Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure an adequate provision of supply teachers in schools.

Supply teachers perform a valuable role and the department is grateful for their important contribution to schools across the country.

Schools and local authorities are currently responsible for the recruitment of their supply teachers and are best placed to make decisions on their approach to recruitment.

There are various approaches to providing supply teachers, such as using supply agencies.

The department, in conjunction with the Crown Commercial Service, has established the agency supply deal, which supports schools to obtain value for money when hiring agency supply teachers and other temporary school staff. More information on the agency supply deal can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/deal-for-schools-hiring-supply-teachers-and-agency-workers.