It's widely accepted that covering for absent colleagues is not a good use of a teacher's time as it reduces the time available for lesson planning.

Schools that have low or no teacher cover report happier staff, teaching better lessons

A new cover policy does not only have an impact on teachers. Properly trained, supported and supervised support staff are central to the new strategies that schools are deploying.

Pupils also benefit because they are either taught by more motivated teachers, or because cover lessons are supervised by known and respected members of the school staff.

Rarely cover

The Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group (WAMG), also known as the Social Partnership, has written to local authorities setting out the basis on which the provision that teachers should rarely cover for absent colleagues should be implemented from 1 September 2009.

The national agreement included objectives of:

• progressive reductions in teachers' overall hours
• changes to teachers' contracts, including a limit on the amount of cover for absent colleagues that teachers and headteachers could provide
• new arrangements for deploying support staff.

In 2007 schools were advised that they should expect to achieve a position in which teachers only rarely covered for colleagues from September 2009.

The WAMG letter and accompanying documents set out the basis for implementing 'rarely cover'. The letter describes the changes that will be made to the STPCD and accompanying guidance to give effect to it. These changes remain subject to the normal consultation that is undertaken for the whole of the STPCD prior to its formal implementation.

For more information visit the group's website.