Question reference: S5W-34605
- Asked by: Beatrice Wishart, MSP for Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 15 January 2021
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Current status: Answered by John Swinney on 22 January 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the agreement reached with the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers in April 2020, whether further support will be made available for supply teachers.
Answer
Pay and conditions of service for teachers are matters for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT).
The SNCT is currently considering whether further support will be required. The Scottish Government would expect that additional supply teachers will be required to support remote learning and Covid education recovery.
We have already provided £75m to enable local authorities to recruit an additional 1400 teachers and on 13 January £45 million of new funding was announced to further support education recovery.
This new funding will allow local authorities to deploy more support to their schools and families as they deal with the challenges of remote learning during lockdown. The new funding can be used to recruit further staff - which might include teachers, classroom assistants, administrative staff, home/school link workers or other support workers. We would therefore expect more supply teachers to be recruited where they are needed to support education recovery.