Teaching assistants have been making sure pupils experience the magic of Christmas only to struggle to meet the costs of the festive period for their own families, a union has said.

A report commissioned by public services union Unison said their pay is too low and the heavily female-dominated profession often “bears the brunt” of worsening behaviour in schools.

Unison said school support staff often take on additional responsibilities for which they are rarely paid – with some being called upon to perform invasive medical tasks without the relevant training.

The Welsh government said it wanted to make sure school support staff “have the recognition and support they deserve”.

Janet Murray, a dinner lady before making the switch to the classroom more than 20 years ago, says she loves her job and works in a very supportive school near her home in Swansea, but while “the job evolved and the job changed, the pay and terms and conditions never have”.

In the early days of her career, she would read with pupils and help the teacher prepare lessons – now her role is more specialist, often supporting children with additional needs and sometimes covering the class.

“We became much more skilled – our expertise, our experience, our continuity with the children – that became far more important,” she said.

She says children’s needs and therefore the demands of the job have intensified since the Covid-19 pandemic with pupils more anxious and less well socialised.

“We live in the communities where we work so very often they’re our children, they’re our community and it’s important that we are there to support them,” Ms Murray said.

She said “our role is even more important than it’s ever been” but calls the pay “shocking”.

“I think people would be very surprised if they knew how low the pay was,” she said.

Raising her daughter on her wages had been “difficult” over the years and she had managed with the help of benefits, Ms Murray said.

Survey data gathered by Unison in 2024 suggested the most common pay range for school support staff members was £1,200 to £1,399 a month.

Teaching assistants are generally only paid for term-time, and unions have long argued that they should be paid for the whole year in line with other school staff – saying they take home a lower income than they would on a minimum wage, full-time job.

Kim Huntley, a teaching assistant in at a primary school in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, for 17 years said there were more children now that were not “school ready”.

“There’s children coming in that traditionally maybe they would have been out of nappies and they’re not now,” she said.

She said pay was so low that she had only reached the threshold to start paying income tax five years ago after working as a TA for more than a decade.

“The hospital… I could earn my money in three days. McDonald’s even… you can earn much more money out there than what we do working in school and the only thing that keeps us there are the children and what we do for them,” she said.

Having recently moved from the classroom to take on a role with the union, she is worried for former colleagues facing the costs of Christmas.

“I do have concerns for other families with teaching assistant as their main job,” she said.

“I honestly don’t know how they are going to provide that magic at home.”

A report by the Labour Research Department for Unison said support staff “bear the brunt of behaviour issues, including violence”.

Since the pandemic, they have faced more poor behaviour and greater numbers of pupils with complex needs, Unison said.

Rosie Lewis, Unison Cymru’s head of schools, said: “Often our members are suddenly expected to undertake roles administering medication and, more alarmingly, quite personal intimate interventions such as inserting catheters.

“These are staff who work long hours, often helping out, going on residentials.

“At Christmas time, helping with the school plays, getting costumes ready, all of this on top of their daily tasks and they don’t get any extra pay for that.”

The report found that many teaching assistants were in single-income households and a significant proportion were reliant on benefits.

It said school support staff, 90% of which are women, are often “the first to go” when schools cut jobs because of tight budgets.

At the same time, schools struggle to recruit because pay rates “are not competitive compared to jobs in hospitality and retail” and there is a high turnover.

Unison is calling for a Wales School Support Staff Negotiating Body to replace the current system where pay is decided by the National Joint Council which covers all local authority workers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It said such a body could address big pay disparities between local authorities and term-time only pay.

The Welsh government said it has a plan to deliver a negotiating body for Wales

“Support staff are a key and valued part of our education workforce and we want to make sure they have the recognition and support they deserve,” a spokesperson said.

“Teaching assistants support some of our most vulnerable learners and deserve, in line with our commitment to social justice, to be recognised, remunerated and treated fairly for the fantastic work that they do.”

Plaid Cymru’s education spokesperson Cefin Campbell MS said Unison’s report “lays bare” how the Welsh Labour government had “failed the people who keep our schools running”.

“Committing to a dedicated negotiating body is the right thing to do”, he said.

The Welsh Conservatives said more teaching assistants should be encouraged into the profession.

Their spokesperson Natasha Asghar MS said Labour had “waged a war against private schools VAT instead of concentrating on the real issues”, claiming pupils would “pay the price”.

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds MS said teaching assistants were “absolutely vital” and the party wanted to see them “properly recognised and valued for their exceptional work.”