Authority seeks to tackle supply crisis in education

Durham County Council is hoping to woo more people back into teaching with courses to bring their skills up to date and promising more of a professional status and career structure.

It follows The Northern Echo's exclusive report yesterday, which revealed how a County Durham headteacher had been forced to send 200 pupils home on three separate days, because he could not find enough supply staff.

Paul McHugh, headteacher of Easington Community School, said he had had no alternative but to send the pupils home, after struggling to find cover for up to 15 staff who were off sick.

His plight is a familiar story to many headteachers across the region.

Durham County Council already keeps a register of supply teachers to which schools can turn.

But now the authority plans to launch an in-house agency of "super" supply teachers, funded on a pay-as-you-use basis by schools.

Education director Keith Mitchell said the need for supply teachers to provide cover for staff sickness, those on training courses and vacancies was overwhelming.

"It can mean that supply teachers coming into a school to provide cover in a particular area have no real training or experience in it, so the role they fulfill is little more than classroom supervision," he said.

"We will be offering free training in current and new strategies and best practices, so supply teachers' skills are on a par with their full-time counterparts."

The scheme will be introduced for primary schools initially, with plans to extend it to secondary and special school sectors. Supply teachers finding work through the agency will be paid the full teachers' rates.

"This is not a for-profit organisation," said Mr Mitchell.

"I am confident that this initiative will achieve qualitative and quantitative improvements in the provision of supply teachers in County Durham."

The council has begun advertising for recruits and aims to have the pool in place by September.