{"id":66263,"date":"2025-08-14T11:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/66263\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T11:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:36:08","slug":"pupil-support-staff-asked-to-carry-out-medical-procedures-with-minimal-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/66263\/","title":{"rendered":"Pupil support staff asked to carry out medical procedures with minimal training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pupil support assistants working in additional support needs classrooms across Scotland are being asked to carry out dozens of medical procedures, including changing stoma bags and performing intermittent catheterisation.<\/p>\n

One member of staff, whom STV News is calling Linda to protect her identity, said the role has changed significantly in the five years she\u2019s been in the job, and she has often considered leaving.<\/p>\n

She is expected to be able to complete around 30 different procedures, which she has received minimal training for.<\/p>\n

Linda said: \u201cNurses come in and show us what to do on a stuffed animal \u2013 but that\u2019s not realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says the work can be physically challenging and sometimes dangerous, which has seen some of her colleagues leave the profession.<\/p>\n

\u201cStaff are being scratched, kicked, punched, people are getting headbutted. We\u2019ve had staff who have been off with concussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

A major concern is what might happen if a procedure goes wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are frightened that if we carry out these procedures, if we\u2019re not appropriately trained, that something might go wrong and (we) face the consequences, which we are quite scared about,\u201d Linda added.<\/p>\n

GMB, the union, represents a number of pupil support assistants (PSAs) across the country.<\/p>\n

Senior organiser Keir Greenaway said staff should be getting more detailed training and better pay if they are to be expected to take on such tasks.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe hear about it absolutely all the time, there\u2019s not one council we\u2019ve not heard it from.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily every pupil support assistant that has to do this every single day but there\u2019s no one council that\u2019s removed from this.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members will always try and help a pupil, help a student, and so they\u2019ll make sure that they don\u2019t go without. But they need the proper training so that they feel comfortable and confident doing the procedures they\u2019re being asked to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also that they\u2019re getting paid properly for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Scottish Government said it recognised PSA workloads are \u201ccomplicated and complex\u201d and can even vary across local authority areas.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said: \u201cThe Scottish Government recognises and appreciates the dedication and hard work of our pupil support assistants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why we published guidance on supporting children and young people with healthcare needs in schools. It notes school management and healthcare teams should be aware of the local arrangements in place for staff training.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the school management team, and the staff undertaking training themselves, must be satisfied this training provides them with sufficient knowledge, understanding, confidence and competence in relation to appropriate procedures for their role.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to the \u00a315m we provide to local authorities each year for Pupil Support Assistants, we are investing an additional \u00a329m this year to support the ASN workforce, in a context of record spend of over \u00a31bn by local authorities on ASN in 2023-24.\u201d<\/p>\n

STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

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\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pupil support assistants working in additional support needs classrooms across Scotland are being asked to carry out dozens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-66263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}