The main interest for schools and colleges in this area is the use of agencies for supply teachers and other education staff. In the vast majority of cases these agency workers will be fulfilling a genuinely temporary role. We are keen to understand, therefore, how these proposals will work for those agency works who are covering inherently temporary work.

The primary employment relationship of the agency worker will be with the employment agency and that should inform how government determines where responsibility lies for fulfilling the aims of the proposed legislative changes.

We note the proposals around legislating on compensation and related matters. These are usually considered contractual issues and we are not convinced there is a need to micro-legislate in this area. On the contrary, we are concerned that this has the potential to create unintended consequences and unnecessary administrative burdens for schools and colleges.

It is ASCL’s view that any additional employer costs which fall to schools and colleges as a result of the Employment Rights Bill must be covered through increases to funding. As public sector bodies, schools and colleges are not able to pass any associated costs on to ‘customers’ and it is not acceptable that these costs should come at the expense of the education of children and young people.

Full response to consultation