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An exciting new project to end the supply teacher agencies’ race to the bottom
STEVE HANDFORD introduces a co-operative in northern England that could be a massive win-win for the working class and for schools currently being fleeced by employment agencies
NICOLA SARAH HAWKINS explains how an under-regulated introduction of AI into education is already exacerbating inequalities
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While Hardie, MacDonald and Wilson faced down war pressure from their own Establishment, today’s leadership appears to have forgotten that opposing imperial adventures has historically defined Labour’s moral authority, writes KEITH FLETT
TUC Midlands marks 20 years of celebrating the 1910 chainmakers’ victory with a festival that connects historical lessons to modern struggles — because working-class history should inspire action, not just nostalgia, writes STUART RICHARDS
BEING made redundant from a national educational charity in 2014 was a monumental change in lifestyle for me.
After six years of teaching in mainstream and a career in the third sector spanning 15 years, I was suddenly at the bottom again. I went from boardroom to teacher supply agency in 24 hours flat.
In 2014 I received work from a small agency in Newcastle almost immediately, and with a daily rate of £160, things didn’t seem so bad.
Quickly I was employed at a local sixth-form college as an access course lecturer and negotiated my pay to £29,000.
This was a decent, liveable wage for a single dad with two kids, and I was returning to the profession after a break.
However, after a college merger, as a fixed-term contract holder, I was out of work again and back to the agencies.
“No worries,” I thought, the pay was decent before, so it must be similar or a bit better by now. Right?
But I was gobsmacked to learn it had plummeted. Capita was employing teachers like me for £100 a day. And in order to gain experience as an LSA in a special school I took £87 a day to work with some of the most challenging children in our schools.
How could pay have dropped like a stone for supply? Simple. The market had depressed wages through agency profiteering.
They were top-slicing more and more in fees. This left desperate supply teachers to compete with each other for the lowest rates.
Eventually, I found another short-term college job and ended up in a special school on a full-time contract, but the awful injustice of falling wages continued to bother me. If I went back on to supply what could I expect now? £100 a day? £90?
It seems the greed of our crony capitalists has infected everything. And teaching is no different. It was amazing and encouraging to hear that the NEU has begun a tentative scheme to fight back against agency workers regulations (AWR).
AWR is a charter for the state monopolies to pocket exorbitant fees, avoid paying pensions and benefits, and to remain democratically unaccountable. The NEU northern regional office (NRO) is currently setting up what it calls the North of Tyne Combined Authority Supply Teachers Co-operative Project.
A bit of a mouthful, but this is essentially a union supply agency in the making. Its mission is to bypass the rip-off agencies.
An outline plan exists to begin operations in September 2022 or even earlier if possible. Once the agency proves successful, as I hope it will, then operating profits can be reinvested to fund worker benefit packages and pension contributions.
This would be a massive win-win for the working class and for schools currently being fleeced by employment agencies.
The NEU is putting together some of its best organisers and lay people to help build this hugely important, pioneering scheme as a co-operative.
The vision for the project is of a digital matching service to ensure the right people land in the right supply roles. If it can work in the north of England it could be rolled out nationally and help to drive standards of employment for educational supply workers back up again from the floor, where the agencies would have them languish for profit.
Clearly this will be challenging proposition, with the need to attract capital investors interested more in long-term investment than short-term gain.
The agency will have to show it can drive up outcomes for the most vulnerable to maximise its funding and start-up chances.
Once off the ground I cannot see why any school would prefer to use an unaccountable monopoly to source its most important assets.
I for one hope that this scheme realises the potential it deserves: for the good of our children, teachers, schools, local authorities and the nation as a whole.
It is time to stop levelling down. Unions are fighting back and leading the way in so many different strands of our lives. This one has promise to be a real success story. And we should all back it to the hilt.
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