It's widely accepted that covering for absent colleagues is not a good use of a teacher's time, but why? Being asked to cover can have a negative impact on the time teachers have 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.

Whether it is because they are taught by more motivated teachers, or because cover lessons are supervised by known and respected members of the school staff, pupils also benefit. A virtuous circle is created – cover is a standards issue.

WAMG guidance

The workforce agreement monitoring group (WAMG) has provided guidance on cover supervision. This guidance is designed to help implement the requirements of the national agreement, with the longer term aim that teachers should rarely cover. This guidance is provided in the following documents:

Joint guidance from WAMG: note 6 (December 2003) (PDF format, 63KB)
Supplementary WAMG guidance on cover supervision (PDF format, 318KB)

You can also download a copy of Remodelling cover – a resource pack here.

September 2007 - updated School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD)

Schools should expect to implement the objective that teachers should only rarely cover from 1 September 2009. In the meantime, schools should set their own interim targets, informed by the latest Office of Manpower Economics (OME) data which serves as a benchmark, to ensure they are ready to meet the objective of teachers rarely covering from 1 September 2009.