Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to address the issue of physical violence against teaching assistants in schools.

Nick Gibb

Violence in schools is always unacceptable.

It is the responsibility of head teachers to ensure the safety of all their staff, including teaching assistants, and the good behaviour of pupils. We have supported schools by empowering teachers to take action against poor pupil behaviour, clarifying teachers’ powers, extending their searching powers and allowing teachers to impose same-day detentions.

The previous Secretary of State appointed behaviour expert Tom Bennett to lead two reviews of behaviour. The first review was published in July and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-government-response-to-carter-review.

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