Anonymous survey answerSurvey Nº 012

Different councils have different rules on what breaks service length, some as small as 5 consecutive working days, which can make it almost impossible to gain permanence.

Supply stopped at set times to break our service

Published 5 October 2026 · 1 min read

Employment situation: Supply teaching
Sector: Primary

Many councils are deliberately breaking service to not allow us to be able to apply for permanence through service length by stopping supply availability at certain points of year. Different councils have different rules on what breaks service length, some as small as 5 consecutive working days, which can make it almost impossible to gain permanence.

This is answer 12 of the 269 written answers that teachers let us quote anonymously in the Scottish Teacher Employment Survey 2026. It answers the survey’s last question: what do the people who make decisions about teacher employment need to know?

We have corrected spelling, added paragraph breaks and removed details that could identify anyone. Words in square brackets are ours.

Every answer in the report (PDF) Survey results

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