Supply teachers costing schools £1.4bn - as students say they are 'falling behind'
The majority of the £1.4bn was made up by academy schools which spent £847m on agency supply staff in the 2023-24 academic year, new analysis by Sky News using Department for Education data shows.
That's nearly double the amount (in real terms) compared to 2014-15.
One headteacher told Sky News it can cost schools upwards of £200 a day for a "decent supply teacher".
"In some subjects like physics, supply agencies can charge £300-£400 per day, and schools are being held over a barrel," said Gary Moore, the headteacher at Regent High School in north London.
But it's students like Zainab Badran who are feeling the impact.
"Every lesson we would have a different supply teacher," the GCSE student said.
"I didn't feel like I was learning anything. We were falling behind."
Mineche Kyezu-Mafuta, a Year 10 student, remembered her science class being taught by five different teachers in a week.
"We had subs, and we have science five times a week, so we had a sub for every single one of those lessons - the sub changed for every lesson," she said.
"Students (were) out of their seats, throwing stuff, talking, just anything you could really think of would be happening in that class.
"It was very loud, students weren't behaving, no one was really doing their work."
The vacancy rate among classroom teachers is still three times higher than it was a decade ago.
Last year, the number of classroom teachers leaving was twice the number of newly qualified teachers joining the workforce.
At the same time, teacher pay has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living. Since 2015, the median teacher salary has increased by nearly 30%, while inflation has risen by about 50%.
Agency commission rates
Agency commission rates are another source of frustration for school leaders. A teacher earning £30,000 may cost a school approximately £36,900 through an agency, an effective 23% markup. This rate of fees continues to rise further with higher salaries.
Andy De Angelis, headteacher of a secondary school in west London, said: "UK agencies provide a CV and possibly help with references. I arrange the interviews."
Sky News contacted several leading supply agencies for comment, but none responded.
A Department for Education spokesperson said work is "well under way to deliver on our pledge to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers so schools are less reliant on agency staff in the future".
"We are already seeing early progress with over 2,300 more secondary and special school teachers in classrooms this year, and over a thousand more people than last year have accepted places on teacher training courses starting this September," they added.
"To support schools to get better value for money when hiring supply teachers and other temporary school staff, we have established the agency supply deal."
'Significant failings'
But the teachers' union NASUWT has said recent government-commissioned research shows less than 0.5% of school leaders reported obtaining supply teachers through the Crown Commercial Service framework.
"Currently, the approach of government ignores the significant failings that exist in the provision of supply teachers," it said.
"This creates unnecessary cost and adversely affects supply teachers, schools and pupils.
"The best way forward for both schools and supply teachers would be for schools and local authorities to be supported by the government to maintain their own supply pools."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
Our failing water firms are a damning reflection of Broken Britain
The latest report from the Environment Agency on the state of Britain's rivers is a veritable shower of euphemism and shame. 'Serious pollution incidents', the bland bureaucratic term preferred by the agency, are up by 60 per cent just in the last year. We all know what that means: lumpy sewage in streams and on seashores that turns the stomach of anyone nearby, asphyxiates fish, and generally decimates the environment. 'Wastewater' leaking out while being carried uphill is apparently a particular problem, one 'impacting' swimmers. Around 80 per cent of the most serious 'incidents' were down to three companies – Thames Water (33 spillages), Southern Water (15) and Yorkshire Water (13). There is no suggestion that the situation is likely to improve; indeed, all the talk is of Thames Water, the largest company of its kind in the country, collapsing under the weight of its own debt rather than its scandalous record on pollution. It's a damning reflection of 'Broken Britain'. Why has a supposedly civilised G7 economy grown so easily accustomed to such an appalling state of affairs? It may be true that de-industrialisation has cleaned up some of the larger rivers and estuaries in recent decades, but the water companies, the regulators and successive governments can hardly take credit for that. What they are responsible for is what is in their control – maintaining a sewage system that does what it is expected of it in the modern world. It is one of the most basic services – and yet in parts of the UK, it feels little more than a hopeless aspiration. This river of excrement has been rolling for years, and, while the details can be complex, the principal streams of blame that feed into the scandal can be easily identified. Incomprehensibly weak regulation is the strongest of the currents, either because Ofwat was never given sufficient powers or a wide enough remit, or because it was incompetent, or all three. There has never been a shortage of official bodies nominally overseeing matters – the Environment Agency and various iterations of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as well as local authorities – but always a huge deficit of effective democratic control. There is, of course, a fundamental contradiction at the heart of this particular privatised industry: the provision of clean running water and efficient sewage disposal may not align with the commercial imperatives of the companies denationalised in 1989 in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland were spared the experiment). Profit and public service can co-exist and even flourish – but not always, and not everywhere. Even if the industry had been regulated better, the privatised model combined with zero competition and regulated tariffs was poorly prepared for the task of investing the vast sums needed to renew the crumbling Victorian