This two year research project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) between 2003 and 2005.
The research took an in-depth look at the growth of assistant roles in the public sector. We examined the development of assistant roles in three public services: Education, Health and Social Services. We were interested in the regulation of employment amongst teaching assistants, social work assistants and healthcare assistants, especially looking at those rules of employment which regulate eligibility, performance and reward.
The project drew in the main on eight public service case studies that included over 300 interviews and surveys covering almost 600 respondents. We looked at the ways in which employment in these roles varied both between and within the public service sub-sectors. We were keen to address the following issues:
- How is entry into these roles organised?
- How is performance within these roles managed?
- How are these roles rewarded?
- What impact do these roles have upon key stakeholders?
A successful end of project conference was held at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, in mid October 2005. Present were key national figures from government departments, regulatory bodies, employer and employee organisations, as well as assistants themselves and other local figures from our case studies. PowerPoint slides from this conference are available to download. Other research documents including reports, conference presentations and journal abstracts are also available.
The research was conducted by Ian Kessler (Templeton College), Stephen Bach (King’s College, London) and Paul Heron (Templeton College).