NASUWT: Failures of Northern Ireland Substitute Teacher Register system means teachers can’t afford petrol to get to work

In January the National Association of Head Teachers in NI said the Northern Ireland Substitute Teacher Register (NISTR) had to be improved as staffing problems were “critical”. The EA awarded a tender in June for the development of a new system.

However teacher’s union the NASUWT has now insisted that Northern Ireland’s Education Authority must step in to offer Financial Assistance to those who haven’t been paid since the introduction of the new NISTR.

NASUWT National Official for Northern Ireland, Justin McCamphill, said the union is being “inundated” with messages on a daily basis in relation to problems with the introduction of the new system. “While it is expected that there will be teething issues with the introduction of any new system, it is fair to say that there have been more issues than anyone would have anticipated,” he said.

“The new system has the potential to be one of the best systems anywhere for deploying temporary workers and we expect that these issues will not recur in the October payroll. It is also the case that most of the issues are not the fault of the NISTR team. Nevertheless, many substitute teachers were expecting to be paid today for work carried out in August. Failure to pay these teachers is causing extreme financial hardship in the middle of the cost-of-living crisis. Teachers have told the NASUWT that they cannot afford to put fuel in their car to get to work in the first place.”

SDLP West Tyrone MLA Daniel McCrossan said he has repeatedly raised the issues that both teachers and schools have been experiencing with the new NISTR since it was introduced earlier this month. “That some substitute teachers could miss out on their pay this month, in the middle of a cost of living emergency is an absolute disgrace and cannot be allowed to happen,” he added.

The Education Authority and Department of Education were both invited to comment this afternoon.

A spokesperson for the Education Authority (EA) said: “The delay to the launch of the new Northern Ireland Supply Teacher Register (NISTR) to the 29 August and the technical issues experienced in the first few days have been disappointing and frustrating for all involved. The Education Authority has apologised to all users for the inconvenience caused.

“Extensive additional staffing resources were put in place to manually input around 5,000 retrospective bookings for days worked in August 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 on system and for teachers to accept the bookings and schools to sign-off on attendance.

“Nearly 3,500 temporary teachers received salary payment for August days today (16 September) however it is regrettable that a number of teachers who worked in August did not receive payment for various reasons including bookings that were not confirmed or signed-off prior to payroll cut-off and technical access issues. Every potential avenue has been explored to provide those affected with an interim payment option, however unfortunately no viable option could be identified. These 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 to this agile system development 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.”