How are schools and academy trusts reducing their temp staffing Covid-19 risk?
It is a cruel fact, people get ill during pandemics, no news there, however, schools reducing their staffing risk during the pandemic is news.
Staffing risks for schools is high with parents, children, teachers, suppliers, and external supply staff all coming into schools increasing the potential infection rate.
Headteachers are doing a brilliant job keeping staff and children safe. Implementing new procedures and policies with plenty more to be contending with.
One of these policies covers internal teaching, support staff, cleaning and catering staff, doing the “right thing” to protect children and colleagues. Doing the right thing often means going into self-isolation.
Self-isolation leaves staffing gaps, when schools often and by increasing necessity reach out to alternative supply sources for suitably skilled staff to step into the void.
Inevitably external supply staff increase the risk of infection. This is especially true where schools have little knowledge of who that person is, where they worked in the recent past. Nor do they know if the person is going to be successful in the role.
This means school not only have unfamiliar people turning up at the school, there is also uncertainty about their capability. Not meeting the required standards can lead to yet further problems, which headteachers could certainly do without.
Headteachers have enough on their hands without being sent supply staff that do not know the school, its policies and procedures and may bring additional issues too.
Schools and supply staff choice and control
Thankfully, schools are now managing their own pools of external supply staff, who they know and like from any of the agencies they prefer working with.
But rather than being told this is the person you will be getting by agencies; the better-informed schools are selecting staff they know and want from within their own network of supply staff contacts. Having selected the best applicants schools confirm this to any preferred mutual agencies.
Schools are managing their external supply staff far better by knowing their availability, offering work directly and putting them into specific bubbles for when they are needed in the future.
One of the great aspects of the Updatedge free software s that schools and workers get 100% choice. That 100%, means being able to connect with anyone, across any agencies. Enabling schools and supply staff to be far better informed, and to transparently select what is best for them.
It’s great for agencies too, as their clients and candidates are self-selecting, owing to the transparency provided by the Updatedge platform. This means far better-informed choices, far happier schools and candidates and a lot less admin running around attempting to match candidates to school vacancies.
Schools and candidates connecting directly with each other reduces risk from unknown supply staff being allocated. It reduces uncertainty, reduces anxiety, and removes headaches for the schools, supply teachers and agencies.
Available now for use by any schools, and agencies via the self-service portal. Available now for supply staff to download the free mobile app from the App store and Google play store to start connecting with preferred schools and agencies.