TY - JOUR
T1 - Private sector provision of supply teachers
T2 - A case of legal swings and professional roundabouts
AU - Grimshaw, Damian
AU - Earnshaw, Jill
AU - Hebson, Gail
N1 - Funding Information:
3. The 3-year research project associated with this paper was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council ‘Future of Work Programme’, grant number L212252038. The project investigates ‘changing organizational forms and the reshaping of work’. It involves a number of in-depth case studies of a variety of organizational forms, including franchises, employment agencies, Private Finance Initiatives, partnerships, supply chain relationships, and outsourcing. The full research team is Mick Marchington, Jill Rubery, Hugh Willmott, Jill Earnshaw, Damian Grimshaw, Irena Grugulis, John Hassard, Marilyn Carroll, Fang Lee Cooke, Gail Hebson, and Steven Vincent.
PY - 2003/5
Y1 - 2003/5
N2 - The increasing role of private sector agencies in the provision of supply teachers across Britain's schools raises three inter-related issues that need to be addressed during the current process of re-assessing the medium and long-term viability of this policy option. First, there is a danger that educational concerns and equity of teaching provision across schools conflict with the private sector concern to maximize agency revenue. Secondly, the legal definition of the agency as 'employer' and supply teacher as 'self employed' leaves many unanswered questions regarding how the employment relationship is defined and managed in practice; ambiguities over whether the school or the agency bears the risk and the extent to which the supply teacher is free to bargain individual terms and conditions, raise problems regarding quality of supply teaching and equity of status of supply teachers compared to permanently employed teachers. Thirdly, increased use of the contract as a means of delivering teaching potentially conflicts with longstanding notions of what constitutes professional duties and obligations among teachers - factors that are difficult to write into a contract. This paper explores these issues drawing on 60 interviews with a mix of supply teachers, school teachers, and employees from two branches of a large teacher agency. It concludes that new models of providing temporary teaching cover are needed both to address problems of escalating costs and quality standards and to enshrine common notions of professionalism and equity of terms and conditions among all teachers.
AB - The increasing role of private sector agencies in the provision of supply teachers across Britain's schools raises three inter-related issues that need to be addressed during the current process of re-assessing the medium and long-term viability of this policy option. First, there is a danger that educational concerns and equity of teaching provision across schools conflict with the private sector concern to maximize agency revenue. Secondly, the legal definition of the agency as 'employer' and supply teacher as 'self employed' leaves many unanswered questions regarding how the employment relationship is defined and managed in practice; ambiguities over whether the school or the agency bears the risk and the extent to which the supply teacher is free to bargain individual terms and conditions, raise problems regarding quality of supply teaching and equity of status of supply teachers compared to permanently employed teachers. Thirdly, increased use of the contract as a means of delivering teaching potentially conflicts with longstanding notions of what constitutes professional duties and obligations among teachers - factors that are difficult to write into a contract. This paper explores these issues drawing on 60 interviews with a mix of supply teachers, school teachers, and employees from two branches of a large teacher agency. It concludes that new models of providing temporary teaching cover are needed both to address problems of escalating costs and quality standards and to enshrine common notions of professionalism and equity of terms and conditions among all teachers.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0344197714&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02680930305574
DO - 10.1080/02680930305574
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0344197714
SN - 0268-0939
VL - 18
SP - 267
EP - 288
JO - JOURNAL OF EDUCATION POLICY
JF - JOURNAL OF EDUCATION POLICY
IS - 3
ER -