Terms & Conditions
TimePlan Education Group Limited's terms and conditions of business are written in plain English and constitute the contract between TimePlan Education Group Limited and a School, or other Hirer, and are deemed to be accepted by the School following a request for, interview with, or engagement of, one of our Teachers or School Support Staff (SSS).
TimePlan Education Group Limited operates as an Employment Business (when supplying workers to you for a fixed period for a daily/hourly fee) and an Employment Agency (when introducing candidates to become your employees for a recruitment fee) as defined under the Employment Agencies Act 1973.
TimePlan Education Group Limited has a number of obligations under the Employment Agencies Act, the Agency Workers Regulations and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation Quality Mark. Our own internal standards go further than those required by law.
TimePlan Education is paid on results. We only invoice you when we have successfully filled your temporary or permanent vacancy with one of our Teachers or School Support Staff (SSS).
This Contract constitutes the terms under which TimePlan Education Group Limited will supply you with one of its Teachers or SSS to work in your school on an Assignment.
Click here for a full version of TimePlan Education's Terms and Conditions of business for the provision of supply staff.
Like you, Timeplan Education Group Limited wants to ensure the best working arrangements for teachers and school support staff. This ethos of treating staff including agency workers fairly and decently was enshrined in AWR legislation in October 2011. As a result agencies have a number of new obligations to candidates that begin on the first day of an assignment, and another set that begin after 12 weeks’ work. These must be effectively monitored.
Schools’ responsibilities
Schools have the following obligations:
Day one rights
From the first day of an assignment in a school, agency workers will have the same rights as permanent staff members to:
Collective facilities and amenities
For schools this means that the agency worker must have access to existing provisions already available to permanent staff doing the same, or a similar, job in the school such as:
- A canteen or similar, including school meals
- Photocopying facilities – for class worksheets etc
- Books and other learning resources
- Toilet/shower facilities
- Staff room
- Coffee/tea making facilities or food and drink machines
- Car parking if available
- School buses
- Workplace crèche
- Mother and baby room
It does not mean that the agency worker has enhanced rights – for example if there is a waiting list for the car park, the agency worker would not have a right to a car parking space, but they would have a right to go on a waiting list.
As part of TimePlan Education Group Limited’s terms and conditions we already require schools to provide access to such facilities and this therefore represents no change.
Access to information regarding vacancies
Agency workers will have the right to be provided with information about relevant job vacancies with the school in the same way that existing comparable employees are. Schools will need to ensure that the agency worker knows where to access such information eg a noticeboard.
Rights after week 12
After an agency supply teacher or support staff has completed a 12-week qualifying period in the same school (or sister school with the same governing body) and same role, they will be entitled to the same basic terms and conditions as if they had been employed directly by the school.
Happily, many of the provisions in the regulations do not apply to schools and school workers eg night work, rest periods, minimum annual leave.
However, some provisions may impinge upon the school and may have a cost implication for the school and TimePlan Education. These are:
Calculating the qualifying period
It does not matter if the agency worker does one day a week or five days a week, the 12-week qualifying period starts from day one of the first week. School holidays and illness do not constitute a break in service for calculating the qualifying period.
It is TimePlan Education’s responsibility to monitor placements and calculate if and when one of its supply teachers or support staff has completed a 12 week “qualifying” period in a school.
However, since we also have to include any periods that the agency worker has been supplied to you by another agency we have amended our terms and conditions to include a clause asking schools to tell us if this is the case. We have also included a new clause in our contract with staff asking them the same thing.
Paid time off for antenatal appointments
TimePlan Education will meet any additional costs here and provide a replacement worker should the school require one.
If a risk assessment is required, it is the school’s responsibility to carry one out and make any adjustments to remove the risk if possible.
Equal pay
After 12 weeks, all agency workers will be entitled to a pay rate which is equivalent to the pay if the worker was directly employed by the school.
Since the majority of our overseas trained teachers and our various support staff already receive a rate of pay that is already equal to or above that paid by schools, this will not be an issue and rates charged to schools will be unaffected.
Teachers with QTS will be entitled to national pay scales. Where they have worked in your school for the 12-week qualifying period we will pay to scale and charge you accordingly. We will of course consult with you first over charge rates so that you know the costs involved and give you the option on whether you would like that particular teacher.
Indemnity
Since TimePlan Education is assuming responsibility for monitoring the 12-week qualifying period, should we make a mistake we will fully indemnify the school for any cost incurred. Likewise, in the unlikely event we make an error over appropriate pay rates, TimePlan Education will rectify these payments at no extra charge to the school.