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Supply teachers and temporary staffing

Blog
The YPO Team
27 Jun 2024

Recruitment into schools is such a challenge right now, and it’s a crucial time for children’s education that they have access to all lessons with minimal disruption.

We understand the struggles schools face when finding the right supply teacher. We’re here to help you make the most of our Department of Education-approved framework, which will make supply teacher and temporary staffing a breeze.

Plan

Be proactive and prepare in advance. Understand who your current suppliers are, what you spend with them and how your charges are broken down. It’s always a good idea to sit down and get to know an agency. Every agency has strengths and quirks; understanding them will help make your life much easier when finding the right supply teacher.

Types of Workers

Any worker can be sourced through the framework, including:

• Teachers: qualified, unqualified and tutors
• Educational support staff: supervisors and teaching assistants
• Senior roles: head teachers and senior leaders
• Other roles: invigilators, admin, clerical, finance, IT, cleaners, maintenance and more.

Savings

This framework was created to reduce spending in this category by aggregating spending, leveraging buying power, and putting schools on even footing with suppliers. We want to help schools generate savings through competitive, compliant, and audited suppliers.

The framework also benefits from reduced mark-ups for ‘nominated’ workers, regulated mark-ups for other workers, and free transfer to permanent (temp-to-perm) after 12 weeks in post, subject to 4 weeks’ notice.

Transparency

The framework offers complete transparency of costs to help give you a clear picture of where your money is going, including how much the worker is getting paid each day and how much the agency or supplier is taking. You can be confident that you are choosing the most cost-effective option and potentially greater savings.

Flexible solution

The framework has been created to meet your needs. You can direct award to one or multiple agencies through the Preferred Suppliers List (Lot 1) or undertake a direct award or further competition for a Master Vendor Managed Service provider (Lot 2) or a bespoke Education Technology Platform service provider that connects you directly with workers (Lot 4). We can fully support you on any of these solutions.

Preferred suppliers list

You can hire temporary and fixed-term workers directly from a recruitment agency. The list has over 100 suppliers, with 90% being SMEs.
Identify which of your current suppliers are on this list and obtain data from them on supply during the academic year. Then, you can request rates under the framework to identify potential cost savings. Consider alternative agencies that operate in your area and the value that they could provide—not just financial value! You can use the online digital tool to find a full list of agencies and search for local agencies, or ask us, and we can do it for you.

Master vendor

If you are a Trust or group of schools, consider if you could benefit from a master vendor (single recruitment agency) who can manage all your temporary staffing requirements through a managed service. The recruitment agency will use their supply chain of other agencies to meet your staffing needs where needed.

This is a good solution if you have a high volume of vacancies and are managing vacancies for several schools or supply agencies. Each supplier offers a technology solution, which means you can manage your requirements online but still have a close partnership with the agency.

Accredited suppliers

All suppliers are audited and accredited by 1 of 4 approved industry bodies – operating at or above industry standard

Compliance checks

Keeping your students and staff safe and ensuring quality education are paramount. All workers must satisfy robust pre-employment and safeguarding checks that provide peace of mind (in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education standards).

Terms and conditions

The framework offers standard and consistent Terms and Conditions written in a school’s favour and a simple order form, meaning you can focus your energy elsewhere knowing that your temporary staffing is taken care of.

Explore the framework here to learn more about our supply teachers & temporary staff solutions.

Explore YPO’s complete contracts for schools offering here.

Author

The YPO Team

YPO supplies products and services to a wide range of customers including schools, local authorities, charities, emergency services, public sector and other businesses such as nurseries and care homes. YPO are 100% publicly owned, by 13 local authorities, which means the profits made are returned to public sector customers, delivering even better value for money.