AQW 3329/22-27

Ms Connie Egan
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 21/09/2022
Answered On Date: 27/09/2022
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education (i) why some substitute teachers pay for September 2022 will be delayed until October 2022; and (ii) what steps she is taking to mitigate this situation.

Answer:

There are several reasons why a supply teacher who worked days in August may not have received payment. My Department does not employ teachers. The Education Authority (EA) administers the Northern Ireland Supply Teacher Register (NISTR) on the Department’s behalf. All grant-aided schools can offer bookings to available teachers registered on the system and latterly approve if the teacher accepts and attends. All bookings approved prior to payroll cut-off are transferred from NISTR to the Department for salary processing.

A short delay in the go-live date of the new NISTR system from 22 to 29 August and performance issues experienced in the first few days of operation resulted in schools being unable to book teachers for August days on the new system in the normal manner. The EA put extensive additional resources in place to manually input thousands of retrospective bookings on schools’ behalf and to provide assistance to those experiencing difficulties in using the new solution. The Department also extended the August payroll deadline by two days to provide additional time for bookings to be placed, accepted and approved on the system.

Nearly 3,500 temporary teachers received salary payment on the normal payroll date (16 September) however it is regrettable that a number of teachers who worked in August did not receive payment for various reasons for example:

Retrospective bookings placed on the NISTR system were not confirmed and/or signed-off prior to payroll cut-off;

Some teachers and schools experienced technical access issues in respect of the new system and were unable to confirm or sign-off bookings;

Requests for retrospective bookings from schools were received after the extended payroll cut-off;

Salary could not be processed as bank details were not provided; and

Errors in the payroll file received from NISTR such as duplicate bookings that could not be investigated and resolved within timescales.

Every potential avenue was explored to provide those affected with an interim payment option, however given the range and complexity of issues, no viable option could be identified. The impacted teachers will receive payment as part of the next monthly payroll run.

The NISTR Support Team and the system suppliers and developers are working diligently to resolve any known issues and to make ongoing improvements in line with feedback received from users to ensure that the new system provides the envisaged intuitive booking system that enables schools to make contact with available supply teachers with ease and provides a platform for equitable employment opportunities for this vital part of our workforce.