Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of supply teachers that have accessed support through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

We expect schools to ensure any employees funded by public money continue to be paid in the usual fashion, from their existing staff budgets, and not to furlough staff, in line with the HMRC guidance to public sector organisations. Therefore, supply teachers directly employed by schools should not need the support of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.

Where supply teachers are employed via employment agencies, and have had their access to work restricted by COVID-19, their employers, as private businesses, have been able apply to furlough their workers via the CJRS.

The Department does not hold the information on the number of employment agencies that have accessed support for their workers via the CJRS.

HMRC has released estimates of the number, and value, of claims made to the CJRS. This outlines the number of companies, and employees who have been supported by the CJRS by employment sector, including education. However, the statistical release does not provide data on specific job roles within a sector. The HMRC estimates are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-june-2020.