£1.2million spent on supply teachers

Secondary Schools across the borough of Rochdale spent over £1.2million on supply teachers in 2009-10 according to a report produced by the Tax Payers Alliance.

The figures show that a total of £1,259,750 was spent on supply teachers.

Siddal Moor Sports College spent the most, at £266,217, closely followed by St Cuthbert’s RC Business and Enterprise College who spent £229,542.

Wardle High School spent £182,560 and Oulder Hill spent £103,007.

The school which spent the least on supply teachers was Hollingworth Business and Enterprise College who spent £7,000.

Spending for other secondary schools in the area varied from anything between £19,000 and £90,000.

The findings come as part of the first detailed analysis of spending data released by the Department for Education in January 2011.

Nationally, £293 million was spent on supply teachers in 2009-10. The report found that, schools in deprived areas use supply teachers far more frequently. Schools with over 30 per cent of students on free school meals spent an average of over £140,000 each on supply teachers. This suggests that the pupils who need stable teaching the most do not get it.

The report highlighted that there is little apparent correlation between pupil funding and academic achievement.

Many areas that have low attainment are those with the highest funding per pupil
The data confirms that higher deprivation leads to lower academic achievement. 

Matthew Sinclair, Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Many parents are very concerned when they see their children being taught by a series of different supply teachers, rather than enjoying a stable learning environment with a regular teacher. At the same time, we have just seen a decade in which Britain has spent more and more on education but slid down international league tables for performance. 

“Taxpayers deserve to get better value and this report provides new evidence that suggests the key to improving schools isn’t just throwing more money at them, but improving how they are managed. Headteachers need to be given more power to run their schools and should be accountable to parents, not bureaucrats in Whitehall.” 

Simon Cook, author of the report, said: “This new information on school budgets offers an invaluable insight into how our education system is functioning. It is clear that schools in more deprived areas are getting a substantial premium in terms of funding, but most aren’t able to overcome the challenges of working with more deprived children and deliver better results.

“It is really important that more information like this is released so that we can have a real, informed debate about how we can make public services work.”

A spokesperson for Rochdale Borough Council said: “Supply teachers are employed for a variety of reasons including cover for staff training, staff absence and sickness.

"Schools are responsible for their own staffing arrangements and the amount spent by one school compared with another will be entirely down to individual circumstances.”