Supply teachers cost city £12m
QUESTIONS RAISED OVER HUGE BILL RACKED UP SINCE SEPTEMBER:
CARDIFF schools have forked out £12m on supply teachers this academic year, with unions describing the money spent on supply teaching in Wales as “a real problem”.
The National Union of Teachers warned that the amount spent on supply teaching across all of Wales is “a real problem which is impacting on the funding available for our public sector.”
As education budgets are squeezed, the union said money was going into the pockets of private supply agencies, draining the public sector.
Freedom of Information (FoI) figures from Cardiff council show Michaelston Community College, federated with Glyn Derw High, spent the most of any school on temporary teachers, with a total bill of £522,451.45.
This compares with the smallest amount of £6,886.97 paid by St Paul’s Church in Wales Primary.
The council was asked to release the figures under FoI by Cardiff-based Vetro Recruitment, which also asked which supply agencies were used. The council refused to name them.
A council spokesman said the £12m was less than five per cent of schools’ total net budget, although they also get money from sources such as grants. The figures reveal wide variations in money spent on supply in the city’s 128 secondaries and primaries, including special schools, which may reflect their size.
Secondaries spending most on supply cover were Michaelston, followed by Fitzalan, with a bill of £409,514.61, and Whitchurch High at £325,430.66.
Some primaries spent more on supply teachers than high schools, such as Hywel Dda, which paid out £358,772.08 – the largest sum of any primary.
NUT Cymru policy officer Owen Hathway said: “Certainly the £12m figure is a significant expenditure.
“There are occasions where using supply teachers to cover lessons are absolutely essential and help schools provide the best education for pupils.
“These include allowing teachers to have leave from their duties to access professional development, covering illness and maternity leave, or to ensure there are qualified teachers in the classroom when practitioners access their crucial planning time. In all of these instances it is right schools are sourcing supply teachers.”
But he said questions should be asked about whether schools were getting value for money. Schools could look at whether, in some cases, supply teachers could be given a fulltime contract and how to tackle avoidable illness like stress. This is impacting on funding available for our public sector and depressing morale, motivation and wages for those working as supply teachers,” he warned.
Dr Philip Dixon, an expert on Welsh education and former director of the ATL union, said: “This is certainly a significant sum and deserves further scrutiny. Some supply costs are due to staff illness, and there is obviously good practice that needs to be shared more widely. But some of the cost will be due to the release of teachers to help with the construction of the new curriculum and other Welsh Government projects. These are necessary but will impact on school budgets.”
The most recent figure for Waleswide spending on supply teaching shows councils spent more than £130m on cover in the 2014-15 school year.
Data obtained at that time by the Welsh Conservatives shows local authorities spent as much as £41m on temporary teaching cover in the three school years from 2012 to 2015.
Collectively, 19 of the 22 Welsh councils that responded to the party’s FoI request revealed they paid out £131.7m on supply cover in that period. That list showed Wales’ highest spenders included Cardiff, which spent more than £24m, and Caerphilly, which spent £16m.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “Supply teachers are a valued and important part of the workforce and we want to make sure they have opportunity for professional learning and are able to support our wider education reforms and national priorities. The recent independent report by the Ministerial Supply Model Taskforce concluded that there is clear room for improvement in the way we employ, manage and support the delivery of supply teachers. We are working closely with interested partners to develop proposals to implement the report recommendations.”
A Cardiff Council spokesman said: “The shortage of teachers is a UKwide problem and schools in Cardiff are not alone in having to use supply agencies to secure short-term cover for their vacancies. As the largest local authority, this figure represents less than 5% of the overall net budget for schools in the city.”