Contract for supply / cover teacher - General - HR in Schools and Academies

4 Contract for supply / cover teacher

1 May, 2018 13:49

Hi everyone

I'm putting together a contract of employment for cover / supply teachers for an independent school (not LA or via an agency).

I feel inclined to add to the contract that each period of 'work' ie covering will be a separate period of employment and therefore there will be no continuity of employment where there are gaps of a week or more between assignments. With me so far - feedback welcome on this!

The issue I have is, if they are separate period of employment, does the School have to carry out right to work checks, DBS checks etc on EVERY occasion, or can the checks be referred to (depending on the length of time between assignments).

Advice on how others deal with employed cover teachers is welcome.

Many thanks

Joanne

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Nina Waters | 0 Posts

3 May, 2018 12:26

Would a zero hours contract be a better way to handle it, perhaps renewed annually? You could then put them on the DBS update service, to ensure that if there's a 3 month+ gap between assignments that you're covered on their checks.
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Joanne | 0 Posts

8 May, 2018 10:53

In reply to Nina Waters:
Thanks Nina for your comment - good idea.

Do you agree that there is no continuity of service between periods of work?

Jo
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Steve Bridger | 0 Posts

Community Manager

8 May, 2018 11:08

This must be a very common occurrence within schools, so I'm a little surprised there isn't a well-trodden path for this scenario.

Would be good to hear from others.
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Nina Waters | 0 Posts

8 May, 2018 13:07

In reply to Joanne:
If you renew the zero hours contract annually (so each starts in September and ends in July) you'll have at least a six week break every year. As long as you are clear that the continuous service date is the same as the contract date, I don't think you'd create continuity - but you'd still only need to do the checks each year.
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