Quality Mark

The Quality Mark is an Industry Standard Mark, that gives schools and teachers confidence that they are working with a recruiter whose practices have been independently audited and found to be compliant with all safe recruitment practices.

The Quality Mark was launched in July 2002, as a joint initiative between the Department for Education and Skills and Recruitment and Employment Confederation to help drive up standards for everyone in the sector. The Quality Mark sets minimum standards for agencies and LEAs 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 LEAs, agencies, supply teachers and the schools that they service are immense. Schools and teachers deserve high quality agencies and this scheme will help both schools and teachers be more confident about the agencies they use. It will give increased confidence to schools, parents and pupils that staff supplied through agencies are recruited properly and have ongoing support. For agencies and LEAs it will provide 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 recognise private sector supply agencies and LEAs 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 LEAs 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 LEAs in supporting schools.

The Process

All LEAs and agencies (operationally trading for at least one year) which supply schools with temporary teachers in England are eligible to apply. They will be 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 REC require 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.