On year 4 (and know of many others who have been doing this for longer) and still have no security. We had held off extending our family in the vain hope that I would eventually get a permanent post, but we ultimately decided that we couldn’t wait any longer.
This meant that last session I started a fixed term contract in a new local authority in August and finished on maternity leave in January, with only maternity allowance and no job to go back to as the fixed term ended in June. As a result, I spent the majority of my leave anxious about employment and finances, and unable to just enjoy our new baby.
I interviewed for my local authority “block” interviews at 6 weeks postpartum exactly. Miraculously I was offered a fixed term post from this interview. The start date was August and I returned to work when my baby was just 6 months old. I have not felt ready to be back at work, yet I was in no position to turn down any offer of work as I had no other income or job security.
It is so easy for government to blame local authorities, and vice versa, but this is people’s lives. Their wellbeing is affected, their families are affected. Personally, I believe the government should be doing more to support teachers who are unemployed, or stuck on temporary contracts, achieve permanency.
At the end of the day, the government directly fund the training and so are responsible for how many teachers go through the university process and TIS. It is immoral to support the training of thousands of new teachers when there are thousands without secure work. It is illogical that teachers must reapply and re-interview every year, and be subject to inconsistent recruitment approaches, when they have already proven themselves via completion of probation year.
My proposal would be that once you have achieved a successful interview, you are added to a list and allocated a permanent position when you reach the top of the list and a post is available.
A national supply register would also be beneficial to support those who were allocated a 3rd, 4th, 5th choice in local authority for probation. Most councils mainly offer internal recruitment so many are stuck in authorities far away from home because of a random selection for probation. It is not reasonable to expect that everyone can move across the country for a job (which are few and far between, and come with their own challenges such as suitable accommodation in the area etc).
The entire system is broken and nobody is willing to stand up and take responsibility, or at least take action. The government, local authorities and unions should be collaborating to resolve this. The lives of teachers, pupils and families are all being impacted and something has to change.
This is answer 7 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.