Updated, October 2026. This article has been updated with new information about the school job she describes, and to set out when registration with the Education Workforce Council began: it became compulsory for learning support workers in Welsh schools on 1 April 2016, so the Council’s record covers the years since then. This version replaces the one first published in September 2025.
For years the woman who runs Jayne’s Baby Bank has used one line to show she knows children: twelve years as a teaching assistant in a resource base for children with autism.
“I’ve worked for 12 years in a resource base for children with Autistic Spectrum Discorder and learning difficulties/SEN for years as a class room assistant”
Jayne’s Baby Bank, 22 January 2025 (spelling as published)
Elsewhere she has called it “Teaching Assistant level 3”, said “I’m a teaching level 3 already”, and written that she was “a qualified teaching assistant” who was “employed from the age of 18-30”.
The information we have received tells a smaller story. It places her in the autism resource base at Pontllanfraith Primary School, as a level 1 care assistant, until about 2005, when she was about 25. Not twelve years. Not level 3. Not until 30.
The short version
- She says she worked for 12 years as a teaching assistant in a resource base for children with autism, at “level 3”, from the age of 18 to 30.
- The Education Workforce Council says she is not, and has never been, registered with it. Registration became compulsory for school support staff in April 2016, so the register covers the years since then. For the years before, we have other information.
- The information we have received is that she worked in the autism resource base at Pontllanfraith Primary School as a level 1 care assistant, whose duties included toileting and changing children and taking some of the more able children into mainstream lessons.
- On the same information, she applied for a level 3 nursery nurse / classroom assistant post in the base, was not appointed, and left in about 2005, aged about 25.
- Parts of her own account fit that: she has said she cleaned the school and went into mainstream classes with some of the children. Her mother, now a director of Jayne’s Baby Bank C.I.C., was the school’s caretaker.
- She now asks for level 3 staff to run her children’s clubs: “unless you’ve got the actual level three qualification, I personally don’t want you running it.”
What the register shows
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Education Workforce Council told us:
“Nobody of that name is currently, or has been, registered with the Education Workforce Council.”
Education Workforce Council, FOI response, 2025
That answer stands. She is not, and has never been, registered with the Council, and nobody can work as a learning support worker in a Welsh school today without registering.
Registration became compulsory for learning support workers in Welsh schools on 1 April 2016, under the Education (Wales) Act 2014. The register therefore covers the years since then. For the years she describes, before 2016, it is silent either way, so we have looked further.
What we have learned about the job
The information we have received is this.
- The school. She worked in the resource base for children with autism at Pontllanfraith Primary School.
- The role. She was a level 1 care assistant. Her duties included toileting and changing children, and taking some of the more able children into mainstream lessons.
- Level 3. She applied for a level 3 nursery nurse / classroom assistant post in the base, and was not appointed.
- The dates. She was already in post in the early 2000s, and left in about 2005. Born in 1980, she was about 25.
- The caretaker. Her mother, Gail, now the second director of Jayne’s Baby Bank C.I.C., was the school’s caretaker, and she also cleaned at the school from time to time.
- Weekends. Alongside the school, she worked weekends at B&Q in Caerphilly, and carried on there after she left. Our January 2026 report shows her in a B&Q apron.
This rests on information received by this investigation and held on file. It is not yet supported by documents, and we report it as information, not as a finding. We will add any document that confirms or contradicts it.
Parts of it match her own words. On video in July 2025, answering a critic, she described her days before her son was born:
“I used to get up in the morning, I’d clean the school. Then I’d go and work in a classroom assistant all day.”
Video, 24 July 2025 (from a speech-to-text transcript)
And on video in January 2026 she said she had gone into mainstream classes with some of the other children. Both fit the job described to us. Neither is twelve years as a level 3 teaching assistant.
On 5 January 2026 she wrote: “I have never said I worked for Trinity fields.” The information we have received places the base at Pontllanfraith Primary School.
Her account, in her words
- 29 October 2024: “I worked as a teaching assistant in a resource base for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and behaviour disorders and learning difficulties for 12 years.”
- 13 December 2024, video: “I’m a teaching level 3 already.”
- 22 January 2025: “I’ve worked for 12 years in a resource base for children with Autistic Spectrum Discorder and learning difficulties/SEN for years as a class room assistant”
- Undated video, later deleted: “I worked in a school for 12 years, special needs school, for 12 years as a teaching assistant.”
- 5 January 2026: “I have never said I was a teacher.”
- 20 January 2026, video: “I was pre-Ian Huntley. Yes, so pre-Ian Huntley, nobody had to register.” (Registration for school support staff in Wales began in April 2016.)
- 17 July 2026: “I was employed from the age of 18-30 and was a full time member of staff in a pilot scheme for how ASD education and wellbeing would be delivered in CCBC. I was offered less hours more money to work in retail at the time so I took that opportunity and left with an unblemished record.”
The same post of 17 July opened: “I see the haters are now admitting I was a qualified teaching assistant in a resource base”. We have not said that, and the information we have received does not support it.
Set against the information we have received:
- “12 years”: she left in about 2005. Even starting at 18, in 1998, that is about seven years.
- “from the age of 18-30”: she was about 25 when she left. Thirty would have been 2010.
- “level 3”, “a qualified teaching assistant”: she was a level 1 care assistant, and she was not appointed to the level 3 post she applied for.
- “offered less hours more money to work in retail”: she was already working weekends in retail, and kept doing so after she left.
Why it matters
The twelve years are not a line on an old CV. They are how she sets the standard for everyone else. On 29 October 2024, in the same post as the twelve-year claim, she wrote: “All these baby banks popping up but non of them actually qualified to work with children.”
And when she recruits staff for the children’s club she has announced 51 times without a start date (our report), level 3 is the bar:
“I want qualified staff to run the Lego clubs, not volunteers. […] But unless you’ve got the actual level three qualification, I personally don’t want you running it.”
Video, 25 January 2025 (from a speech-to-text transcript)
On the information we have received, that is a level she applied for herself, and did not reach.
None of this says a care assistant’s work is not real work. It is, and it is hard. The question is what she has told the public about it, and what she has built on it.
What this is not. This article does not say she never worked in a school: on the information we have received, she did, in a different role and for a shorter time than she describes. It does not use the Education Workforce Council’s answer to say anything about the years before 2016.
What would change it. A contract, payslip, reference or letter from her employer showing a level 3 or teaching assistant post, or employment in the base for twelve years.
Sources
- Education Workforce Council: Freedom of Information response, 2025 (PDF).
- When registration began: UNISON, “New era for school support staff in Wales”, April 2016; Senedd petition 1066, on the registration fee for learning support workers; the Education (Wales) Act 2014.
- The job: information received by this investigation, held on file.
- Her words: her posts and videos, 29 October 2024 to 17 July 2026, dated in the text. Video quotations are from speech-to-text transcripts.
- Our earlier reports: From Teacher Claims to B&Q Evidence (2 January 2026); 51 Announcements of a Children’s Club (4 October 2026); and the Sherlock Dossier, Finding 06.
Carrie-Anne Ridsdale, also known publicly as Jayne Price, has a standing right of reply, and it is open now. If anything here is wrong, send us the document that shows it through our contact page, and we will correct it on the record. Any response is published in full and unedited, and the offer does not expire.
“The Welsh Charity Shop Hoax: Exposed!” is a public interest project examining the public claims and activities of Jayne’s Baby Bank. Factual statements are supported by evidence where available, and opinions are identified as such. Nothing on this site should be interpreted as a legal finding or legal advice.
…Sherlock