FAQs

As much as the system is designed to be as user friendly and effective as possible, your account manager will be there to monitor requirements, the matching process and to ensure you are getting the best service. The account manager will also build a relationship with you through visits, email and phone contact to ensure we always understand your schools needs and demands.

Should there be any query or feedback required, your account manager will be able to answer and/or resolve this for you.

Opus Teach believe in paying our teachers fairly and in line with the Main Teacher Pay Scales. You will be provided with a rate card clarifying our rates when you register with our service. This will include options on how you can get discounted rates linked to your preferred payment options e.g. you can get a discounted rate if you opt to set up a pre-payment account.

When you make a request online you will see the day rate for potential teachers/support staff so you will be able to select candidates knowing what the daily charge is.

The benefit of using Opus Teach is we pay back into the public sector, not our pockets. To see find out more about our rates go to our Rates Section.

Using our real time matching service, we are aiming to be able to provide supply cover for your school within 1 hour. If your request is for a more complex or longer-term placement your account manager will agree this with you.

Your account manager will be available to look at your requirements and seek to find the next best alternative for your immediate needs.

Yes of course. You can book in advance for long term placement or regular placements. Using our system, you can pre-book teachers by running a search and booking a teacher. Or alternatively, you can talk through your requirement with your account manager.

We do understand that sometimes a cancellation will be required. If you need to cancel a booking, or placement please contact your account manager. Bookings cancelled on the same day before the placement starts will incur a half day charge. Placements cancelled during the day will incur the full days charge. Please refer to your terms and conditions.

We use an online system for supply staff to submit time an expenses. Due to the nature of supply work, it is essential that timesheets are input and authorised in a timely manner.

All timesheets must be approved by 5pm on a Monday to allow the worker to be paid on the Friday. You will receive an email to enable you to approve the timesheet.

If a worker has uploaded a timesheet and the school fails to authorise the timesheet before the 5pm deadline, this could result in a faster payment charge of £25 charged to the school, in order to process the worker’s pay.

If a worker has not uploaded their timesheet by the deadline, their pay will be added to the following weeks payroll.

All timesheets must be approved by the schools authorised users.

Yes, we will charge a fee of 10% of the worker’s rate if one of our supply workers is or has worked for you within the last three months. We do this to cover the costs of replacing teachers in our supply pool.

Yes. Our aim is to be able to provide you with interim or temporary solutions for any role you need in your school. If we don’t have someone immediately available, we will search for someone suitable.

The best way to search through all available teachers is using the online portal, which will show you who is available to meet your requirements.

Of course, if you need support, your account manager will be on hand to help you.

At Opus Teach we carry out a full and robust compliance process to include:

• Identity verification (including suitability to work in the UK if required)
• Qualification verification
• Experience validation – via reference checks
• Skills, knowledge and experience based interview with educational professionals
• DBS check status
• Health checks
• Probation checks
• Suitability and availability to work for Opus Teach

This may take 6-8 weeks to complete and we will keep applicants informed of progress.

Our assessment processes are unashamedly challenging as we want to provide the best teachers and support workers available. Our recruitment, application and compliance checks are delivered to REC (Recruitment & Employment confederation) standards and are in line with school’s single central record. https://www.rec.uk.com/

If you at all dissatisfied with any aspect of our service or the performance of our supply staff, please contact your account manager. If you are dissatisfied with a teacher’s performance, we will use your feedback to discuss with the teacher. We will either find you a replacement teacher or see if there are any opportunities for appropriate development with the teacher.

It is important that Opus Teach are able to ensure that both schools and teachers are happy with their placements. With this in mind, we will ask for feedback from both parties in order to improve the service, relationships and quality of our supply provision.

As a responsible Recruitment Agency, Opus Teach are committed to ensuring the safeguarding and welfare of young people. All of our workers will be fully DBS compliant and have a good knowledge of safe guarding policy and practices, which will be assessed as part of the interview process undertaken by educational professionals (who are also trained to Safer Recruitment standards).

If a safe guarding concern is raised by a school about one of our supply staff, the school will be responsible for reporting and managing this through their safe guarding procedures. The school will notify our account manager immediately to discuss appropriate action. If appropriate we will suspend a worker from our system until safe guarding concerns are resolved. In the event safe guarding concerns are upheld we will remove the supply worker from our team permanently.

The Department for Education (DfE) has recently issued communications regarding the new ‘deal for schools’ This ‘deal’ has been designed to ensure schools are getting value for money, and teachers that are working have been through thorough background and safeguarding checks.

Agencies were required to apply to be part of a preferred supplier list that would form part of this ‘deal’. Opus Teach, formed in 2017, was not able to satisfy the requirement for evidencing prior supply and therefore were not eligible to apply for this opportunity.

As a new agency, we have, however, been able to ensure that our processes, policies and ethics are aligned to those issued as part of the framework. Specifically:

• We give value for money – you will receive well qualified and experienced teachers and support staff.
• We are REC Audited Education, which ensures we adhere to the highest levels of compliance and safeguarding checks.
• We are open about our rates – we openly provide information regarding our teacher pay and any fees we charge.
• We are an agency that is able to provide both teaching and support staff, based on our connection with Opus People Solutions.
• Our terms clearly lay out our charges for making a worker permanent.

So although, as a new agency, we were not eligible to apply to be part of this framework, we were clear that our processes would ensure that we were offering the highest level of service, with transparency over our very fair rates.

The framework has been issued without any restriction on schools using agencies that are outside of the framework, and we would like to reassure you that we operate to the highest possible standards, offering a fair and compliant service for both schools and supply staff.