Supply teaching explained

Supply teachers cover classes when the regular teacher is absent or a post is vacant, for a single day, a few weeks or a whole term. Most find work through agencies, which set their own daily rates, though some are employed directly by schools, councils or trusts and paid on the national teachers’ pay scales. If you work through an agency in the same role for 12 weeks, you become entitled to the same basic pay and conditions as a teacher employed directly by that school.

The kinds of supply work

Day-to-day supply means taking calls in the morning, often from an agency, and covering lessons in whichever school needs you. You teach from cover work the absent teacher has set, and your main job is to keep the class working and safe.

Short-term and long-term supply placements last from a week or two up to a term or more, often to cover sickness, maternity leave or a vacancy the school has not filled. In long-term posts you are expected to plan, mark, write reports and attend parents’ evenings, much like a permanent teacher.

Some schools use cover supervisors for short absences instead, which reduces the day-to-day supply available in those schools.

Agency or direct

Through an agency

Most supply teachers in England work through agencies. The agency finds the work, pays you and charges the school a fee on top. You will sign up with the agency, provide references and an enhanced DBS check, and be told the daily rate for each booking.

Agencies may pay you through PAYE themselves or through an umbrella company. Check your payslip carefully if an umbrella company is involved. The deductions, including the umbrella’s own margin and sometimes employer’s National Insurance, can make the take-home figure much lower than the headline rate. Government regulation of umbrella companies is planned under the Employment Rights Act 2025 but has no confirmed start date.

Directly with a school or council

Some councils and trusts run their own supply pools, and some schools keep a list of teachers they employ directly. In a maintained school, a teacher employed directly on a day-to-day or short-notice basis is paid under the pay document on a daily basis, worked out as if a full working year were 195 days.

How daily pay works

There is no single daily rate for agency supply. Agencies set rates by area, experience and how urgently a school needs cover, and the rate the school pays includes the agency’s fee. Ask what you will be paid per day, whether it includes holiday pay, and how the rate changes after 12 weeks.

For direct employment by a maintained school, you can work out the daily figure from the pay scales. Say you are on M1 outside London from September 2026, at £34,069: divided by 195 days that is about £174.71 a day. At M6 (£46,940) it is about £240.72 a day. That daily figure is gross, before tax, National Insurance and pension, and you can use the take-home pay calculator to see what a run of supply days comes to. The new figures follow the 3.5 per cent award and are in the draft 2026 pay document, expected to be in force around early November. Teacher pay scales in England has every point.

The 12-week rule

Under the Agency Workers Regulations, once you have done 12 weeks in the same role with the same school, you are entitled to the same basic pay and working conditions as a comparable teacher employed by the school. For a qualified teacher in a maintained school, that usually means pay in line with the national scales. From day one you have the right to use shared facilities, such as the staffroom, and to be told about job vacancies.

Breaks in an assignment can pause or reset the 12-week count depending on the reason, and school holidays are treated differently from other gaps. Agency workers’ rights explains the detail. If you think you are being underpaid, start with the agency, then a teaching union or ACAS.

What supply teachers miss out on

Agency supply teachers are generally not members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. Instead you should be auto-enrolled into a workplace pension if you earn over £10,000 a year with the agency, with minimum contributions of 8 per cent of qualifying earnings, at least 3 per cent of which comes from the employer. That is far less generous than the TPS employer contribution of 28.68 per cent.

You also have no guaranteed work, no school sick pay, and holiday pay that accrues as you go (12.07 per cent of hours worked for irregular-hours workers) instead of paid holidays. Supply teachers directly employed by a school or council can join the TPS.

Supply teaching suits teachers who want flexibility, people returning after a break, and new teachers looking for a school to settle in. If you want stability, a long-term placement can turn into a permanent post, and schools often recruit from teachers they already know. Agency vs bank work compares the trade-offs more widely.