Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make a comparative assessment of the (a) cost to the public purse and (b) terms and conditions for supply teachers of the (i) local authority pool model, (ii) private agency model of supplying cover staff for state-funded schools and (iii) the supply register model operated in Northern Ireland; and if she will make a statement.

The overall expenditure for supply staff in local authority maintained schools for 2013-14 can be found in table 3 at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-education-and-childrens-services-spending-2013-to-2014. Data for academies and free schools can be found online at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-and-expenditure-in-academies-in-england-2013-to-2014

The Department for Education has no data that would enable it to make any comparison between the costs of a local authority pool model, the costs incurred through a private agency model or the comparative costs of the supply model register operated in Northern Ireland.

In relation to terms of conditions of supply staff, schools and local authoritiesare responsible for the recruitment of their supply teachers, which includes deciding whether to use private agencies to recruit and manage them. If a supply teacher is employed by a private agency, this is a private commercial arrangement between the school and the agency. The agency can also decide the rate of pay and conditions of employment.

The Department for Education does not have any direct control over the way in which individual agencies operate and how they decide the pay and conditions of supply teachers. However, if agencies do not appear to be complying with legislation they can be investigated by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EASI). The EASI is part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and has powers to investigate agencies for possible breaches of the law and to prosecute them where there is sufficient evidence. The EASI works with agencies, employers and workers to make sure that employment rights are complied with, particularly for vulnerable workers.

Conditions for agency workers have been improved through the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), so supply teachers are entitled to the same pay and employment conditions that they would be entitled to receive if they were employed directly by a maintained school or academy. This is subject to a qualifying period of 12 continuous weeks working in the same role with the same school or local authority.