REC Education - Fighting Our Corner at the Westminster Education Forum

By Tom Hadley Director of Policy  

We were invited to speak at the recent Westminster Education Forum conference on teacher pay and professional standards which brought together over 200 representatives from free schools, academies, Local Education Authorities, teaching unions and other representative bodies. The event provided a great opportunity to promote the role of supply teacher agencies and specific initiatives such as REC Audited Education directly to schools.

Changes to teachers’ pay will have significant implications for leadership within schools - anybody who has had to do any sort of pay review knows how difficult this can be. The skills and competencies that school leaders need are continuing to evolve alongside a changing education landscape. Will the changes also impact on teacher retention? It could go either way, but we are already seeing a real challenge emerging in terms of shortages in certain areas.  We are also seeing more people choosing to return to the classroom as supply teachers rather than in substantive roles, partly due to the amount of administrative work.

In terms of the overall jobs market for teachers, we expect to see things evolve due to the pay changes. Our latest member meeting provided useful feedback on schools potentially allocating more money to certain high demand roles, and less to roles that are easier to fill. So, will we see something like a football transfer window start to develop? Possibly, it’s certainly another area that we will continue to monitor. Changes to pay will have a specific impact on how equal pay between direct recruits and temporary staff is established in line with requirement within the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR). A priority for our members is to work with schools to ensure that regulatory requirement continue to be met within a changing pay landscape.

Any big change, such as performance related pay, creates implementation challenges and time implications for schools. The inevitable focus on setting up new performance related pay systems must not divert attention away from other priority areas such as the safeguarding agenda. With so much going on, how do we make sure that anybody who comes into schools has not only got the right skills, but is also properly vetted?

Our aim is to take stock of the changing landscape to come up with practical solutions that make things easier for schools, in particular through specific initiatives such as REC Audited Education. Schools are increasingly squeezed for time and resources so need recognisable kite-marks which give reassurance that the right checks have taken place and that suppliers are meeting the highest standards. This is the core aim of the REC Audited Education scheme. If you’re using supply teacher agencies, make sure they have the REC Audited Education stamp.

So, concluding remarks. We expect to see more fluidity in the teaching profession, partly driven by demographics. The current teaching workforce includes a significant amount of people in the 30/35 year old category many of whom are likely to be on maternity/paternity leave at some point over the coming years. This will increase the need to bring in suitably skilled teachers on a flexible basis and is a further reason that the role of supply teacher agencies will become increasingly important over the coming years.

The REC will continue to promote the added value that our members can provide to schools.  As well as ensuring the effective supply of suitable skilled and effectively vetted staff, agencies will continue to provide guidance and support on specific challenges such as implementing new regulations. On performance related pay, specialist agencies can be an extra resource that schools can go to when it comes to implementing some of these changes on the ground. There is a huge opportunity for our sector to work in genuine partnership with schools in these and other areas over the coming years. The work of REC Education will continue to champion this collaborative approach.