The Government is asking former teachers who have the skills and
time to return to the classroom to sign up from today,
Monday 20 December.
The Omicron variant is expected to continue to cause increased
staff absence levels in the spring term, and some local areas may
struggle to find sufficient numbers of supply teachers
available unless former staff come forward.
It remains important the same comprehensive checks go ahead as
they always would for anyone working with
children. Potential teachers are therefore encouraged to get
the process started as soon as possible and ideally before
Christmas Eve to be ready to join the workforce from January.
Those who are recently retired, or trained as a teacher and moved
career, are asked to consider whether they can find even a day a
week for the spring term to help protect face-to-face education.
Targeted communications will begin to go out from today across a
range of government, stakeholder and direct channels to encourage
those eligible to apply.
Education Secretary said:
“It has been my absolute priority since day one in the role to do
everything in my power to protect education – which is why today
I am asking any teachers no longer in the profession to come
forward if they are available to temporarily fill absences in the
new year.
“Although 99.9% of schools have consistently been open this term,
with cases of Omicron increasing we must make sure schools and
colleges have the teachers available to remain open for
face-to-face education.
“Anyone who thinks they can help should get the process
started now on the Get Into Teaching
website, and everyone should get boosted now to help reduce
the amount of disruption from the virus in the new year.”
Supply teacher agencies across the country will continue to
manage local supply and demand to help make sure schools and
colleges do not need to close as a result of lack of staff.
Former teachers are encouraged to approach
those agencies identified on the sign up page as being
registered on the Government’s framework. This guarantees fair
business practices and the agency’s support in completing
pre-employment checks to ensure they can be placed in
schools and colleges as soon as possible, but those
eligible can approach any agency they prefer.
The Government is providing social media and communications
support to schools and colleges, trusts, local
authorities, teaching unions, supply teacher agencies, and
sector organisations such as Teach First to help
them engage with their networks and contact databases to
reach those who are most likely to be able to answer the
Education Secretary’s call.
The Government will also be working to reach former teachers
through its own communications channels, including through Get
Into Teaching, the Teacher Pension Scheme and internet
search advertising.
Department for Education staff eligible to come forward will be
released to do so, as long as they are not working on the
Department’s own covid response.
The Disclosure and Barring Service has confirmed it will be ready
to meet any spikes in demand for its service, continuing to meet
its current turnaround times of 80% of Enhanced Checks issued
within 14 days, of which 30% are issued
within a day.
The Government is also working with Teach First to explore how
those of their alumni who have trained as teachers but currently
work outside the profession could make
a temporary return to the classroom to support the
resilience of the wider school workforce in the new year.
Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First said:
“Teachers have gone above and beyond throughout the pandemic,
doing an inspirational job to support their pupils and
communities in the face of adversity. Yet the disruption to
school life and extended periods at home mean pupils’ education
has inevitably suffered, particularly for those from
disadvantaged backgrounds.
“Given the challenges that schools now face, we want to see what
more can be done to help – including how we, and those of
our alumni who have trained as teachers but currently work
outside the profession, may be able to support schools to
remain open safely in the New Year.”
Many areas are also facing pressures with high absence among
social care staff. A temporary register was set up
in March 2020 during the first peak of the
pandemic to support former social workers to return to
frontline practice. Any social worker who left the
profession in the previous two years, was fit
to practise and had not opted
out was automatically added. Those individuals who
remain on the temporary register are encouraged to contact their
local authority children’s social care team or sign up with a
local agency if they can support at this time.
It remains vital for everyone to get their primary and booster
vaccination doses as soon as possible to help stem the spread of
Omicron, reducing the number of absences faced by schools and
across education in the New Year.