infrastructure, let alone build the reservoirs and pipework required to cater for a population that was to expand by some 12 million in the ensuing decades. Some public services ought not to be expected, let alone forced, to turn a profit. But from early on, the major weakness in the regulatory regime was becoming apparent – that while the need to monitor charges and water quality was recognised, there was no oversight of the financial health of the companies. Once the shares had been acquired from the small shareholders in the initial public offerings and placed in the hands of private equity firms, the companies were free to load themselves with as much debt as they fancied – which paid for bumper dividends for the new shareholders. It left a vital public service hopelessly over-mortgaged. The chance was taken for some lucrative asset stripping, even certain reservoirs were sold off, and the companies were left so enfeebled that if Ofwat tried to fine them, they could plausibly claim that they would go bust. They contrived to make themselves too big to fail. Or so they hoped. On Monday, the government will publish a review of the industry by Sir Jon Cunliffe, the head of the Independent Water Commission, and its own proposals will follow. As we reported on Friday, the government is expected to scrap Ofwat. It must use the power of parliament to chart a new course for the industry. Despite the pollution crisis, the Treasury cannot afford immediately to renationalise the most distressed of the operators, Thames Water, because of its enormous debts – more than £16bn. It seems inevitable that Thames will fall into the special procedure that will ensure continuing water and sewage services to 15 million customers in southern England and London while the government takes control. This is a far cheaper remedy for the taxpayer, but it does still mean that the considerable cost of cleaning up the rivers, keeping the taps on and the loos flushing will, to some extent, fall to the taxpayers as well as the bill payers. Either that, or we just get used to having the dirtiest rivers and beaches in Europe.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Kathleen Rigby obituary
My wife, Kathleen Rigby, who has died aged 81, put her love of justice, writing, history and the arts to public good throughout her life. She did her best to improve things while having fun, and usually found like-minded collaborators. Her first jobs were in counter-intelligence as an officer with MI5 and MI6. She subsequently worked widely in the education sector and finally as a volunteer with the National Trust and Chetham's Library in Manchester. She also published a book of poetry. Kath was born in Edinburgh to Paddy (nee Wylie), a nursery nurse, and William Philips, who left the army as a major after the second world war to work in the London office of the English China Clays mining company. They lived in Enfield, north London, and Kath attended Palmers Green high school, until the family relocated again to St Austell, Cornwall, when her father moved to the company's head office there. Kath then boarded at West Cornwall school in Penzance. She studied history at University College London, where we met, and graduated in 1964. We married the following year. Having been recommended to MI5 by a family friend, Kath attended an interview without knowing it was for the Security Service. She was offered the job of counter-intelligence officer, which she did for five years. We moved to Manchester in the early 1970s for my work. Kath completed an MA in economic history at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) then in 1975 trained as a teacher. Her first post was at Priestnall secondary school. She then became head of history at Brinnington community high school, rising to deputy head. In 1987 she took the position of vice-principal of North Area College. Following a medical procedure that made it difficult for her to stand for long, Kathleen took early retirement in 1991. Shortly after, she gained an MSc in educational leadership at Manchester Metropolitan University, then became a senior lecturer at its Centre for Educational Leadership. Having held several positions on school governing boards, she was elected chair of the board of Tameside College in 1992, and became a member of the Greater Manchester learning and skills council. For many years she was a magistrate on the Manchester city bench and chair of its advisory council, taking compulsory retirement at 70. Then she became a volunteer at Dunham Massey, a National Trust house, writing blogs and leading tours. With a colleague she researched and wrote three histories of former residents of the house, two of which were published by the Altrincham History Society. She also volunteered at the 18th-century Chetham's Library. Poetry that she wrote was soon published in poetry magazines and in the Spectator. In one of her poems she mused that if she had spent less time doing the Guardian cryptic crossword she might have become leader of the Labour party, or a judge. In 2024 she published a collection of her poems, How to Be a Pear, under the name Kate Rigby. Another volume, The Winter Blackbird, is being prepared. Kath is survived by me, our children, William and Jessica, and a grandson, Alex.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Hartlepool nuclear plant given more time to carry out work
An improvement notice issued to a nuclear power station after a scaffolder was injured by a defective light fitting has been nuclear power station operator EDF has been given extra time to carry out improvements after receiving the notice from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) in ONR said a worker had been injured by a defective light fitting in said it was developing a "specific training package" to minimise the risk of incidents. The ONR said the extension would allow the plant to complete the work which it expects to rollout in the had previously said the accident had occurred even though EDF had identified the defective light in October said EDF had not correctly assessed the health and safety risks with the light at the time. The watchdog said it would continue to monitor the plant's progress in line with the notice, which is now due on 15 station opened in 1983 and has two advanced gas-cooled reactors capable of powering 1.4m year it was announced the site would continue to operate for an extra year until 2027. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
