Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to the public purse of private agency supply teacher services in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

Schools, academiesand local authorities are responsible for recruiting and managing their supply teachers and whether or not they use private supply agencies.Supply agency costs are a private commercial arrangement between schools, or local authorities, and individual supply agencies.

Agency supply teacher spend data at national and local authority level is available in the following publications:

For maintained schools - ‘Expenditure by Local Authorities and Schools on Education, Children and Young People’s Services: 2013-14’ (Table 3), at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-education-and-childrens-services-spending-2013-to-2014.

For academy schools – ‘Income and expenditure in academies in England: 2013 to 2014’ (Raw data SATS table) at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-and-expenditure-in-academies-in-england-2013-to-2014.