Why Teachers Work Through Supply Agencies

The vast majority of supply teachers in England have no choice but to work through private agencies. Private agencies dominate the supply market in England, with 82% of the supply teachers in schools being employed through private agencies. However, through private agencies, teachers are paid, on average, 40% less than permanent colleagues with no access to the Teacher’s Pension Scheme.

Leaving The Profession

Increasingly, private agencies are attempting to pay their supply staff through umbrella companies, further reducing teacher’s net pay by a further 20%. Early Careers Teachers (ECT), those in their first years of teaching, are particularly targeted by agencies, often being offered £70/80 a day (max. £13,650/£15,600 pa), though there are adverts offering as little as £60 a day (max. £11,700 pa). This is far below the government’s headline grabbing £30,000 salary for new teachers.

These low wages are causing supply teachers to leave the profession in search of better paid jobs elsewhere. Due to no data being collected in England, the evidence is only anecdotal. However. in Wales, where data is collected, between 2018 and 2021, the supply teacher workforce shrank by 11.3%.

Alternative Supply Provision

We do not have to look abroad for alternatives to using private agencies. Indeed, in England, before the use of private agencies, all supply teachers were employed through local authority supply pools, on the same pay and conditions as their full-time colleagues. In Scotland, supply teacher funding is removed at source by the Scottish administration and almost all supply teachers are still employed through Local Authority Supply Pools: on full pay and conditions.

In Wales, the Welsh Administration have created the Welsh National Procurement Service (NPS) Supply Teachers Framework. Supply teachers are currently paid a minimum of M2 on the teacher’s pay scale and the Administration is currently bringing supply provision back in-house to local authorities.

In Northern Ireland, there is the Northern Ireland Substitute Teacher Register (NISTR). Belfast City Council run the system for the whole of Northern Ireland (1082 schools). All the supply teachers (currently 7000 teachers) are paid the same as their full-time colleagues and have access to the Teacher’s Pension Scheme. This system has been successfully running since 2006.

And NISTR has already been successfully copied. Due to its isolated aspect, private agencies were not successful on the Isle of Man. When private agencies failed to provide enough supply teachers, the Manx government took supply provision back in-house. They commissioned a software development firm to create a bespoke booking system based on NISTR.

Current Alternatives In England

There are a very small number of local authority supply pools still remaining in England. Stockport Supply Pool finally closed in May 2022, leaving just Sefton, East Riding and Norfolk still going. These pay significantly more money to the teacher than supply agencies, with Sefton supply pool paying up to M6 (£212 a day from September). 

In the North of Tyne region, championed by the mayor Jamie Driscoll, a group of supply teachers and unions are attempting to set up a cooperative called EduCo Supply. However, it was supposed to begin placing teacher in school in September 2022 and it has yet to begin.

Proxi – A True Alternative To Private Agencies

There is now a true alternative to private supply agencies. Proxi is a not-for-profit, cooperative supply service, set up by supply teachers for supply teachers.

Members of the National Supply Teachers Network (https://nstn.whitefuse.net/) have set up Proxi in a move to reverse the year-on-year decline in supply teacher wages and conditions of work.

By removing the need to make a profit, Proxi is better for the teachers (offering better pay and conditions, possibly even one day access to Teachers Pension Scheme), better for the schools (transparent pricing structure, access to the teachers they want, no agency finders fees if they wish to employ teachers directly) and better for English education in general (retaining experienced teachers in education and keeping ECTs from leaving the profession early).

Proxi will operate in a similar way to an agency but with greater control for both teachers and schools. With the computer booking system, teachers will be able to update their availability and accept the bookings they want. Schools will book the teachers they want from those locally available.

Teachers will become members of the cooperative with full voting rights. Part of the charge to schools will go into the cooperative teacher’s fund, which members will be able to vote on how it is spent. This could maybe be on sessions of Continued Professional Development for the teachers, on a Sickness Fund (supply teachers only currently have access to SSP) or whatever the members decide. The teachers will have control of the direction of the cooperative.

Please watch this short video, which will give you further information about Proxi,

then click on the link to the Proxi website to register an interest:

https://proxi.education/