Commenting on the publication of the Department for Education’s Use of Supply Teachers in Schools report, Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said:
 
“The publication of this report by the DfE confirms what the NASUWT has known and campaigned on for a number of years – namely that the supply teacher market in England is broken and is in desperate need of fixing. The ever increasing role played by supply agencies and market forces has failed schools, but most importantly supply teachers, whose pay and terms and conditions have significantly diminished year-on-year in comparison to their permanent counterparts.  

“The new Government now has the job of addressing this as a matter of urgency, as part of a package of measures to address the profound crisis in the education system.

“The issues for supply teachers cannot be ignored any longer, and must be given serious consideration as part of a coordinated and coherent national Workforce Plan to tackle the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, to lift morale, and to raise the status of supply teachers within the teaching profession.”