National occupational standards for supporting teaching and learning in schools (NOS STL) can be used as a starting point for designing new job roles.
When designing new or revised job roles NOS can be used to:
- create a new post
- accommodate new requirements (eg for cover supervision)
- reflect an individual's developing skills and expertise
A comprehensive approach to job design and staff deployment means each job description can be viewed as a part of a whole. Each job can be seen in relation to other jobs within the school, and everything can be related to the school’s aims for improving pupil attainment and well-being. Using NOS for specifying job roles also ensures that job design is based on clear and realistic expectations expressed in terms of performance.
The role audit tool (Excel, 41KB) can be used to identify the roles and responsibilities that are, or could be, carried out by learning support staff in your school. A role audit will help you identify where you might revise and/or develop job descriptions to ensure you have an appropriate balance of roles and responsibilities across the school.
Developing job descriptions
The NOS STL can be used to develop and review job descriptions for learning support staff. You can identify which standards apply to an existing role holder and use the relevant unit and/or element titles to ensure the job description is clear, relevant, and up-to-date.
You can use the NOS STL suite as a prompt for identifying the roles and responsibilities of a new post, and use the unit and element titles as the basis of the job description. Using NOS to define job descriptions offers flexibility as job functions change. NOS are written in broad terms and are subject to regular review, so they are less likely to become outdated than other guidelines. Using NOS helps to form clear job descriptions that can be used as the basis for recruitment and selection, induction and the subsequent appraisal of the role holder.
Using NOS for recruitment
You can use NOS to provide clear, objective statements of competence. This ensures both candidates and selectors understand what is required for a particular job role, and supports equal opportunities in recruitment practice.
The use of NOS to support recruitment also means that the first stage of personal development planning has taken place during the selection process.
The list below shows how NOS can be used for each stage of recruitment and selection.
Advertising job vacancies
Use the NOS unit titles to describe the kind of work you need a new recruit to undertake.
Getting appropriate information about applicants
Devise application forms that ask people to show how their work and/or other experiences match the relevant standards.
Selecting between applicants
Use the standards as a checklist to help narrow down the pool of suitable applicants, selecting those with experience which best matches the relevant standards for the role.
References
Ask potential referees to comment on an applicant's strengths and weaknesses in terms of their ability to meet the relevant standards for the job.
Interviews
Structure the interview process to probe candidates' experience, practice and knowledge in relation to key standards for the role. You can then match their responses to the standards to give an objective means of 'scoring' each candidate.
For more information visit our NOS in training and development page.
You can also visit our NOS to create development opportunities and support transfer and progression page.