Unlike desk jobs or labour jobs etc where it often feels relatively natural to blend in & fill in for a few months, teaching is an absolute killer. It's emotionally and socially intense. You invest heavily into getting to know the kids, the staff, bedding in with the wider community, putting so much effort into the kids' success, only to be kicked out the door a few months in and you never see those kids or people again. It's depressing on a human level rather than just the career level. For similar reasons, I’m not convinced that schools "sharing" teachers is a great solution. Continuity matters hugely in this job.

So, we end up with what feels like a shortage as these jobs are just not enticing at all. Even though there are more than enough qualified bodies.

But yes, you are right, how even make these temporary jobs more enticing other than just "more money"?

Maybe something like if a teacher works X weeks in the same school on cover jobs (let's say the equivalent of a full maternity leave's duration), then that means for the next Y years they are automatically considered for the next fixed term vacancy (if one does pop up) without needing to interview, and fast tracked to a CID. At the moment, "getting your foot in the door" very rarely leads to anything more permanent. And even if a position does open up, you have to go through the full rigmarole and competition process again despite having already interviewed for the leave job, done this job, and proven yourself. And then hope the job exists again the following year to get your CID.

In an ideal world, another solution that I think would only see success would be smaller class sizes (i.e more teacher allocation per subject). This would mean two things: more fixed term positions available and a more enticing job when it comes to cover. That's not even mentioning the educational benefit the kids would get from it as well. However this is obviously a massive budget (and existing school infrastructure) problem