§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many(a) agency teachers and (b) teachers on contracts of one term or less are employed in schools in England and Wales. [154153]
§ Ms Estelle Morris[holding answer 16 March 2001]There were 4,800 agency supply teachers on a contract of less than one month in the maintained schools sector in
159WEngland working for the whole of the survey date of 20 January 2000. There were a further 11,860 non-agency supply teachers on contracts of less than one month.
At January 2000 there were 750 full-time teachers (including agency teachers) employed on a fixed term contract of one month and less than one term in the maintained nursery, primary and secondary sector in England. Agency teachers on contracts of one month or more are not identified centrally.
Information for Wales is the responsibility of the National Assembly for Wales.
A number of factors may have affected the demand for short term supply teachers in January 2000 including the requirement for schools to give teachers in their induction year a 10 per cent. reduction in timetable, and a flu epidemic that some education authorities reported.
The number of regular teachers (excluding short term supply teachers) in the maintained schools sector in England in January 2000 was 404,600, the highest for 10 years, and 6,900 higher than January 1998.
There was a growth of more than 2,300 in the number of people training to be teachers between 1999–2000 and 2000–01, the first such increase since 1992–93.
From April 2001 new graduate recruits can expect to earn £17,000 a year (up 6 per cent. from the previous year) and starting salaries in Inner London will rise to £20,000 (up 9 per cent. from the previous year).