4. Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: Supply Teaching Model

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:32 pm on 6 December 2022.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 3:32, 6 December 2022

Well, I thank the Member for the questions. I'm not sure what the Member has as a positive alternative to suggest to the matters that I outlined. If she has a practical, positive proposal to make, in this, or indeed any other area of education policy, I'm very interested in hearing it. But we exchange in these question sessions, and in debates, routinely, and I never hear a positive alternative to what the Government is bringing forward. 

I think I outlined in my statement the areas where we are working, and it is a complex area. And there are limitations, as I'm sure the Member will appreciate, on a devolved Government's ability to move freely in an area that is often constrained in the context of employment terms and conditions. She will also know that agency law itself is not devolved. And, so, there are constraints that come with that, which she may not fully appreciate in the context of her particular question. I would like us to be in a position where the devolution settlement allowed us as a Government a wider range of options. However, I think the three-pronged approach, which we've been working together with Plaid Cymru on, which I've outlined in my statement, goes to the heart of the challenges that supply teachers tell us that they face within the limitations of the devolution settlement that we have. 

Crucially, the booking platform enables there to be a public sector employment option for supply teachers. That's what we certainly want to see, and I know that's what Plaid Cymru also wants to see. I'm not sure if that is what the Member wants to see as a Conservative. We are at a point today where we can outline the principles that underpin that. So, it allows teachers to be employed in schools by local authorities, and to do that in a flexible way, which supply teachers often want to have. So, it recognises that there are particular dimensions to the employment patterns of supply teachers that mean that you need a flexible way of doing this. 

My hope, my ambition—and, I think, that of Plaid Cymru as well, but perhaps Heledd Fychan may speak to this—is that we have a situation where the booking platform is the appealing alternative to working through the agency route, and that becomes the model that is then prevalent across Wales. I think that is absolutely possible in what we're planning today, what we're announcing today. I want to see a position where the mix of the three alternative approaches, or three complementary approaches, actually, that are outlined in the statement, lead us to that position where supply teachers have a better deal, the opportunity of direct employment through a public sector employer, and then access to the greater securities and better terms and conditions that that brings.