While Voice Community – the education section of Community union – welcomes the Secretary of State’s desire to recruit ex teachers to tackle supply staff shortages, it also has concerns about the effectiveness of the strategy.
Community Assistant General Secretary(Voice section) Deborah Lawson said:
“While we welcome this initiative in principle, the timing – at the end of term – is such that its success must be doubtful.
“Last week, nearly 14,000 teachers (3% of teachers) and 7,055 teaching assistants and other support staff (2.6%) were not in school.
“Last year, 29,524 teachers left the profession, but many of these will now have other employment and would be unavailable to return to the workforce, or would not want to return having chosen to leave teaching because of stress, high workload and better pay elsewhere.
“Some supply teachers can also receive less than the average daily rate for their work, which is unfair and must also be addressed.
“Fewer than 5,000 teachers retired last year and this strategy appears to ignore that many retired teachers are vulnerable by age, and we therefore question the fairness of encouraging them to work in what are environments of high transmission.”
If you are a member of Community and need help or advice, please contact us at help@community-tu.org or on 0800 389 6332.
© Community Trade Union 2024