Supply teachers have a vital role to play in raising and maintaining high educational standards in schools. Campaigning to secure professional entitlements for supply teachers is a key priority of NASUWT, together with securing decent pay and working conditions for all supply teachers.
Introduction
Employment in accordance with the STPC(W)D
Advisory pay scales for Wales
Employment by an agency
Introduction
The employer, subject to any statutory regulations or agreements that may apply nationally and/or locally, determines the pay of supply teachers.
The nature of your employment relationship is critical in determining the pay, pensions and conditions of service you will have as a supply teacher.
The main supply teacher employment relationships include:
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employment directly by a local authority;
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employment directly by a school maintained by a local authority (i.e. community schools, foundation schools, foundation trusts and voluntary-aided schools);
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employment directly by a school which is not maintained by a local authority (e.g. independent schools);
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employment directly by an employment agency or umbrella company; and
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employment as a ‘contractor’ or on a self-employed basis.
If you are employed as defined in categories 1 or 2 above, you will be entitled to be paid in accordance with national school teachers’ terms and conditions as defined under the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions (Wales) Document (STPC(W)D). As such, you are entitled to be paid on the same basis as all other teachers under the terms of the pay policy of the local authority/school.
If you are employed as defined in category 3 above, you may be entitled to be paid in accordance with national school teachers’ terms and conditions where the school has entered into a collective agreement with NASUWT to employ all teachers in accordance with national school teachers’ terms and conditions.
Employment in accordance with the STPC(W)D
If you are employed by a local authority or a local authority maintained school, or by a school that has adopted a formal collective agreement to apply national terms and conditions of service, you should be paid in accordance with the provisions of the STPC(W)D.
The STPC(W)D defines the pay, conditions of service (including working time) and professional duties of teachers. It is a national framework and it is statutory and contractual.
The STPC(W)D describes supply teachers as ‘short notice’ teachers and stipulates that they must be paid as follows:
‘Teachers employed on a day-to-day or other short notice basis must be paid in accordance with the provisions of this Document on a daily basis calculated on the assumption that a full working year consists of 195 days, periods of employment for less than a day being calculated pro rata.’
This requires that supply teachers employed under the provisions of the STPC(W)D must be paid in accordance with the pay ranges and pay scales that apply to other teachers. In determining your daily rate, the school/local authority must calculate this on a pro rata basis on the assumption that your working year consists of 195 working days.
2024/25 salary values
Daily rate = X (annual salary) ÷ 195 days
In Wales, the STPC(W)D establishes the pay scale points for the main pay range and upper pay range. These are national terms and conditions.
The following table illustrates the 2024/25 annual salary values and the corresponding daily rates that should apply to you as a supply teacher in Wales.
It should be noted that these are provisional, as the Welsh Government is currently in the process of undertaking a statutory consultation on school teachers’ pay and conditions, which will conclude on 7 October 2024.
Members should note that whilst the Union does not expect any of the provisional salary and allowances amounts to change, NASUWT cannot guarantee that amendments will not be made.
The Union will confirm with members the final salary scales upon conclusion of the statutory consultation on 7 October 2024.
Please note that these daily rates are before deductions for tax and National Insurance.
Advisory scales as provided by local authorities in Wales
Classroom teachers
| Pay scale | Annual pay | Daily pay |
|---|---|---|
| M2 (Minimum) | £32,433 | £166.33 |
| M3 | £35,039 | £179.69 |
| M4 | £37,739 | £193.54 |
| M5 | £40,710 | £208.77 |
| M6 (Maximum) | £44,802 | £229.76 |
| U1 (Minimum) | £46,446 | £238.19 |
| U2 | £48,168 | £247.02 |
| U3 (Maximum) | £49,944 | £256.13 |
All other pay points and allowances would be uplifted by 5.5%, including unqualified teachers.
