This is How School Leaders are Dealing with their Omicron Staffing Absences

For the education sector, January 2022 may go down as one of the most difficult starts to a year in living memory. The Omicron variant – the latest incarnation of the coronavirus that has blighted education since 2020 – is battering schools’ workforce arrangements, with one in 12 teachers absent from English schools during the first week of term.

To fill these gaps and keep their gates open, schools have turned to supply agencies in huge numbers. As the UK’s leading presence in this field, Teaching Personnel is helping more schools than ever before deal with their staffing challenges.   

We wanted to find out about the realities of the situation that Britain’s schools are facing at the start of the spring term. To get the view from the ground, we sat down for a chat with Matt Coleman, Director of School Improvement at Nene Education Trust, a multi academy trust in Northamptonshire.

Nene Education Trust is a network of eight schools in the Wellingborough and East Northamptonshire area, with around 400 permanent members of staff working across these sites. Like many others, these schools have been hit by what Matt calls a “domino effect” of absences.

“The way the virus works is that, if one school gets a case, then it invariably has a domino effect”, Matt explains. Yet the experience has been intriguingly asymmetric across the Nene network. “Right now, at one of our schools, six out 13 teachers aren’t in because they have Covid, whereas other schools aren’t affected at all…yet”.

Even with recent data painting a rosier picture of falling infection rates, Matt does not expect that those currently-lucky schools will be spared the disruption of the Omicron variant. “We know that there are 100,000 cases daily on a national level. We’re nowhere near out of it yet, and in fact it’s still posing a massive challenge to us.”

When the virus comes knocking, Nene’s schools vary their approaches depending on the circumstances. In one early years setting where all the members of staff contracted Covid, a temporary, four-day switch to remote learning was the only option on the table. In less severe circumstances, supply agencies and a bit of strategic work to “rejig staffing within the school” are Matt’s preferred solutions to keep pupils learning face-to-face.

While supply may not suit every circumstance, it has certainly become a much more prominent feature across the Nene network. “I go into budget meetings where head teachers are getting hammered because their supply is way over budget”, Matt laughs.

Yet while each viral wave has resulted in a “clamour” for supply teachers, Matt is conscious of the need to be discerning about which agencies he works with. “The pandemic has benefited those supply agencies that understand their skillset and niche, who can make sure to partner the right person with the right school and get those relationships developing.

The pandemic has given Matt a clearer sense of his longer-term priorities when choosing supply partners. “It shouldn’t just be about convenience anymore. The supply agencies with the right culture and the right people-first approach are the ones which, from my perspective, I’m going to lean towards.”

Matt proposes that, by their nature, Covid staff absences have made it even more important that supply teachers as individuals are aligned with the schools they’re working in. “If you’ve got a Covid absence, then invariably you’ve got at least four or five days where you’ll need cover. So it’s not just someone going in for a day with your bag of tricks, before going onto the next school. You’re probably going to be there a bit longer, so you get a bit more immersed in the culture and values of the school.”

That question of matching values is the foundation of Nene Education Trust’s longstanding partnership with Teaching Personnel. Matt is effusive about that working relationship. “We’ve really benefited from linking up with Teaching Personnel because the values and ethos of the organisation really chime with what we believe across our MAT. There is a human link there”, he tells us.

That link is crucial for the success of our supply operation. In Matt’s telling, “one thing Teaching Personnel do really well is developing an awareness and knowledge of the schools in our organisation, so they can say with authority that this supply teacher will fit that school really well”.

Yet this link also extends well beyond the base-level work of placing candidates to fill gaps in their schools. “For me, the relationship with Teaching Personnel is not just about supply teachers”, Matt avers. “We use Teaching Personnel tutors for the National Tutoring Programme, and I know I can pick [Teaching Personnel’s] brains on things that are happening.”  

We pride ourselves on the many layers of mutual support we invest in with our partners like Nene. Matt has sat on the panels of several of our regular webinars for school leaders on the most relevant issues in education. Similarly, our Business Development Manager, Alison Lincoln, has gone into Nene schools to give career advice and guidance to Year 6 pupils.

As the education sector emerges from Omicron’s acute shocks, schools need partners they can depend on. Teaching Personnel is always on hand to offer senior leaders a full-suite service of staffing, support and advice that engages with schools’ specific needs, values and priorities. All you have to do is get in touch to discuss your specific needs.