The government should cut spending on teaching assistants, according to Randstad Education’s UK managing director Patrick Maloney.

According to the Audit Commission, spend on teaching assistants has more than doubled in less than a decade to £2.2bn a year.

Teaching union NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates called the misuse of staff without qualified teacher status “an abuse” and “flouting the law”, citing the example of a teaching assistant employed to teach a class for three years despite being unqualified, while the NUT’s Jerry Glazier called the use of unqualified teaching assistants to take classes “unacceptable”.

Maloney says: “Children deserve to have fully qualified supply teachers on hand, checked and vetted, ready to provide temporary cover when needed. This is cost-effective and efficient.

“But in a misguided attempt to cut back on supply teachers, many schools have decided to employ an army of unqualified teaching assistants sitting on the fixed-cost payroll, leading to predictable inefficiencies and obvious damage to our children’s education.”