Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what resources he has made available to schools which have had to replace teachers who are absent, directly or indirectly due to covid-19.

Getting all children and young people back into school for this academic year has been a national priority, and schools have continued to receive their core funding allocations throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Following last year’s Spending Round, school budgets are rising by £2.6 billion in the 2020-21 financial year, £4.8 billion in 2021-22, and £7.1 billion in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20. On average, schools are attracting 4.2% more per pupil in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20. As stated in the Department’s guidance for schools on full opening, schools should use these existing resources when making arrangements for this term. The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools.

The published guidance sets out the options available for schools seeking to manage staffing capacity and absences as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition to using supply teachers and other temporary or peripatetic teachers, schools can also consider using existing staff more flexibly, including support staff and initial teacher training staff, or volunteers, as would usually be the case.

On 27 November 2020, the Government announced a new short-term COVID-19 workforce fund that will fund the costs of teacher absences over a threshold, for those schools with high staff absences that are also facing significant financial pressures: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-funding-to-support-schools-and-colleges-during-covid-pandemic. This will help ensure that schools can remain open. The fund will help meet the cost of staff absences experienced during the period from the beginning of November until the end of this term. Guidance on the claims process will be published shortly so schools can have confidence in the costs they can incur and be eligible to reclaim.

Where schools do hire agency workers, we recommend they consider using the Department’s and Crown Commercial Service’s agency supply deal, as this offers a list of preferred suppliers that must be transparent about the rates they charge: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/deal-for-schools-hiring-supply-teachers-and-agency-workers.