Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish the names of all supply teacher agencies registered with his Department in each year for which data is available.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department does not register supply teacher agencies. However, the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) do have a list of agencies that currently hold the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) Audited Education status. This is available on line and maintained by REC: https://www.rec.uk.com/business-support/audited/audited-members-directory.
To support schools to achieve value for money when using supply agencies, we are working with CCS to develop a commercial framework for agency supply teachers. The framework will bring transparency to agency margins and require agencies to adhere to standard levels of practice, including the use of temp-to-perm fees. The framework is expected to be available for schools to use from September 2018.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the use of (a) higher level teacher assistants and (b) cover supervisors to cover teaching absences.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department collects information on the number of higher level teaching assistants and cover supervisors employed in schools. However, no information is available on the amount of time these staff spend covering teaching absences.
The full-time equivalent number of contracted staff whose role is defined as that of ‘higher level teaching assistant’ or of ‘cover supervisor’, employed by state funded schools in England, November 2010 to 2016 is provided in the table below.
|
| State Funded Schools |
|
| Higher Level Teaching Assistant |
| Cover Supervisor |
November |
|
|
|
2010 | 11,040 |
| .. |
2011 | 12,150 |
| 7,490 |
2012 | 13,380 |
| 8,010 |
2013 | 14,650 |
| 8,000 |
2014 | 15,850 |
| 8,100 |
2015 | 16,410 |
| 7,970 |
2016 | 17,140 |
| 7,640 |
Source: School Workforce Census
Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) extent of the provision of safeguarding training provided by supply teacher agencies in the UK.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools are responsible for ensuring that all staff, including supply staff, are aware of their safeguarding responsibilities. ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ statutory safeguarding guidance makes clear that all staff should read ‘Part One - Safeguarding information for all staff at induction’. It also requests that governing bodies/proprietors ensure that mechanisms are in place to support staff to understand and discharge their role and responsibilities as set out in Part One. The guidance states that all staff should receive safeguarding and child protection training at induction.
Before placing a member of staff a supply agency must request sufficient information, including the experience, references, training, and qualifications the school needs for the post or that are required by law.
To help schools achieve best value when using supply agencies the Department is working with the Crown Commercial Service to develop a commercial framework for agency supply teachers. Together with other requirements the framework will ensure that agencies adhere to standard levels of practice. The framework is expected to be available for schools to use from September 2018.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of his Department's spend on day-to-day goods has comprised fair trade products in each of the last eight years.
Answered by Anne Milton
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what organisations his Department has outsourced functions to since 2011.
Answered by Anne Milton
Since 2011, the department has entered shared services arrangements for two functions – the management of its estate and its human resources casework support. These are both with the Ministry of Justice. It has also outsourced two activities. The first was the analysis of 2016 key stage 2 science sampling test outcomes. This is a biennial activity and was outsourced to the National Foundation for Educational Research in 2016. The second activity is the administration of student support programmes for young people. This was contracted to Capita in 2015. The contract is currently out for re-tendering again with a start date of 2019.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what percentage of workers employed directly by his Department belonged to a trade union in each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Anne Milton
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) full-time staff, (b) part-time staff, (c) temporary staff and (d) any other staff were directly employed on zero-hours contracts by his Department in each of the last eight years.
Answered by Anne Milton
The department does not directly employ any staff on zero hours contracts, and has not done so in any of the last eight years.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what percentage of employees in his Department worked (a) in departmental accommodation, (b) from home and (c) at any other location in the most recent 12-month period for which data is available.
Answered by Anne Milton
The information requested is not held centrally.
All department employees have access to a number of flexible working arrangements dependent on the role, which are agreed locally with line managers.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of teacher morale.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Stevenson/Farmer Review states that public sector employers should support employee wellbeing. The Department is currently considering the evidence about teachers’ wellbeing and will consider how the Department can further support the sector. The Department is taking action in a number of areas that teachers tell us are key to reducing workplace stress, including eliminating unnecessary workload. The Department is working extensively with unions, teachers and Ofsted to challenge practices that create unnecessary workload.
The Department is monitoring the impact of our actions to date, for example, by using snapshot surveys to establish whether schools are using the recommendations from the three independent review groups, to tackle workload issues. The Department has committed to running a large-scale survey on workload every two years to inform our policies. The first wave of the Teacher Workload Survey 2016 was published in February 2017.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the effectiveness of Northern Ireland's national supply teacher service model; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department engages with its counterparts in Northern Ireland to share best practice on topics of mutual interest and concern, including policy areas relating to teachers. The Department is aware of the Northern Ireland Substitute Teacher system and is following its progress with interest.