Bargaining for supply registers

NEU wants to end the domination of commercial supply agencies by promoting and securing more direct hiring by employers for schools seeking supply staff.

The problems with commercial agencies faced by supply members need to be a whole-union issue.

Supply agencies siphon off ring-fenced public education funds in the name of private profit, making huge sums of money in the process while paying daily rates to even experienced teachers significantly below what they would earn if hired directly.

National Supply Register

We will call on the new Government to invest in the funding of a national supply register that:

recognises experience levels and skills,
allows access to the Teachers and Local Government pension schemes as appropriate,
prevents corporate exploiters from siphoning off public funds in the name of private profit.

Resources

Use these resources to propose supply registers to your local employer

LA supply register proposal

Model letter to local authorities to propose a supply teacher register.

MAT supply register proposal

Model letter to academies to propose a supply teacher register

Benefits of supply registers

The advantages for local authorities and academies of implementing a supply pool/register.

What you can do

Supply members are strongly encouraged to become involved with their districts and branches if they are not already. Get involved with local campaigning by becoming a branch or district supply officer where there currently isn’t one, or offering to help out where there is.

Specialised training is available for new supply officers through the union’s national training programme and feedback has been very positive from members who have attended the courses.

Every branch/district has been provided with model letters and additional briefing.

They are being encouraged to commence discussions with employers on the advantages of supply registers, and many have done so already.

They have also been encouraged to get NEU reps to discuss supply matters with their school groups and to then raise the demand for direct employment at school or college level.

Supply members can become involved by nominating themselves for their regional or Wales supply organising forum if there is a vacancy. More information is available from the relevant NEU regional or Wales office, and your branch/district will be able to provide contact details.

Changing the system

We want to highlight the gross profiteering and exploitation at the heart of the country’s broken supply model. Corporate profiteering should have no place in our education system.

NEU analysis of eight of the leading supply agencies shows substantially increased profits over the last two years.

Combined turnover was £436.6 million, an increase of 39% on the year before.
Combined gross profits rose by 55% to more than £109m.

Make no mistake, business is booming for supply agencies.

Tens of millions of pounds is being sucked out of our school system in the form of private profit every year. This is public money that should be in the pockets of hard-working education staff and in the hands of schools for the benefit of our children’s education. Not in the bank accounts of wealthy directors and shareholders.

We say NO to the agency rip-off and the injustice of a system which prioritises profit over the interests of staff and children.

With teacher absence levels higher than pre-Covid there is a shortage of supply teachers because of the low daily rates paid by agencies.