Rarely Cover

John Dunn of Randstad Education looks at a live issue affecting schools

Last September, a new phrase entered the lexicon of the education world – and that phrase is ‘rarely cover’. New provisions – part of the Teachers’ Pay and Conditions document and therefore with statutory force in England – essentially mean that teachers can now only cover for other absent colleagues in rare and unforeseen circumstances.

On average, teachers are absent from class for 17 days during the school year. This means that a child who enters reception class can expect, by the time they leave Year 11, to have spent more than a year of their schooling in front of a teacher who is not their regular teacher. But teachers are human so teachers will become sick.

The downside of that argument is the statistic that only one third of teacher absence is attributable to sickness. Hence the majority of those 17 days – so goes the theory – must therefore be predictable. And The TES was quick to identify that ‘rarely cover’ could lead to teachers being denied time off for everything from family funerals to medical appointments.

The new rules have also eliminated the traditional first port of call – a colleague from the same department who had a free period. Anticipating these changes, some schools have experimented by employing teams of permanent cover staff.

But that’s an expensive ‘short-term fix’ which triggers an immediate extra fixed cost. It also introduces other major drawbacks, such as:

It’s wasteful – demand for cover is extremely variable and it’s clearly impossible to respond to the peaks and troughs of demand with a fixed resource.

It’s unworkable – these cover staff are often unqualified ‘cover supervisors’ who are not able to undertake ‘specified work’ when actually needed.

It’s unsatisfactory – even when schools employ ‘cover teachers’, itself not a particularly attractive job, it’s very difficult to cover the range of subjects that need to be taught.

It is far more logical to use a professional staffing agency to manage cover arrangements.

There’s none of the fixed cost associated with running a cover team.

There’s only a payment when staff are actually used.

There are no hidden costs of employment – management time, recruitment, vetting, administration, payroll costs and so on.

And perhaps most importantly of all, schools receive qualified teachers who have been selected to match the specific needs of the school on that particular day.

Of course, quality cover does not come cheap – nor should it where excellent teachers are involved – and while there is acknowledged pressure to find a cheap alternative, the Training and Development Agency affirms “cover is a standards issue”. Skimping on cover can jeopardise a whole year of a child’s education.

Some quarters suggest as a ‘solution’ that the Head and other members of the SLT should provide cover but I doubt they really have so much free time to offer; and in any event can provision of temporary cover genuinely be best use of their time?

During the past few months Randstad Education has conducted a popular series of nationwide workshops attended by more than 200 schools. At the heart of those discussions was a principal concern for maintaining standards. A lot of experiences were shared and a paper ‘Rarely Cover, the position so far’ has resulted, which we, and the schools involved, hope will provide schools with a range of ideas and solutions that a single school cannot hope to discover from its internal resources.

To request a copy of the ‘Rarely Cover’ paper, email education@randstadeducation.co.uk .

John Dunn is chair of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (Education sector) and marketing and development director at Randstad Education www.randstadeducation.co.uk

Coping with Rarely Cover – Top Tips

DON’T:

Destroy staff morale by refusing time off for funerals or medical appointments

Expect Head/SLT teachers to have spare time to fill in!

Waste money with short-term fixes such as employing a cover team

Add to fixed costs with more permanent staff

Try to second-guess demand for cover

Employ cover supervisors who can’t replace an absent teacher

DO:

Abolish fixed costs by employing staff only when needed

Only pay for staff when they’re used

Avoid hidden costs such as vetting, admin and payroll

Insist on qualified teachers matched to specific immediate need

Reject cheap low-quality alternatives