Supply Teachers

(asked on 17th February 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of employing supply teachers in maintained schools in England in each year since 2017.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 22nd February 2023

Financial information on Local Authority maintained schools, including spending on supply teachers, is collected in Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) returns. It is subsequently published on the School Financial Benchmarking website and in the annual official statistic ‘LA and school expenditure’, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure.

Spending on supply teaching staff comprises the following categories:

  1. Supply teaching staff (supply teaching staff employed directly by the school),
  2. Supply teacher insurance,
  3. Agency supply teaching staff (cost paid to an agency for teaching staff that have been brought in to cover teacher absence).

These costs should be offset against receipts from supply teacher insurance claims.

Local authority maintained school expenditure on supply teaching staff, £ millions

Financial year:

2016/17

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

Supply teaching staff

£181.8

£147.2

£129.0

£110.9

£74.1

£106.9

Supply teacher insurance

£136.1

£126.5

£115.9

£108.3

£103.0

£99.9

Agency supply teaching staff

£520.4

£451.2

£425.8

£410.7

£274.6

£415.0

Receipts from supply teacher insurance claims

£88.0

£78.3

£74.3

£72.6

£56.9

£69.1

Number of schools completing CFR

16,106

15,052

13,959

13,158

12,655

12,221

Total (£millions)

£750.3

£646.7

£596.4

£557.3

£394.7

£552.7

Source: Consistent Financial Reporting returns.

Please note that the number of Local Authority maintained schools has decreased each year as a result of academisation. Local Authority maintained schools are required to provide a CFR return, whereas academies are required to return an Academies Accounts Return.

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