Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the prevalence of recruitment agencies cold-calling teachers on school telephone lines during school hours and contacting teachers on their professional email addresses.

The Department is undertaking user research to strengthen its understanding of the issues schools face when advertising teacher vacancies and the challenges teachers have finding and applying for jobs. The research will also be used to inform the development and design of a new national teacher vacancy service. This service will aim to reduce the time schools spend on publishing vacancies and the cost of recruiting new teachers; make it easier for teachers to find jobs quickly and easily; and increase the availability and quality of data on teacher recruitment.

This research is highlighting concerns in schools about the cost and practices of recruitment agencies, which we will explore further.

The Department is in the planning phase of a new commercial framework for the use of schools engaging with supply agencies. As part of this we are proposing to include measures designed to improve the conduct of some agencies.