TEACHERS will lobby the London office of one of Britain’s largest supply teaching agencies on Wednesday, to highlight the “gross profiteering and exploitation at the heart of the UK’s broken supply model.”
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) and general secretary Daniel Kebede will gather outside Teaching Personnel from 12.30 pm, along with street theatre performers and singers.
Research by the union shows that the eight leading supply agencies are making huge profits as schools are in crisis, with a combined turnover of £436.6 million in their most recent annual accounts, up to November 30, 2022.
This is an increase of 39 per cent from the year before.
Teaching Personnel made up the bulk of the total, with a turnover of more than £141.1m.
Their combined gross profits also rose by 55 per cent to more than £100m compared to the previous year, though this was highest for Affinity Workforce Solutions which saw a whopping 94 per cent rise.
Mr Kebede said: “Teaching Personnel is a highly profitable business which employs many of our members while making staggering amounts for its owners and shareholders.
“It is backed by a private equity firm and its ultimate parent company is registered in Luxembourg, a tax haven.
“As our research shows, supply agencies, including Teaching Personnel, suck tens of millions of pounds from the school system in the form of profit each year.
“This is public money that should be for the benefit of our children’s education and hard-working education staff.”
Mr Kebede said that the union is “determined to stand up for our members who work in supply and to call out the injustice of a system which prioritises profit over the interests of children and staff.”
According to its website, Teaching Personnel says it is the “leading agency in the market,” providing staff “to over 5,000 schools” from its 80 branches.
Eight per cent of respondents to the NEU’s latest survey of supply teaching members indicated that they work through Teaching Personnel more than any other agency mentioned.
Teaching Personnel was approached for comment.
