Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure schools provide casual directly employed workers with the same level of financial support as casual agency workers during the covid-19 outbreak.

Supply staff who are directly employed by schools, including supply staff employed on a casual basis, are able to receive financial support during the COVID-19 outbreak at the same level as casually employed agency staff.

We expect schools to ensure any employees funded by public money continue to be paid from their existing staff budgets, and not to furlough staff, in line with the HMRC guidance to public sector organisations: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.

The support available for casual directly employed staff is outlined in the ‘actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak’ guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-school-closures/guidance-for-schools-about-temporarily-closing#should-schools-continue-to-pay-contingent-workers-that-they-directly-employ-on-a-zero-hours-or-casual-basis.