Agency Days or a School Contract? Working Out Which TA Set-Up Fits Your Actual Life

Ask five TAs whether supply or a permanent contract is better and you'll get five completely different answers, each delivered with total certainty. That's because the honest answer is: it depends what you need over the next twelve months.

So instead of a list, here's a way of thinking it through. Grab a coffee and a calculator.

Start with money that actually lands in your account

Supply day rates look impressive on agency adverts. A £95 day sounds like more than a term-time contract at £24,000 a year, until you do the maths.

A few things to get straight:

• Supply days are not guaranteed. A quiet week in November or a snow-covered week in January can wipe out a chunk of your month's income. Ask the agency what a typical week looks like outside September.
• Holiday pay works differently. As a supply worker you're not paid for the school holidays — though agencies should pay rolled-up holiday pay on top of your day rate, at the statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks a year. Check whether the rate quoted includes it or not, because agencies vary. Contracted TAs usually get paid their normal wage through half-terms and the summer, which is worth doing the arithmetic on.
• Term-time-only contracts are the quiet winner in many schools. You work 39 weeks, you're paid across 12 months. Less drama in August.
• Travel and parking are real deductions. Forty minutes each way, four days a week, is a cost in fuel and in your evenings.

A blunt test: take your supply day rate, multiply it by a realistic number of working days (not the maximum), then subtract travel, unpaid gaps and any umbrella company fees. Compare that to a contracted annual salary divided by 12. It's rarely the gap people expect.

Flexibility cuts both ways

Supply gives you control. Book the dentist. Take the school run. Say no to a school that felt wrong. If you have young children, caring responsibilities, or a health condition that flares up unpredictably, that control is worth a lot more than the difference in pay.

A contract gives you predictability. You know where you are on Monday, you know the children's names by October, and you're not adapting to a new safeguarding policy every third morning.

Neither is better. But be honest about which one you'd actually use. Plenty of people choose supply for flexibility and then accept every booking offered, which is the worst of both worlds.

The SEN experience question

This is where supply quietly earns its keep. Working across six schools in a term gives you an unusually wide view — different provisions, different approaches to autism, different ways of running interventions, different communication systems.

If you're early in your TA career and unsure whether you want mainstream, a specialist setting, or an SEN unit, supply is the cheapest way to find out. You'll see what a genuinely well-run nurture provision looks like, and you'll see what happens when support is stretched thin.

That said, depth matters too. If you're aiming at HLTA, ELSA training or a specialist SEN role, a head who's watched you work with the same child for two years can write a reference that a string of one-day bookings simply can't.

Progression: who is investing in you?

Here's the uncomfortable bit. Agencies rarely pay for your CPD, and schools rarely train people who might not be back next week. If you want to move up — HLTA status, phonics training, team-teach, behaviour qualifications — a contracted post is usually the door.

Ask the question directly in interviews: what training have TAs here done in the last year? A school that can answer in detail is a school that develops people. A school that says 'we'll look into it' is telling you something too.

A four-question decision map

Rather than another comparison table, try this. Answer honestly, and the answer usually falls out on its own.

1. Can I absorb two or three unpaid weeks in a bad month? If no, take the contract. Supply is not a reliable mortgage payment.

2. Do I need to control my diary week to week? If yes, supply wins. Full stop. No contract is flexible enough to match it.

3. Am I still working out what kind of TA I want to be? If yes, do a term of supply and keep notes on which settings you liked. It's cheaper than a wrong permanent move.

4. Am I chasing a qualification or a promotion in the next two years? If yes, prioritise a school with a visible training record, even if the day rate looks lower.

If you answered yes to two and four, look for a permanent post. If one and three, supply is doing real work for you.

The option plenty of people forget

You don't have to choose permanently. Plenty of TAs start the year on supply in September — when schools are desperate — and move into a contract by November once they've found a school they like. Others do the reverse, going back to supply after a fixed-term contract ends in July.

Fixed-term contracts are also worth a look. Twelve months is enough to build relationships, get on the training list, and be first in line when a permanent role appears. It's a middle path that gets less airtime than it deserves.

The honest answer

Supply suits people who are flexible, geographically mobile, early in their careers, or juggling something else. A contract suits people who want to plan, want to progress, or need to know what's coming in on the last Friday of the month.

Neither is the clever choice. The clever choice is the one that matches your rent, your family and your next two years — and that you can say out loud without wincing.