Is it the responsibility of the class teacher to organise their own cover?

[LittleMama22]

Hello,
My husband is a teacher and often has to leave his class to take other children on sporting events as he is the PE lead.
He is currently at work and unable to ring his union so I thought I’d check with you knowledgable lot!

He has had two days out of the classroom this week and both times has had to find cover for himself in school. Today he has had to phone a supply agency. He assumed that SLT would do this for him - they did say they would! But this has been happening all year now.

It just seems like it’s an added stress for him and not something he should be sorting for himself. I don’t work in a school so I’m not sure though!

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

I'm not sure of the union guidance (I imagine it a very clear no!) but that sounds absolutely ridiculous and it should absolutely not be his responsibility to ring around to arrange someone to cover.

He should set cover work for planned absences, but beyond that it is not his responsibility. I've never known this in any school I have worked in.

Tell him not to organise it next time - as long as he sets cover work he is fulfilling his responsibility. The rest is up to admin/office/SLT so it won't be his problem when he is away on a sports fixture, and perhaps when they have got a class with no teacher then they might actually step up and do their job!

Absolutely not. I’ve never heard anything of the sort!

Definitely definitely not! This would be unheard of in my school. At worst, if I know I’m on a course or something I might have to chase the person who sorts cover and ask a couple of times who I need to handover too, but I would never be expected to actually sort it myself. Im not surprised this is if an added stress for him!

Thats what SLT are for

It is usual to book supply through the office staff, once it has been ok’d by SLT. You absolutely shouldn’t be doing it yourself - it is an admin task. At my current school there is a ‘supply diary’ online, and you put the dates/time needed into that and the office admin then books what is needed. If supply isn’t allowed (as is often the case during these budget-restricted times) then it is up to SLT to organise cover within the school.

Thank you everyone! I have passed on your advice and support to him. Hopefully he can make a change!

This was one of the reasons I left a school. I forwarded cover work to the admin assistant in charge of arranging cover for a planned hospital appointment and was asked who I’d arranged to cover my lessons! This was on the morning of my appointment! As if I wasn’t already stressed enough! I replied saying I hadn’t as it wasn’t my job and I received a message from an assistant head telling me that it was my responsibility and was always the way it has been done. This was the first I’d heard of it in the 10 years I’d been there! Typical gaslighting SLT bollocks! I got the union involved and he confirmed that this had never been the case and was definitely not my job. What some schools try to get away with is ridiculous!

Absolutely not his responsibility. It's his responsibility to inform SLT of when he will require cover, but not his responsibility to organise. At our school, any cover requests get passed on to admin to sort. They'll check the timetables of our HLTAs first, and most of our cover is provided by them, but if it can't be then the office staff will contact a supply agency.

Totally normal to ‘set’ the cover. Not at all normal to ‘book’ it!

The cover coordinator organisers the cover staffing and the absent teacher sets their own cover work (unless they have their head in a bucket, in which case it's the head of department).