Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, (a) what the budget was and (b) how many staff were employed in the (i) office of the National Schools Commissioner and (ii) offices of each of the Regional Schools Commissioners in each of the last three financial years to date.
As a result of structural changes within the Department for Education in 2015-16, the Academies Regional Delivery Group (ARDG) was created, incorporating the National Schools Commissioner and Regional School Commissioners (RSC) with complementary regional and other functions. Workforce costs and numbers for ARDG are therefore not comparable with predecessor structures and organisation.
Workforce budget spend for financial year (FY) 2016-17 and for FY 2017-18 and Staffing Full Time Equivalent figures (FTE) as at 31 March in 2017 and 2018.
RSC Region | Workforce budget spend FY 2016-17 (m) | 31 March 2017 FTE | Workforce budget spend FY 2017-18 (m) | 31 March 2018 FTE |
South West | £2.20 | 54.66 | £1.98 | 55.59 |
West Midlands | £1.90 | 58.62 | £1.91 | 52.57 |
East Midlands and Humber | £1.90 | 46.99 | £1.48 | 59.93 |
Lancashire and West Yorkshire | £1.85 | 54.16 | £1.91 | 68.71 |
North East London and East of England | £1.60 | 44.01 | £1.62 | 41.46 |
North | £1.57 | 40.48 | £1.29 | 41.28 |
North West London and South Central | £1.89 | 49.35 | £1.62 | 52.43 |
South London and South East | £2.18 | 54.19 | £1.66 | 58.52 |
ARDG National Core | £7.05 | 127.27 | £8.13 | 148.77 |
RSC Staff Programmes Costs | £4.08 |
| £9.95 |
|
Total | £26.22 | 529.73 | £31.55 | 579.26 |
| As of 1 March 2017 | As of 1 March 2018 |
Number of academies and free schools (including studio schools and university technical colleges (UTCs)) | 6,518 | 7,613 |
Approximate number of pupils in academies and free schools (including studio schools and UTCs) | 3.4 million | 3.7 million |
Note: January 2018 census information is due to be published 28 June 2018.