These seminars provide a number of continuing professional development (CPD) workshops tailored to your career needs, as well as opportunities to network with other supply teachers.

These events are FREE to eligible members and provide you with the opportunity to be updated on current developments in education.

Events will be listed in this section as they become available. Tap/click for details of the event and how to book.

Supply Teachers’ Seminar - October 2025

On 11 October, NASUWT President Wayne Broom welcomed members to the NASUWT Conference Centre for the second Supply Teachers’ Seminar of the year.

The day opened with a whole group workshop entitled Behaviour Management led by resilience and behaviour specialist Nic Morgan of NSM Training and Consultancy.

Ms Morgan engaged members in an interactive discussion that specifically looked at ways that supply teachers can adopt strategies to manage challenging behaviour in the classroom.

With apologies for being unable to attend the seminar due to another union event, Matt Wrack, General Secretary, sent a recorded message of support and solidarity to supply teachers acknowledging the challenges they face in their professional lives.

Mr Wrack thanked members for their articulate expression of the problems in how supply teachers are treated and the impact that has not only on the individual supply teacher, but also on the wider provision of the education service.

Setting out the challenges we need to tackle, he highlighted the profiteering and exploitation of schools by supply agencies and umbrella companies at the expense of supply teachers and to the detriment of schools and children receiving education. He assured members that NASUWT is working through multiple channels to redress the imbalances they suffer when compared with full-time teachers.

Watch the full message below.

Wayne Broom and Paul Watkins, NASUWT National Negotiating Official, chaired the Supply Teachers’ Forum and Q&A, preceded by an update on the work NASUWT has undertaken on behalf of supply members since the last Supply Teachers’ Seminar earlier this year.

The presentation reflected on several strands of NASUWT’s work, driven by the Supply Teacher Annual Survey that NASUWT undertakes every year across the four UK nations to track issues facing supply teachers, including trends in patterns of work and pay and the nature and availability of work.

NASUWT’s most recent submission to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), the independent pay review body for teachers in England, provided evidence about the spiralling cost of using supply agencies. We have urged the Government to intervene to guarantee that every pound of public money delivers best value.

The four national reports analysing the responses to our supply survey are available on our Supply Teacher Annual Survey pages.

Further useful information can be found on:

Three workshops were available twice during the day to enable each member to take part in two sessions:

  1. SEND Update for Supply Teachers, Darren Northcott, NASUWT National Official (Education)

  2. Safeguarding Concerns and Dealing with Allegations Against Supply Teachers, Paul Watkins, NASUWT National Negotiating Official

  3. How Supply Teachers Can Effectively Use AI to Produce Teaching Resources, Alice Harrison, Oak National Academy

The day was rounded off with refreshments and an opportunity for our supply teacher members to socialise and to continue the important conversations they had begun during the day.

Flickr album

Supply Teachers’ Seminar - March 2025

On 8 March, NASUWT Senior Vice-President Wayne Broom welcomed members to the online Supply Teachers’ Seminar.

The day opened with the Supply Teachers’ Forum and an update of work undertaken by the Union on behalf of supply teachers in the six months since the September 2024 Supply Teachers’ Seminar.

The presentation reflected on several strands of work, including the Supply Teacher Annual Survey, which NASUWT undertakes every year across each of the nations to track issues facing supply teachers, including trends in patterns of work and pay.

The 2024 reports of the Northern Ireland and Scotland survey responses are available on our Supply Teacher Annual Survey pages. The England and Wales reports will be available shortly.

The update also covered:

  • Evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) in England, including oral evidence on issues associated with supply teachers, and the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body (IWPRB) in Wales. The Union’s submissions can be found on:

  • Correspondence and engagement with Secretary of State in England, Bridget Phillipson:

  • Following the General Election, the Union has been working at pace with the TUC on a number policy areas as part of the Labour Party’s manifesto commitments, e.g. TUC ULON (union legal officers network) group and TUC procurement and outsourcing group.

  • Significant contributions to the TUC group submission to the Covid Inquiry, including module 9 and financial support available to workers.

  • Employment Rights Bill: the Union continues to monitor the Bill as it makes its way through the various committee and report stages, including the potential impact on agency workers, such as supply teachers. Consultation responses available:

  • Statutory sick pay: the Union has been working with the Centre for Progressive Change in its Safe Sick Pay Campaign.

  • Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2025/26: consultation response available at 2025/26 Labour Market Enforcement Strategy (pdf).

  • In Scotland, key points raised by supply teacher members at the most recent session held in Scotland, especially around job availability, have been raised with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills Jenny Gilruth MSP.

  • In Wales, NASUWT is working through social partnership structures to get the National Supply Pool established and the Welsh Government is looking to pick up IWPRB recommendations on supply, following the strategic review Supply and Demand: Covering Teachers’ Absence. This can be downloaded from the Senedd website (pdf).

Following this, individual questions from members were answered, before a presentation on the main findings of the Supply Teacher Annual Survey. The full findings for each of the four national reports can be found on the relevant web page when you follow the link.

Next was the Negotiating a Better Deal discussion which opened up the opportunity for supply teachers to share their own experiences of how they have personally negotiated and secured better deals with their agencies. Teachers contributed experiences such as:

  • using competing agency offers to gain an increase in their pay;

  • negotiating a better rate to cover higher travel expenses;

  • signing up with an alternative agency where there are better rates;

  • challenging some of the worst criteria that agencies and schools attempt to impose around length and type of service;

  • the advantages and disadvantages of working through an umbrella company; and

  • the lack of transparency that can exist within schools around the comparable rights and entitlements for supply teachers.

Watch again

We recorded the two afternoon workshops, which covered the following topics:

  1. Curriculum and Assessment Review Update for Supply Teachers - Darren Northcott, National Official (Education), NASUWT

  1. Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) - Assisting a Claim for Equal Pay: An Introduction for Those New to Supply Teaching - Paul Watkins, National Negotiating Official, NASUWT

Don’t miss out

If you’re not yet a member but want to attend our Supply Teachers’ Seminars, and get access to other exclusive member benefits, why not join today?

You can find out more about why you should join us or go straight to our Online Joining site to take full advantage of our wider programme of events, training and discount scheme.

Want more influence?

The NASUWT is a member-led Union, which means you getting actively involved in your Union to support your colleagues and fellow teachers at work.

Getting active in the Union can take a variety of forms and will mean you get access to FREE training, support, and personal and professional development: you can be proud in the knowledge that you are undertaking a role that helps teachers in their workplaces.

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As part of our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint, particularly at our conferences and events, we'd like to share a tool allowing you to understand the environmental impact of your journey and identifying low-carbon door-to-door travel plans that help you towards net-zero travel.

Try the You.Smart.Thing travel planner.

 


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