From mid-2010, the London Borough of Hounslow will be working with Comensura Education to provide a service for schools to use to recruit supply staff.
Comensura Education is a unique service helping schools to quickly and easily obtain high quality, safeguarded temporary teaching and support staff. This innovative ‘umbrella’ service works with the highest quality educational supply agencies to deliver the right temporary staff to schools - every time.
The service is designed to be easily accessible, allowing schools to search for, and compare, available staff all in one place. It will also ensure the quality and eligibility of workers, and will provide a more efficient service with a quicker response time. This gives schools more control over the process by providing them with management information to help them plan their staffing needs.
This new service will allow schools to compare high quality temporary staff, put forward by multiple agencies or from existing supply banks, and choose the most suitable worker to fill the vacancy. Pay rate information will be provided upfront, helping schools to select the right staff on the basis of quality and value for money. In addition, schools that already use an existing temporary worker can continue to contact their existing supply agency to book the same worker (as long as the agency is approved to be on the system).
Every supply agency signed up to Comensura Education will meet strict safeguarding standards, and will be audited regularly to ensure that all safeguarding checks are carried out for every worker. Comensura Education allows schools to give feedback on all workers, enabling agencies to put only the best candidates forward for temporary vacancies. In addition, the service may also help school budgets stretch further as the up-front pricing feature encourages competitive agency rates and therefore better value supply staff for schools.
London Borough of Hounslow schools are eligible to sign up to Comensura Education. If you are a Hounslow school and interested in using this service please email: education@comensura.co.uk
or visit http://www.comensura.co.uk/education.html
Alternatively you can contact Richard Beddell, Head of Children’s Services Workforce Development on 020 8583 2686.
Please Note: Supply teachers undertaking Induction - It is the headteacher’s statutory responsibility to inform the appropriate body if an NQT who qualified after 7 May 1999, and who has not yet completed an induction period, either joins or leaves their school. This includes an NQT working in the school for one term or more on a supply basis. A supply agency should not take responsibility for an NQT's induction irrespective of the employment contract that the NQT holds with the school or the supply agency. As regards the financial support available to schools for induction, a supply teacher on a contract of one term or more should be treated in the same way as a permanent employee for the purposes of induction. There should therefore be no distinction between the support for an NQT employed through a conventional contract and for one who is employed for a term or more through a supply agency. It is the school’s responsibility to make the necessary financial arrangements with the appropriate body. (TDA March 2007)