 Chris_Keates:The NASUWT is committed to advancing the case for supply teachers and to ending the unfair treatment and exploitation faced by some supply teachers.
Such 'commitment' is the reason for my changing membership. Indeed, you have raised some important points which highlight the need to reform the way in which the market for supply teachers is managed and regulated.
The regulation has been handed over to agencies who control recruitment and check CRBs. Schools now compete on price for supply cover and they do it with no complaint from any of the unions. Indeed, some of your members co-ordinate cover and haggle down the supply teacher's cost and therefore salary. For many cover managers in schools the term 'cover supervisor' is a generic term that includes cover supervisors and supply teachers. Many of the schools I work in now have their cover ducumentation headed 'cover supervisor' regardless of the status of the person doing the cover. many cover managers are senior cover supervisors with responsibility for managing a school's cover. This used to be a teacher's job with a tlr or responsibility point. However, I do believe that the move to ‘rarely cover' has the potential to deliver important opportunities for supply teachers. All schools will need to have robust systems in place to manage ‘rarely cover' and, from September, many more schools will be looking to use the important resource provided by supply teachers. However, it is important that the arrangements used by schools provides a fair deal for all supply teachers.
You are aware of the number of cover supervisors being recruited.It is being done on a massive scale. Visit any jobcentre and you will find adverts for thousands. Look at the onlne job sites too. You are actively recruiting them into membership. Do the sums. I'm sure you have. You know that rarely cover will result in less, not more work for supply teachers. A common deal now on offer from the agencies in the "three and two" deal. Agencies aren't stupid and can see that they will make less from cover supervisors so they are offering schools and supply teachers the option of three days as a cover supervisor and two as a teacher as a weeks cover. This is not charity on the part of the agencies, but a practical business response to a massive reduction in the predicted demand for supply teachers. Realistically, schools are increasingly able to cover a week with a cover supervisor so this strategy may not be that popular. Cover supervisors teach. Everyone knows it, including the unions. They do because the only practical way to manage a class is by teaching them, especially in a more difficult school.
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