Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure teaching agencies are fully regulated.

Schools are free to recruit supply teachers and most use supply agencies. Agencies are required to undertake the same rigorous checks as schools when recruiting staff. The Department has set out these requirements in the Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 statutory guidance, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101454/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_2022.pdf. The Government has a commercial framework which schools can use to recruit supply teachers and 118 agencies have registered.

All agencies on the framework are accredited by an approved accreditation body which audits them on an annual basis. All agencies that do business through the framework must be transparent about the fees they charge to schools and waive some additional fees. The Department recommends that schools consider using preferred suppliers to meet their staffing needs.

In addition, supply teachers have statutory rights, including entitlement to equal treatment after 12 weeks as someone doing the same role and employed directly, statutory entitlement to holiday pay, employment rights (such as the national minimum wages and sick pay), and access to workplace pensions.