What RM6376 Means for Your Academy Trust's SEND Staffing

At a glance

• From September 2026, every single- and multi-academy trust must procure supply staff through the RM6376 framework, or a Procurement Act 2023-compliant alternative whose rates do not exceed it.
• RM6376 caps the agency mark-up, not what supply staff are paid — and the cap for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support staff is £38 a day.
• For high-needs cover, a SEND-specialist supplier on the framework protects budget and safeguarding in ways a generalist on the same framework often cannot.
• REC Audited Education and APSCo Compliance+ are the two audited standards that evidence the safeguarding and governance the Academy Trust Handbook expects.

Contents

• The September 2026 deadline your trust is now working towards
• What the RM6376 mandate actually requires of your trust
• RM6376 SEND staffing: why a specialist beats a generalist
• Reading the fee caps: protecting a stretched high-needs budget
• Safeguarding and governance: what the Handbook expects you to evidence
• The budget backdrop: rising need, tighter rules, a longer runway
• RM6376 SEND staffing: a short checklist for trust leaders
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Where Five Education fits

The September 2026 deadline your trust is now working towards

If you run the finances or operations of an academy trust, you have a new line on your compliance to-do list, and a firm date against it. From September 2026, your trust must source its supply staff through the Government Commercial Agency's RM6376 framework, or a compliant alternative that costs no more. For trusts with high-needs provision, that turns RM6376 SEND staffing from a back-office detail into a governance decision the board will want to see evidenced.

The honest bit first. We're a specialist SEND agency in the South West, so we have a horse in this race. If you'd rather talk it through than read on, get in touch about SEND supply staff for your school. But this guide is meant to be useful even if we never speak — because the September 2026 mandate applies to your trust whether or not Five Education is the right fit for it.

Here's the thing most "RM6376 explained" articles miss. The framework treats a teaching assistant who supports a non-verbal pupil with autism the same way procurement treats any other line item. Your high-needs pupils do not. This piece is about that gap: how to stay compliant and keep the right people in front of your most vulnerable learners. It's the procurement follow-on to our look at what the SEND white paper means for staffing.

What the RM6376 mandate actually requires of your trust

RM6376 — full name "Supply Teachers and Education Recruitment" — is the framework agreement run by the Government Commercial Agency (GCA, formerly the Crown Commercial Service). It went live on 30 April 2026 and runs to 29 April 2029, replacing the previous RM6238 framework, which the sector knew as STaTS.

The mandate itself comes from the Academy Trust Handbook. When the 2026 edition is published in September 2026, it will require that trusts "must use the GCA RM6376 framework for their supply staffing needs unless they have an alternative compliant arrangement with rates that do not exceed those available through the framework."

So it isn't quite a single-route monopoly. You can use an alternative, but only if it clears two tests. First, the arrangement must be compliant with the Procurement Act 2023, with spend assessed at trust level — so larger trusts spending above the Act's thresholds have to show a proper procurement process. Second, the rates you secure must not exceed the RM6376 rates. In plain terms: use the framework, or beat it on price while staying fully compliant. For most trusts, the framework is the path of least resistance and least risk.

One practical point for multi-academy trusts. Because spend is assessed at trust level, it's the central team — not individual schools booking cover in a panic — that owns this decision. Worth getting your school business managers aligned now, before the autumn term turns it into a scramble.

RM6376 SEND staffing: why a specialist beats a generalist

Being on the framework is the floor, not the ceiling. Every approved supplier on RM6376 has cleared the same compliance bar. That's reassuring, and it's also the catch: it means "framework-approved" tells you nothing about whether a supplier can actually staff a profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) classroom on a wet Tuesday morning.

This is where RM6376 SEND staffing gets interesting for trusts with high-needs provision. A generalist agency on the framework will send you a body that ticks the compliance boxes. A SEND specialist sends you someone vetted on SEND suitability specifically, trained in the things that actually matter for complex needs, and matched by a consultant who knows the difference between a pupil who needs Makaton signing and one who needs a trauma-informed approach.

Consider the 7:45am call. A one-to-one teaching assistant has phoned in unwell, the pupil she supports has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), and your SENCO has under an hour to find someone safe to walk through the gate. A generalist fills the slot. A specialist fills it with someone who has done live, specialist SEND training — behaviour support, autism awareness, trauma — and won't be the reason a vulnerable child has a bad day. Same framework, very different outcome.

If your trust runs special schools, resourced provision, or significant SEND in mainstream, that distinction is the whole game. Compliance gets you a supplier. Specialism gets you the right one.

Reading the fee caps: protecting a stretched high-needs budget

The headline feature of RM6376 is a cap on supplier fees. It's widely misread, so let's be precise: the cap is on the agency mark-up, not on what supply staff are paid. As the Department for Education puts it, the framework introduces "a cap on the supplier fees — not on what supply workers are paid. Agency staff pay and conditions are entirely unaffected." Good news for the people doing the work, and for you: it rebalances the market towards schools without gutting the workforce.

The caps are a schedule of maximum daily supplier fees by role, not a single flat number. The ones that matter most for SEND provision:

• SEND education support staff: up to £38 a day
• Non-SEND support staff: up to £36 a day
• STEM teachers: up to £45 a day
• Non-STEM teachers: up to £40 a day
• Senior roles (headteacher and senior leadership): up to £55 a day
• Admin and clerical: up to £32 a day

That £38 SEND support cap is the one to hold onto. High-needs budgets are under real pressure, and a transparent, capped mark-up means you can forecast cover costs and show your board exactly what you're paying for. You'll find the full fee-cap schedule set out by Schools Week if you want the complete picture.

