How to assign cover

This article explains how to assign cover for absent staff members in a school setting. It details the steps to access the cover assignment page, filter dates, assign individual or bulk cover, and manage requests for agreement. It also outlines how to identify available staff based on various criteria and what to do if cover is not required.

When a member of staff is absent you can assign staff members to cover lessons or intervention sessions.

Assigning cover

Just go to School > All Staff > Cover. 

The page will default to showing Today's cover.

Click into the filters to select the date range to download cover slips for. Select a time scale (for example, last week) and the dates will update accordingly, or select Custom to set your own range.

When you next visit the page it will keep your selection.

Go to the Unarranged tab. Click on an individual session to assign a member of staff to cover.

Top Tip: Don’t check the box that says ‘request agreement’ as the cover will not be assigned until that staff member agrees.

You'll be able to see staff who are unavailable in the Staff members dropdown menu, for example, if they have a clashing session, an absence or if it is outside of their working periods.

You can still select 'unavailable' staff, and then arrange cover for the clashing events if required.

Select multiple unarranged cover sessions using the left-hand checkboxes to assign cover in bulk. 

Setting as Cover Not Required means staff may be absent but the cover may not be required. Use this option to flag this lesson or intervention as not requiring cover - it will then be moved to the third tab on the page, 'Cover Not Required'.

Choose who will cover the sessions, then click Arrange Cover.

Any clashing cover arrangements will be highlighted.

FAQ

Are booked rooms unavailable for cover?

It is not possible to remove rooms from appearing in this list entirely.

You can book a room to show it is being used. However, they will show as Booked and can still be selected.

What happens when I tick 'Request agreement'?

When you tick the Request agreement box, this will send a request to the staff member to confirm whether they can cover.

This request will appear in the staff members' To-do list on their homepage, and in My Items > My Cover. They can click into this and accept or decline the cover.

Until the staff member accepts or declines the request, the session will show as orange in the main Cover area as it is not yet arranged.

• If the staff member accepts this, it will then change from yellow to green on the staff cover dashboard and the staff member can't cancel the arrangement.
• If you accept or decline the request on the staff member's behalf via the staff cover page, it will accept or decline it and take you to another page with an overview. On this page, select Back.

Which staff appear in each category in the staff members list?

There are categories to help you identify the most suitable staff member to cover:

• Covered Previously and Available - Staff members that have ever covered for one of the staff members needing cover since the school joined Arbor
• Teaches Same Subject and Available - Staff members that are an academic lead for a course of the same subject as the session needing cover
• In Same Faculty and Available - Staff members that are in the same faculty as the session needing cover

There are also categories based on the business role the staff member has. You can see which staff member will fall into each category here: Which staff are classed as Teacher, Leadership, Classroom Support and Non-Classroom Support?

• Other Available - Other staff members who are available
• Possibly Free (0 Students) - Staff members who have an Internal Exclusion, Detention, Intervention or Lesson with 0 students for any of the periods that need cover.
• Possibly Free (in PPA) - Staff members with one of the following business roles who have a PPA event for any of the periods that need cover.

There are also categories based on staff being unable to cover: 

• Held for Guardian Consultation Meetings - Staff members who have booked guardian consultations for any of the periods that need cover.
• Unavailable - Staff members who have any other event for any of the periods that need cover.
• Not In Normal Working Hours - Staff members whose working periods do not overlap with the cover requirement.
• Unavailable due to absence - Staff members that have a staff absence that overlaps with the cover requirement.