Schools and local authorities are today being told to pay supply teachers 80 per cent of their wages during lockdown - even if their work is no longer needed and they were not on live assignments at the start of lockdown.

New Department for Education guidance today provides clarity for supply teachers on who should pay them - after a union warned last month that they faced being “thrown to the wolves” because supply agencies couldn’t afford the added costs of the furlough scheme.

But guidance says supply agencies should not now apply for furlough for their staff, and that schools should continue paying 80 per cent of wages for supply teachers - whether they were on live assignments or if schools just “expected” to employ them.

Read: Supply teachers face being ‘thrown to the wolves’

Exclusive: 10 reasons why supply teachers are in crisis

Read: Supply teachers fight for equality in pay

Coronavirus: Supply teachers unpaid due to ‘cash flow’

The guidance states: “Schools will continue to receive their budgets for the coming year as usual, regardless of any periods of partial or complete closure. This will ensure that they are able to continue to pay for staff and meet their other regular financial commitments.

“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 correspondingly not furloughed, in line with the HMRC guidance for public sector organisations.”

Coronavirus: Supply teachers ‘on the brink of breakdown’

Last month, unions including the NASUWT, the NAHT, NEU, GMB and Unison wrote a joint letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson calling for the government to “send a direction and provide adequate funding” to ensure that supply staff on live assignments continue to be paid from schools’ budgets - and to ensure that those who had their assignments terminated are reinstated on the original terms.

And the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), a national body that represents supply teacher agencies, wrote a separate letter stating that agencies couldn’t afford to pay new costs of the furlough scheme, including the workers’ national insurance and pension contributions.

Supply teacher Tim Holden, who has researched the rules around supply teacher pay and advised thousands of fellow teachers since March, said the past 10 months had “driven many supply teachers to the brink of a breakdown” - and schools may not follow today’s guidance.

“As last year’s experience showed, the majority of schools and local authorities did not follow DfE guidance when it came to directly employed supply teachers [ that schools should continue paying them],” he said. “It is likely they will do exactly the same this time, as well as ignoring the guidance for agency assignments they had live at the start of lockdown. “

The guidance states. “Where schools have agency staff on live assignments who cannot continue to work due to coronavirus (Covid-19), we encourage schools to continue to make previously agreed payments for the supply staff at 80 per cent of the agreed contract rate. Agencies who receive money in line with this guidance should pay their staff accordingly, and not furlough them,”

And even where staff were not on live assignments when schools closed, they should continue to be paid - even if schools or local authorities only “expected” to employ them, according to the guidance.

It states: “Where schools or local authorities had expected to use their public funding to engage such staff and had budgeted for this, but work is no longer needed due to coronavirus (Covid-19), we encourage schools to pay staff at 80 per cent of their typical pay, in a similar way to agency workers who were on live assignments when schools began closing or reducing capacity.”

A minority of supply teachers employed directly by schools should also continue to be paid by the school - and their contracts should be reinstated if they were ended early due to the pandemic.

The guidance states: “Where schools have live assignments with supply staff, and where the school is the employer, schools should continue to pay these staff from their existing school budgets and not furlough them.

“Where schools have terminated contracts with supply staff due to coronavirus (Covid-19) earlier than the original terms set out, and where the school was the employer under that contract, schools should reinstate these contracts on the terms previously agreed, as long as the contractor is not already accessing alternative support through another government support scheme.”

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), which represents supply teaching agencies, welcomed the updated guidance. However, a spokesperson said: “It is not a compulsory requirement, which leaves an element of uncertainty for supply teachers, agency workers and recruitment businesses alike.”