairer pay and conditions for school support staff.
Cabinet Secretary for Education Lynne Neagle MS published the Strategic Education Workforce Plan for Schools on Wednesday, alongside data showing the number of teachers leaving the profession in Wales has risen by 39.7% since the 2020 to 2021 academic year.
Among primary school teachers, the increase was 54.6% over the same period.
The plan covers teachers, school leaders, teaching assistants and specialist support staff, and sets out actions across short, medium and long-term timescales.
The move from Level 1 to Level 2 for teaching assistants is the only measure confirmed for immediate implementation.
Level 1 and Level 2 are pay grades within the national framework for school support staff in Wales.
The Welsh Government says new Level 1 roles will not be created from September 2026 onwards, and preparatory work has started on proposals to establish a School Support Staff Negotiating Body.
That body, which would give teaching assistants formal collective bargaining rights over pay and conditions, is at legislative proposal stage and has not yet been established.
There were 26,765 support staff working in Welsh schools during the 2024 to 2025 academic year, according to figures in the plan.
Teacher numbers stood at 25,225, down 2.4% since November 2023.
Primary teacher numbers have fallen 7.4% since the 2020 to 2021 academic year, and secondary numbers have dropped 5.3% over the same period.
Special schools and pupil referral units have seen increases, of 16.8% and 19.6% respectively, in line with rising numbers of learners in those settings.
Of the 2,172 posts advertised in 2023 to 2024, 1,926 were filled, a fill rate of 88.7%.
Welsh-medium posts averaged 5.1 applications each, against 11.5 for English-medium posts.
The plan also includes proposals to protect school leaders’ uninterrupted leave from the 2026 to 2027 academic year, through changes to the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions (Wales) Document.
Those changes are subject to a final ministerial decision after the Senedd election in May.
The same condition applies to making the additional INSET day, in place since 2019, a permanent entitlement for schools.
An overwhelming majority of respondents to a consultation supported making that day permanent, the plan states.
The plan identifies five priority themes: quality of teaching and learning, workload, responding to new challenges, career pathways, and workforce data.
On diversity, the plan notes that 1.3% of teachers and 3.6% of support staff are from Black, Asian, Mixed or other ethnic backgrounds, compared to 15% of learners.
Projected figures in the plan estimate that the number of compulsory-age learners in Wales will fall by 14.5% between 2025 and 2041.
Ms Neagle said: “By working together, we can build a workforce that is confident, valued and prepared for the future; a workforce equipped to support every learner to reach their potential.”
Dysgu, the national body for professional learning in Wales, has also published its first Strategic Vision today, and will take on management of eight Curriculum for Wales support programme grants from 1 April 2026.
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