A word of caution, though. A cap protects you from overpaying on mark-up; it does nothing to guarantee quality. The cheapest framework-compliant TA and the right SEND-trained TA can sit at the same £38 cap — and cost your provision very differently in everything that isn't on the invoice.

Safeguarding and governance: what the Handbook expects you to evidence

The Academy Trust Handbook isn't only asking you to procure correctly. It expects you to evidence value-for-money and safeguarding to your board and the Education and Skills Funding Agency. With agency staff, the question your governors should be asking is simple: how do we know this supplier's vetting is sound?

This is where independent accreditation earns its keep. Two audited standards do the heavy lifting in education recruitment. REC Audited Education, from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, is an education-specific audit of safeguarding, vetting and compliance — inspecting policies, contracts and candidate files. APSCo Compliance+, from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies, is an annually audited best-practice standard that compels members to go beyond statutory safeguarding minimums.

Both matter, and they matter together. Each is independently recognised as an accreditation standard for the framework itself, so a supplier holding REC Audited Education and APSCo Compliance+ gives your trust a clean, external answer to the governance question — rather than asking the board to take a supplier's word for it. For a SEND trust, where safeguarding stakes are highest, that evidence trail is exactly what the Handbook is driving at.

The budget backdrop: rising need, tighter rules, a longer runway

None of this is happening in a vacuum. Over 1.7 million pupils in England now have special educational needs, and more than one in twenty has an EHCP. Demand for skilled high-needs cover is rising, not levelling off.

At the same time, the policy direction is firmly towards inclusion. The SEND white paper, Every child achieving and thriving, was published on 23 February 2026, and the consultation that followed it closed on 18 May 2026. It commits over £200 million over three years to train all staff in early years, schools and colleges on SEND, as part of a wider package of around £4 billion. The expectation is clear: more children supported well in mainstream, which means more settings needing confident, SEND-capable staff on cover.

There's a little breathing room on the funding side. The high-needs statutory override — the accounting measure that keeps councils' SEND deficits off their main books — has been extended to the end of 2027-28. With cumulative high-needs deficits running at more than £5 billion, that's a longer runway, not a solved problem. Trusts that get their RM6376 SEND staffing right now will be on the front foot when the harder budget conversations arrive.

RM6376 SEND staffing: a short checklist for trust leaders

If you want a quick way to brief your team, work through these:

1. Confirm your route. Are you using RM6376, or an alternative you can prove is Procurement Act 2023-compliant and no more expensive? Decide centrally, not school-by-school.
2. Separate compliance from capability. Framework approval is the floor. For high-needs cover, ask each supplier what SEND-specific vetting and training they actually do.
3. Check the accreditations. Look for REC Audited Education and APSCo Compliance+ together — your evidence trail for the board.
4. Read the cap correctly. It limits mark-up, not pay or quality. Don't let a £38 cap talk you into the wrong TA.
5. Get ahead of September. Align your business managers before the autumn term, not during it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my academy trust have to use RM6376 from September 2026?

Effectively, yes. From September 2026 the Academy Trust Handbook requires single- and multi-academy trusts to use the GCA's RM6376 framework for supply staffing, unless they have an alternative arrangement that is Procurement Act 2023-compliant and whose rates do not exceed the framework's. For most trusts, using the framework is the simplest compliant route.

Are the RM6376 fee caps a cap on what supply staff get paid?

No. The caps apply to the agency's mark-up — the supplier fee — not to what the worker is paid. The Department for Education has been explicit that supply staff pay and conditions are unaffected. The aim is to rebalance cost towards schools without undermining the workforce.

We use a generalist agency on the framework. Is that compliant for high-needs cover?

It can be compliant and still be the wrong choice. Framework approval confirms a supplier meets the compliance bar; it does not confirm they can safely staff complex SEND provision. For high-needs cover, a SEND-specialist supplier vets and trains specifically for it — which compliance alone doesn't guarantee.

How do we evidence safeguarding and value-for-money to our board?

Procure through a capped, transparent route (RM6376 or a compliant equivalent), and choose suppliers carrying independent, audited accreditation. REC Audited Education and APSCo Compliance+ together give governors external assurance on vetting and safeguarding, alongside the framework's transparent fee caps for value-for-money.

What's the difference between RM6376 and the old framework?

RM6376 — "Supply Teachers and Education Recruitment" — replaced RM6238 (known as STaTS). It runs from 30 April 2026 to 29 April 2029, is run by the Government Commercial Agency, and introduces the capped supplier fees and the academy-trust mandate that its predecessor did not.

Where Five Education fits

The September 2026 mandate is a compliance task, but for a SEND trust it's also a chance to put the right people in front of your most vulnerable pupils — and prove to your board that you did. RM6376 SEND staffing done well means a supplier who clears the framework bar and genuinely understands high needs.

Five Education is approved on RM6376, holds REC Audited Education and APSCo Compliance+, and does one thing: specialist SEND recruitment across the South West. If that's the kind of partner your trust wants for September and beyond, talk to us about your school's SEND staffing.