Teaching support staff in Edinburgh won more than £250,000 in damages from the council last year after a surge in school violence.
This figure only covers non-teaching support staff, and UNISON say it should be much higher, with numerous incidents going unreported.
The union cited Additional Support Needs (ASN) units and special schools as particular hotspots, and added that staff are being “underpaid, undervalued, and unsafe in their workplace” due to severe pressures on these specialist settings.
This comes after it was revealed that school staff in Edinburgh have faced more than 3,000 incidents of violence from pupils in the past year.
One union representative claimed members have been left with injuries like a broken ankle and permanent retina damage.
Edinburgh Council said it is “reviewing internal process around these incidents” to ensure “support is available to staff”.
UNISON will petition the City of Edinburgh Council for urgent support at a full council meeting on Thursday, warning that the figures may represent only the tip of the iceberg.
Katrina Baird, Service Conditions Officer at the City of Edinburgh Council UNISON Branch, said that children with ASN and in Early Years settings face few consequences for violence and are sometimes even “rewarded” with time out of class.
She explained that the drive to place ASN children in “mainstream” schools has failed, with children struggling to adapt to their new environments.
In addition, she claimed “shortsighted” cuts have led to staff being systematically undervalued and underpaid by the council, while specialist training and equipment has not been forthcoming.
“Nobody should face abuse or experience violence at work. Sadly, for a staggering number of school support staff that is their daily reality,” she said.
“Our education staff are often low-paid, predominantly female workers who are under severe pressure and increasingly feeling unsafe at work.
“UNISON’s Edinburgh City branch has been campaigning for a zero-tolerance approach to violence in the workplace and we encourage members to report every incident.
“We know incidents are under-reported, and one of the reasons for that is that reporting an incident does not always mean that anything changes.
“Staff need confidence that when they report violence, their employer will listen, take action and put measures in place to prevent it happening again.
“The money spent dealing with the consequences of violence and injury could be better spent on prevention – on additional staffing, training and appropriate provision for children.
“Cuts and inadequate resources are short-sighted. We need investment in our schools that keeps staff safe, meets children’s needs and prevents these incidents from happening in the first place.”
There are 124 schools in Edinburgh, with just 10 special ASN Schools.
The number of ASN schools has remained static over the past 20 years, but the number of pupils with additional needs has exploded, forcing mainstream schools to absorb the majority of these students due to strict capacity caps in special schools.
Baird added: “Every single member of staff in ASN units has witnessed violence or been a victim themselves. Our worry is that somebody is going to die if firm action is not taken.”
UNISON will petition the council for support and changes to Edinburgh’s ASN regime at this Thursday’s meeting.
This is part of a wider “Zero tolerance towards workplace violence and aggression” campaign, which promotes a firmer approach to violence in schools.
A 2025 report found that schools and nurseries together account for almost 80% of all violent incidents reported by councils.
SNP Councillor Euan Hyslop, who is a former pupil support worker himself, is taking the lead on the issue in the city chambers.
He hopes to press the council’s Labour administration on the under-reporting issue, and what more can be done to ensure violent incidents are recorded.
He said that council managers “are not fulfilling their responsibilities” and are forcing staff members to go through the bureaucratic reporting procedure rather than taking it upon themselves.
In some cases, he claimed, dozens of emails about incidents will pile up in managers’ inboxes without being reported.
“There should be more channels in place for the reporting of incidents, and this motion is about ensuring there are processes in place to tackle underreporting,” he added.
Councillor Hyslop hopes the underreporting issue will be relatively uncontroversial, although he didn’t rule out pushback from other parties.
“What there isn’t consensus on,” he explained, “is where the solution is on consequences and punishment.
“There’s a big disagreement between unions and child psychologists on punishment.
“The current approach, based on the recommendations of child psychologists, in schools is nurture and compassion, but the unions say this rewards bad behaviour.”
Hyslop’s motion to the council mostly concerns the underreporting issue but will also ask that “appropriate action” and “consequences” for pupils involved in violent incidents be considered.
“If we can walk away from full council with tangible actions to support staff in those situations, that’s a massive win in my view,” he said.
“We all have a responsibility to ensure council employees can feel safe at work.”
According to FOI figures obtained by The Herald UNISON have been 3,220 incidents of violence against Edinburgh school staff in 2025/26.
The City of Edinburgh Council was forced to pay out £253,860 in personal injury claims as a result, they claim.
Councillor James Dalgleish, Education, Children and Families Convener, said: “I am very concerned about the continued rise in the number of incidents of this nature taking place in our schools, I have seen firsthand the impact that this is understandably having on our excellent staff who do so much for our young people.
“The duty of care to our staff is really important and we are actively looking at what more we can do to support school staff – including reviewing internal process around these incidents to make sure that the right help and support is available to staff.
“To be able to support learners with an additional support need and to improve safety for teachers and school staff in the way that we would like, we would need to spend large amounts money to both upgrade our schools, including special schools, and wider learning buildings – and also to invest more in expanding our support staff in schools.
“I am proud of the additional £885,000 investment that was agreed in this year’s Council budget to invest in more support staff in our schools.
“However, the fundamental issue is that the Scottish Government continues to cut Edinburgh Council’s budget, with £650 million worth of cuts since 2013, which makes recruiting school staff in the large numbers needed increasingly difficult.
“I hope Unison will join me in calling for the funding we require from the Scottish Government to make the major investments needed to further expand our school staff and make sure that every child and young person gets the support they need to learn and thrive at school.”
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