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It is with great delight and pride that we are able to announce that on
28th October 2010 School Staffing was awarded the prestigious and highly
sought-after Quality Mark. The assessor not only gave us a mark of 100%,
but also stated that she thought that School Staffing was “outstanding”, and
that she “could find no fault whatsoever.” She had no hesitation in awarding us
The Quality Mark and went on to commend our professional approach and the
sophistication of our internal systems.
About The Quality Mark
 Supply teachers
make an important contribution to the smooth running of schools and the raising
of standards. The Government values their contribution and wants to ensure they
are recruited and managed well, to allow them to give their best to schools.
The Quality Mark was launched in July 2002, as a joint initiative between the
Department for Education (DfE) and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation
(REC) to help drive up standards for everyone in the sector. The Quality Mark
sets minimum standards for agencies and LAs to reach in areas such as the way
they recruit and interview supply teachers, the way they check and manage their
performance and the way they stay at the forefront of changes in the teaching
sector.
Maintaining standards in education recruitment is vital and the benefits of the
Quality Mark to LAs, agencies, supply teachers and the schools that they service
are immense. Schools and teachers deserve high quality agencies and this scheme
helps both schools and teachers have more confidence about the agencies they
use. It gives increased confidence to schools, parents and pupils that staff
supplied through agencies are recruited properly and have ongoing support. For
agencies and LAs it provides both assurance and official recognition that the
highest standards of recruitment practice are being adhered to; and Teachers
will be confident that they have selected an accredited and reputable service
that will add value to their experience as supply teachers.
Objectives
The main objectives of the Quality mark are:
- To recognize private sector supply agencies and LAs who are able to
demonstrate that they meet standards of good practice in managing and providing
supply teachers for schools
- To enable schools and temporary teachers to feel confident about the
quality of the agencies and LAs with whom they are dealing
- To raise the standard and status of supply teaching; and
- To recognize the contributions made by supply teachers, agencies and LAs
in supporting schools.
The Process: All LAs and agencies (operationally trading for at least one
year) which supply schools with temporary teachers in England are eligible to
apply. If an agency has not been trading for one year they can apply for the
Working Towards the Quality Mark Scheme. Please contact a member of the Quality
Mark Team for further information. Quality Mark applicants are required to
submit detailed evidence to show they are able to meet the required standards by
means of a policy document, internal processes and procedures and documentation
in support of these processes. To ensure compliance with each standard there is
a rigorous inspection process in place, including an audit, supported by
detailed exception reporting to applicants. The Quality Mark Team at the REC
requires a high level of detail and understanding of their operation in order to
be sufficiently certain that the written evidence that has been provided is
compliant with the required standards.
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