The government is currently drawing up a quality kitemark for supply teacher agencies, Professional Recruiter has learned.

The scheme, due to be introduced next September, would raise the standard and quality of supply teaching, the DfES claimed.

A consultation document, 'Supply Teachers – Meeting the Challenge' issued earlier this year made a number of suggestions on how to raise standards in supply teaching. The proposed quality mark system would ‘recognise those supply teaching agencies and LEAs that demonstrate good practice in the recruitment, placement, monitoring and support of supply teachers,’ said a DfES spokesperson.

The REC welcomed the initiative. ‘The kitemark scheme would build on the code of conduct that the REC already has,’ said external relations director Marcia Roberts. ‘It would be awarded to agencies that operate effectively and properly.’

But the REC warned that schools also need to improve their treatment of supply teachers: ‘Many supply teachers are not inducted properly when they go into the schools - for example, not being told where a class is in the syllabus or what children have special education needs,’ said Roberts. ‘We are lobbying for a proper induction at the school end, so that they can go in and be effective from day one.’

A kitemark system would help raise the profile of private recruiters, according to MD of The Supply Desk, Stephen Petherbridge: ‘The bad practices of some agencies has caused schools to lose trust in all of us. An accreditation system would go some way to ensuring that those who provide a good service are recognised for it.’

The quality mark will not be mandatory, but will enable schools and individual teachers to be ‘confident’ that the relevant agency is ‘adhering to proper standards’, said the DfES. Private agencies that achieve the mark will gain access to funds to train supply teachers if they work in conjunction with an LEA.

The DfES is currently drawing up the benchmarks for achieving the standard. Criteria are likely to include recruitment policies, rigorous reference and other checks, provision of training and sound knowledge of the education system, with systems in place to support both schools’ and teachers’ needs.