Schools are only hiring new permanent staff “as a last resort” and are instead taking on more supply teachers, according to a new survey.
Research by the employment provider giant group suggests that long-term joblessness for supply teachers is falling, as schools’ concerns over budgets lead them to seek temporary solutions to staffing issues. Roughly 90 per cent of supply teachers are spending less than a month between contracts, compared to 83 per cent over the same period last year.
“Schools are having to keep a very close eye on their budgets, which means permanent headcount is under the microscope”, says giant’s Managing Director Matthew Brown. “Even those schools that have not implemented formal freezes are making permanent hires only as a last resort because their budgets are being squeezed.”
