Recruiting supply teachers has been “nigh on impossible” and there has been no “deluge” of ex-teachers coming back to classrooms to cover Covid staff absences, school leaders told MPs this morning.
The leaders were giving evidence today to the Commons Education Select Committee on the effectiveness of the government’s education catch-up programme.
Robert Halfon, chair of the committee, asked what the government should be doing to help with teacher absence.
John Blaney, assistant chief executive officer of BMAT multi-academy trust in Essex, said it has been “nigh on impossible to get supply teachers into schools”.
“There is a national issue around supply teachers,” he added.
He said he thought there needed to be a “wider discussion” about “long-term investment” in education and teaching and “keeping teachers in the classroom”.
Covid: Schools ‘really struggling’ with teacher absence
“I think some of the attempts to get teachers back have not been as successful as we would have liked and I’m sure the government would have liked,” he added.
In December the Department for Education appealed for former teachers to return to the classroom to help fill gaps created by Covid-related staff absence.
Earlier this month, the DfE’s own figures revealed that just 485 ex-teachers had signed up to return, although the data did not reveal how many were already teaching.
Jill Thompson, headteacher at Kelvin Grove Primary School, in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, told the committee that her school has “really struggled” with teacher absence.
Referring to the government’s Covid workforce fund, which was set up to help schools cover the cost of workforce absences, Ms Thompson said that making a claim involves “very specific guidelines and we haven’t been able to claim anything back so far”.
Heads’ leaders previously called for an easing of the “strict” criteria that allowed schools to apply for more cash to support increased workforce costs.
Ms Thompson said: “We’ve been hit very much with the cost of supply and, particularly, we’re struggling to get supply now. There aren’t the staff out there.”
She said her biggest worry going forward was how her school would “get the bodies in the classroom”.
Nicola Shipman, CEO of Steel City Schools Partnership in Sheffield, said: “We haven’t seen the deluge of recently retired, or left, teachers coming back...and offering their services.”
She added there was a “potential challenge” in terms of DBS checks, but also “teaching the curriculum that we need them to teach”.
“It really is critical that we have skilled practitioners if these children are going to catch up,” she said.
Ms Shipman added that there were some “incredibly skilled” retired teachers but they do not have the most recent CPD to “be able to deliver the curriculum in the way that we need it to be delivered”.
The guidance on the use of masks in schools is due to end this Thursday.