The National Framework developed by the National Procurement Service (NPS) for the employment of supply teachers means the agencies on the framework have agreed to pay all supply teachers a minimum rate of pay equivalent to M2. Members are advised to only work for agencies who are signed up to the agreement.
An issue sometimes arises in schools about the number of hours which teachers are ‘being paid for’ if they are being paid in accordance with this formula. This is because teachers who are not on the leadership spine can be directed to work for 1,265 hours per year on directed activities by a headteacher - and these directed activities include teaching.
The total of 1,265 hours divided by 195 days equals 6.49 hours and, therefore, some schools and employers claim that, if a teacher is not teaching for six-and-a-half hours, they should not be paid the annual salary to which they are entitled under the STPC(W)D divided by 195.
As a supply teacher, you are advised not to accept payment of less than the salary to which you are entitled, divided by 195 days for a day’s work as a supply teacher.
It is extremely unusual for teachers to teach for six-and-a-half hours per day and, even if they were to do so, they would not do this every day, as the teacher could not be directed to carry out any other directed activities by a headteacher.
In circumstances where you are employed for less than a day, the STPC(W)D stipulates that your pay should be calculated on a pro rata basis. NASUWT advocates that in these circumstances, you should be remunerated on the basis of a pupil/school session.
The school day is based on two pupil/school sessions (morning session and afternoon session). Over 195 days, there are 390 sessions. If you are engaged for only one session (e.g. afternoon), which is shorter than the other (morning) session, you should still be remunerated for the session on the basis of the annual salary divided by 390.
Employment by an agency
Many supply teachers are directly employed by or obtain work via employment agencies in Wales.
NASUWT is concerned that some employment agencies adopt appalling and exploitative practices in relation to supply teachers and seek to engage in profit-making activities to the detriment of teachers and schools.
The Union is actively campaigning to secure fair treatment for teachers employed by or via supply agencies, including umbrella companies. NASUWT is also campaigning to secure national quality standards and regulation of supply agencies to ensure that they operate fairly for teachers and for schools.
There are no national pay and conditions for supply teachers employed by agencies. Therefore, individual agencies are free to set their own pay and conditions levels against a backdrop of general employment legislation. Agencies will charge each school a daily rate when providing a teacher. However, the amount charged to the school will be greater than the amount paid to the individual teacher undertaking the supply work.
Whilst supply agencies are of course free to set their own remuneration rates, NASUWT expects that agencies will recognise the need to ensure that the national pay award, as set by the STPC(W)D and underpinned by the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body (IWPRB), is also applied to supply teachers.
At the very least, NASUWT would expect that uplifts in payments to supply teachers mirror the minimum expectations placed upon local authorities by the Union.
It is wise to compare the rates paid to teachers by each agency.
Prior to undertaking an assignment with an agency, it is also important to confirm the basis on which you will be paid by the agency, e.g. on an hourly, sessional, or daily rate basis. This is important because where you are contracted on an hourly rate, you may not be paid for any time you are not undertaking teaching.
The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations sets legal minimum standards for agency workers that must be adhered to by employment agencies. This involves providing and agreeing information about pay, including when and how much a supply teacher will be paid.
In an attempt to address the multiple ways that you can be paid as a supply teacher working through an agency, since April 2020, supply agencies have been legally obliged to provide a Key Information Document (‘KID’).
This should be short and easy to understand and contain key pay-related facts before you sign on with an agency, including the rate of pay or the minimum rate of pay you can expect to receive, which could include reference to the National Minimum Wage.
In addition, the KID must include a sample statement of what happens to the money they have agreed to pay you. This must be a reasonably realistic estimate.
Under the provisions of the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), where you have been working in the same role with the same school/employer for at least 12 weeks, you have a right to be paid on the same basis as other teachers employed by the school/employer. The amount you will be paid will depend on the pay policy of the employer. You can request a copy of the pay policy of the school/employer at any time.
Where the pay policy is unclear or is not provided upon request, members should contact NASUWT for advice and support.
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