The Scottish Executive says the new probationers’ induction scheme, which guarantees a one-year training contract, has successfully matched more than 2,000 probationers to posts in schools throughout Scotland this session.

The initiative, which allows local authorities to take on probationers surplus to their requirements, brings a range of additional benefits. Some councils have been able to release teachers for important curriculum development work, to help staff social inclusion projects and, in at least one local authority (East Lothian), to make all headteachers non-teaching.

“At the end of the allocations process every student was offered a quality training post in one of their declared preference authorities, with 90 per cent offered one of their top three preferences,” says a senior Scottish Executive official.

Barbara Clark, the assistant general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, says the union “is not receiving a lot of complaints” about the scheme and there was no evidence of widespread disruption to existing probationers’ posts.

Ghislaine Tait, Stirling’s probationer co-ordinator, says: “We placed 66 probationers while retaining all our existing probationers. It was not an easy process but we managed through natural wastage and various strategies, including teaching heads covering for the probationers’ 0.3 continuing professional development time rather than bringing in another part-time teacher.

“This has probably meant one or two temporary teachers have lost out in that they haven’t been re-employed at the end of their contract.”

Norrie McKay, North Lanarkshire’s policy adviser, says: “We placed 155 new probationers and no one was forced out, nor were temporary staff displaced, though there was some redeployment within the authority.”

In Glasgow, where for several years probationers have all been taken on supply contracts, 162 new ones were taken on, with five going into permanent posts.

“We didn’t lose any existing probationers, mainly because they had been put into relief posts releasing teachers to do curricular development work,” says Rita Knapp, the city’s probationer support officer.

“No one lost out in primary. In secondary, out of 60 posts only five were permanent vacancies, which went to new probationers in the large department subjects of English and maths and the existing probationers were found posts elsewhere in the city.”

In East Lothian, 71 new probationers were placed and all existing probationers were retained. “There was one relocation but no one lost a job,” says David Cameron, head of education. “I think the effect on temporary contracts has also been relatively limited.”

Partly because of its population growth, East Lothian was able to take 26 probationers who, strictly, were surplus to the authority’s requirements. “This has allowed us to make all our heads non-teaching, each getting an additional probationer,” says Mr Cameron.

“Another bonus is that we have taken on some trainees to staff social inclusion projects, such as the new community schools initiative in Prestonpans and Dunbar. So it’s been very helpful in addressing national priorities.”

Glasgow took about 100 extra probationers, which has allowed school staff to be released for curricular development work at school and authority level, including for posts as literacy and information and communications technology tutors.

“The extra placements have allowed us to create nurture classes, too, in order to facilitate the transition from nursery to primary through early intervention,” says Ms Knapp.

Glasgow has also adopted a two-for-one model so that in some primary schools two probationers share the same class, taking it for half the week each and gaining experience of teaching in other classes for the remainder of their teaching time.

North Lanarkshire’s inventive deployment of probationers has partly involved topping up part-time posts for probationers and partly the two-for-one model.

“We have put 79 secondary probationers into 32.6 full-time equivalent posts and 76 primary probationers into 31.4 FTE posts,” explains Mr McKay.

“We have used the two-for-one model in a lot of primary schools,” says Ann Allan, North Lanarkshire’s professional officer responsible for primary trainees. “It allows two probationers to get a class of their own, freeing up a member of staff to cover both their 0.3 CPD allocation and sometimes to act as their mentor.”

Placing probationers has proved a complicated business for most education authorities, who have described the process as “sophisticated and financially complex” and “a messy business”. The outcome is not uniformly positive. There have been particular difficulties in attracting probationers to some rural authorities, which feel they have been discriminated against.

There have also been teething problems with timetabling, worries about what will happen when next year’s tranche of probationers come into schools and this year’s will be seeking full-time posts, and questions about how probationers who do not attain the standard for full registration within the year will be catered for.

Dumfries and Galloway and Highland are two authorities which have experienced difficulty in attracting probationers. As reported in TES Scotland (July 5), Dumfries and Galloway was the first authority to threaten to pull out of the placement scheme, which is based on students’

geographical preferences, because it felt it had effectively lost control of its ability to appoint new teachers.

“We got all the probationers we needed for the primary sector but only 17 in the secondary, where we were looking for about three dozen,” says Christine Dignan, head of education. “We had to advertise for teachers to fill the posts we’d been holding for probationers.

“We are going to be extremely cautious about next year.

“There needs to be a better balance between the needs of the service and those of probationers.”

John Fyfe, Highland’s head of transition, says his authority also has had to fund posts which probationers did not fill.

“Because the allocation is student led, it causes us problems,” he says. “Would a probationer with a family move from the central belt for one year when we cannot actually guarantee a job at the end?

“Some probationers couldn’t go to areas where they were needed, so they effectively withdrew.

“The system doesn’t favour rural authorities. There needs to be a rethink which looks at schools’ needs, not just probationers’.

“If the scheme isn’t amended so that it stops penalising rural authorities and looks at the longer and bigger picture with a programme that matches allocation across the country as a whole, we will be forced to look at going our own way,” he warns.

Dumfries and Galloway has argued for a system in which probationers are sent where vacancies exist, as happens with trainee doctors. But the Scottish Executive, which fully funds the training posts, is not considering introducing any compulsion into the scheme, a senior spokesman says.

“We agree there has to be a balance between the needs of schools and those of probationers but there is not much point in trying to force a probationer to go somewhere they are adamant they do not want to go.

“The problem is certainly something all the stakeholders need to look at. Local authorities need to invite students to show them the benefits of moving to their areas, including those of professional development,” he says.

Another problem that needs to be looked at, says Ms Allan of North Lanarkshire, concerns student teachers who are placed but then fail to gain their qualification. “You only find out about them over the summer and it causes headaches for schools where they have been allocated,” she says.

Ways will be found around problems affecting rural authorities and extended probations, says Mrs Clark of the SSTA. “We are very hopeful that the new arrangements will be beneficial to schools and to the profession. We are watching the situation carefully.”

Timing is also something that is being looked into for next year, especially for secondaries who this year received their allocation of probationers after the new timetable had been worked out and then had to changed it.

Another concern is for this year’s probationers next session, when they must look for another post and new probationers take up fixed-term induction posts.

Mr Cameron of East Lothian says: “I don’t know the projected number for next year’s probationers or what the effect of Christmas probationers will be, but it will certainly be impossible for us to incorporate all these probationers into next year’s complement without continued Executive funding.”

The Scottish Executive remains confident. A senior spokesman says: “No one can say with any certainty exactly how many probationers will get jobs at the end of this session but the numbers coming out of college and entering teaching do reflect local authority needs. In broad terms, most probationers will find full-time posts.

“The picture today has not proved as bleak as some were painting it in May or June and I don’t think it will be bleak next June. The teacher induction scheme has been a success so far. Let’s build on it.”