How stringent are supply agencies..

[doesjonsnowneedadirewolf]

Morning,
May I ask how stringent teacher supply agencies are regarding DBS checks and references?

Idly wondering as someone of my acquaintance (QT) who has had issues in each and every school he has worked in thinks that he will get offered work easily. I know he will not get references from his past two schools (he has disclosed that, not idle gossip) and he hasn't secured any perm. teaching roles since his last post ended under a cloud and rather abruptly. I just wondered how stringent checks are.

No idea about references, but I doubt he'd get anywhere without a clear DBS! Has he got anything on his DBS? Also, what on earth is he doing that he won't get a reference? That must be quite bad, especially as there's such a shortage of teachers. You'd have to do some pretty bad stuff to get sacked. Sounds like he's a difficult character to work with!

I guess it may vary from region to region and agency to agency, but the last time I did supply (Sep-Dec 2017) the agencies were up against it, the rates of pay were the same or worse as 7 years previous, and they were so desperate to get staff into schools that they were putting a lot of pressure on qualified teachers to take cover supervisor pay, etc etc. They claimed that pressure on school budgets meant that a lot of schools are covering teacher absence with internal cover supervisors rather than agency staff because they are so much cheaper.

I dunno about references but they wouldn't let you work for them before seeing DBS, and each individual school wanted to see it too.

Agencies also try to get feedback from each individual school on each individual member of staff, so your acquaintance is going to have to keep his nose clean or he'll be at the bottom of the call list pretty quickly. And of course, the school can send him home any time they like.

It’s easy to get a gig once, but if you are a PITA you don’t get asked back. The school can choose to block you, so the agency won’t send you there, or they can request a replacement. Plus staff/heads talk to each other so after a while, he may end up travelling way out of his area. My agency likes to think they provide reliable, professional staff.
Does he teach a shortage subject?

He will need a reference and DBS. I doubt they will refuse to give a reference but it will just be dates of employment. Although if he is leaving every teaching post under a cloud he might not get into schools other than one off days which isn’t well paid.

It is pretty bad - erupting at colleagues and kids alike, lots of parental complaints , arguements aggressive..
In short lots - there's trouble around him on a different note outside of school (he's a neighbour) Police involvement and impending court appearance , nothing to do with kids I hasten to add . But there is violence and whilst I don't think he'll go down I'm pretty are the caution would be on record

We had a supply teacher long term at our school. He did a good job, although not popular with all.

Was offered a full time position and we took up references. He was asked never to come back again as there was some pretty dodgy stuff on there.

Having worked through an agency it's pretty standard to ask for a dbs certificate. Lots of agencies request their own also.

They’ve tightened up a hell of a lot in recent times. I was re-registering for supply for the academic year just gone (I’ve buggered off back to university to retrain now) and I needed the obvious DBS and exam certificates fully checked out, references and proof of what I’d been doing for all gaps on my CV. Since I’ve been out of the workforce for years having my own children that proved problematic and I got round it to the satisfaction of being able to be cleared to work via having things like child benefit letters and birth certificates for my children to prove the dates on their arrival and my economic inactivity matched up and then I’d done a LOT of voluntary work in my own kids’ school to get SMT there to provide references as to my character/competence. It was still a bit borderline if I would get cleared to work at one point - but the fact I’d had a previous many-years work history with the agency in question made things a bit easier in that regard. If my own kids’ school hadn’t been as helpful as they were in terms of letting me get some up to date experience (and figure out how they’d ruddy well changed Maths since I’d been off) I would have been snookered completely!

Then if my working lapsed for 3 months I would have had to be re-cleared with fresh references and DBS as well.

I spent several years recruiting education staff. Without two years full references and a DBS I wouldn't place. Two or more agreed references would be a huge red flag for me too.

It is stringent but may depend on the agency. I always have to re-register after a period of inactivity and provide references. You absolutely need a DBS.

Interesting and reassuring. It doesn't appear to be as easy as he thinks it will be.... he was very smug about supply agencies being less than stringent. He should not be anywhere near vulnerable teens. A view those who have worked unanimously agree on.

The problem is with characters like this, they often move on before their activities catch up with them.

IME, some supply agencies will take someone on with just a DBS and an out of date reference, but for longer term supply, schools do their own safer recruitment checks, which he would fail without references.

I found they were very strict when I signed up last year. They wanted an up-to-date DBS obviously and as I didn’t have a recent reference they rang the county where I was last employed, they rang my headteacher from ten years ago and the person I had named as a character reference.

When I couldn’t work for a few months but wanted to return, they wanted another reference!

I don’t think they would employ anyone with a dodgy background although it might depend on the agency.