MANCHESTER'S director of education, Mick Waters, said: "Teaching assistants are valuable members of the schools staff - they make a huge difference to the learning of individual children.

"I have seen some children sparked into learning by the efforts of teaching assistants. They can bring learning alive and help young people through jungles of confusion, over rivers of problems and up mountains of challenge.

"Most teaching assistants are amazing people who open doors to learning. I would be really worried if they had to leave.

"Over the last few years, schools have become more flexible and teaching assistants are very much part of school staff.

"Naturally we are concerned that recognised budget problems may have created difficulties for schools which means them having to consider losing teaching assistants. Teaching assistants are vital and it would be a concern if schools had to let them go.

"Naturally there is concern that the workforce agreement will be difficult to implement.

Tasks

"It's vital that teachers and teaching assistants are able to focus on the job of helping children and the workforce agreement gives us the opportunity to take away administrative tasks and allow them to be done by the right people.

"The government is working hard to make things better in schools. However, there are many different agendas in education and sometimes they get in the way of each other.

"The budget pressures have come about because of mistakes at the DFES - formerly the Department of Education - and schools and education departments are having to find the best way through. Manchester city council is working with schools to make the best provision possible.

"Schools are working really hard to implement the workforce agreement because they know it's in the best interests of children's learning."

The head teachers' worries about the future of teaching assistants and the viability of the workforce agreement were put to the DFES. They did not comment directly, but instead issued a statement on school funding: "This year's problems were the result of a combination of circumstances at both national and local level."

It said that next year "every school will be guaranteed to receive at least a minimum increase in funding per pupil.

"Many schools will receive more than this. Head teachers will have more time to plan their budgets".