BROADCAST CLIP: £62m cost of supply teachers could have covered a new teacher in every school

Embargoed: 00:01 Monday 22 February 2021

• Secondary school spending and attainment data from 2017-18 shows the range of schools and their outcomes has broadened over the last decade. 

• Changes have included a significant decrease in the cost of supply teachers, down from £293m in 2009-10 to £61.8m in 2017-18. 

• The paper explains the advantages that new free schools can bring to disadvantaged children.

With the expected announcement of the roadmap for the return to schools, the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) has revealed that the annual cost of supply teachers equates to paying a newly qualified teacher in every secondary school.

The TPA research pulls together large datasets on secondary school spending and pupil attainment to explore national trends in school budgets since 2009-10. For example, the total cost of supply teachers in 2017-18 was £61.8 million, the equivalent of £21,472 per school, which equates to the starting salary of a new teacher that year. This is a significant decrease from the previous decade, where the total spent on supply teachers was £293 million in non-academy secondary schools alone.

The research also discovered that free schools (first introduced in 2010) performed better than academies and maintained schools in taking a higher proportion of disadvantaged pupils. Free schools’ progress 8 number, which gauges a pupil’s improvement between key stage 2 and 4, was also 0.32 points better than maintained schools’ performance. 

Table: average progress 8 measure, average income per pupil, and proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals in academies, maintained, and free schools, 2017-18

Click here to see your local secondary school data

Broadcast-quality clip from Duncan Simpson (research director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance) is available to view and use below:

Download (.mp4, 1080p)

Key Findings:

• Spending on supply teachers in English secondary schools in 2017-18 was £61.8 million, or £21,472 per school. This is a substantial decline from 2009-10 – the first year such data was available – when the total was £293 million in non-academy secondary schools alone.
  
  
• Schools with more than 30 per cent of pupils on free school meals (comprising 184 schools) spent less on supply teachers compared to 2009-10, averaging at £16,702. This compares to £21,805 for schools with less than 30 per cent of pupils on free school meals.
  
  
• The average income per pupil in schools with more than 30 per cent of pupils on free school meals was £7,801. At the remaining schools, it was £6,033. The average income per pupil in maintained, free schools and academies was £6,035, £8,093 and £6,093 respectively.
  
  
• The proportion of pupils on free school meals in maintained, free schools and academies was 14.6 per cent, 15.5 per cent and 12.9 per cent respectively.
  
  
• Free schools perform better compared to maintained and academy schools. Maintained schools’ progress 8 measure was -0.05, compared to 0.27 in free schools and 0.02 in academies.
  
  
• This means that free schools teach a higher proportion of disadvantaged pupils, receiving higher income per pupil, while achieving higher attainment. 

Click here to see your local secondary school data

Broadcast-quality clip from Duncan Simpson (research director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance) is available to view and use below:

Download (.mp4, 1080p)

Duncan Simpson, research director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:

“This research shows that the range of schools and their outcomes has dramatically broadened since the last decade.

“It’s promising that the amount spent on supply teachers has massively decreased, and free schools are delivering quality education for more disadvantaged pupils, but there is still more work to be done to make our education system top of the class.

“Ministers should continue giving headteachers the freedom they need to run schools, making them accountable to parents not bureaucrats in Whitehall.”

TPA spokesmen are available for live and pre-recorded broadcast interviews via 07795 084 113 (no texts)

Media contact:

Danielle Boxall
Media Campaign Manager, TaxPayers' Alliance
[email protected]
24-hour media hotline: 07795 084 113 (no texts)

Notes to editors:

1. Founded in 2004 by Matthew Elliott and Andrew Allum, the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) campaigns to reform taxes and public services, cut waste and speak up for British taxpayers. Find out more at www.taxpayersalliance.com.
   
   
2. TaxPayers' Alliance's advisory council.
   
   
3. The TaxPayers’ Alliance published the previous analysis of secondary school spending in 2011. It found that secondary schools in England spent £293 million on supply teachers in 2009-10.
   
   
4. Pay scales for teachers for the year 2017/18 can be found here.