Ms Carol McSherry:

A lot of it comes back to not enough bodies. There are problems with the assault leave system. First, the name of the circular is insulting to the children we work with. I have talked to many SNAs who are not prepared to claim assault leave because they do not want to say that a child assaulted them. They are injured while they are doing their job. We do not have occupational health leave as teachers do. If we had that, we would not have this situation where we have to say that we were assaulted. It stops people from claiming it.

Mr. Pike mentioned that pregnant SNAs only get 21 days health and safety leave. For me, one of the main issues with assault leave is that there are not enough bodies in the schools. It is not always down to training but is down to the fact that while we know there is a problem, we have to spread people who are there to meet care needs across a whole school. It is difficult for principals. Indeed, it is difficult for everybody.