The terms and conditions for the appointment of Unqualified Teachers are set out in the Burgundy Book and details regarding Instructors pay are outlined in the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD). Instructors are 'unqualified teachers' who the law allows to carry out the same duties as qualified teachers under the Education (Specified Work and Registration) (England) Regulations 2003. Instructors can be employed:
- To give instruction in any art or skill or in any subject or group of subjects (including any form of vocational training), where special qualifications or experience or both are required, in order to give such instruction
- If the school or local authority is satisfied that he/she has the necessary special qualifications or experience or both to do the job
- If there is no suitable qualified teacher, graduate teacher, registered teacher or teacher on the employment-based teacher training scheme available for such appointment or to give such instruction
- Only for such period that no suitable qualified teacher, graduate teacher, registered or teacher on an employment based teacher training scheme is available.
There are no specific qualification/educational requirements for unqualified teachers. Unqualified Teachers are frequently appointed in subject areas where there are currently skills shortages or to cover technical /specialist subject areas such as (I.T, Design Technology or Music).
As an instructor, they can undertake specified work to assist or support a qualified teacher or nominated teacher and work under the direction and supervision of qualified teachers.
Schools cannot automatically reclassify unqualified teachers as instructors. Instructors should only be employed where it is not possible to appoint a qualified teacher or person on an employment based route to QTS to a post and only for as long as a qualified teacher is unavailable. For this reason Unqualified Teachers are appointed on temporary contracts although advice should be sought from us before terminating an unqualified teacher's contract because a qualified teacher has become available.
Instructors Pay
Instructors are paid on the unqualified teachers' pay scale in accordance with the current School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), taking into due account relevant experience and qualifications.
Instructors are appointed on the basis of a 32.5 hr standard week on an all year round basis and are paid on a separate 6 point pay scale. A newly appointed unqualified teacher need not start on the bottom of the pay scale. Schools have discretion in assessing an Unqualified Teachers' salary and may decide to appoint a teacher at any point on the scale taking into consideration their prior, non-teaching or teaching, experience and qualifications.
Unqualified Teachers are not eligible to receive the allowances payable to qualified teachers, however Schools may award them an allowance to the value they consider appropriate, this allowance is normally referred to as a. TADSAS. There is no prescribed rate or ceiling for this allowance although it is common for schools to either pay a sum equivalent to an allowance payable to a qualified teacher or to bring their salary in line with a point on the Main Pay Scale
Unqualified Teachers with 26 weeks service by the first of September are entitled to a single point increment, subject to satisfactory performance.
Where an unqualified teacher gains qualified teacher status they will transfer to the next point on the qualified pay scale above the value of their current salary.