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.
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:
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.