Supply Teachers

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:22 pm on 25 November 2020.

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Photo of Alun Davies Alun Davies Labour 2:22, 25 November 2020

I'm grateful to you, Minister, for that. I'm aware that the Welsh Government has worked hard to ensure that there is a framework of support available for supply teachers throughout the whole country and throughout the year. But the Minister will also be aware that supply teachers have had a very difficult period throughout the last year with the pandemic and the impact it's had on their ability to gain work. But this reinforces a more fundamental problem with the system of supply teachers. We know that the fragmented system of private agencies means that there is no system for supply teachers to gain adequate work through the year. It may be that the most straightforward way of ensuring that we are able to support and sustain a workforce of supply teachers is to ensure that all local authorities have a local register of supply teachers to ensure that teachers are able to find work and that schools are able to find teachers, and to do so in a more coherent and structured way.