Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the level of shortages of cleaners in schools.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The department gives school and academy trust leaders the freedom to decide how they recruit and deploy their non-teaching staff in schools, including cleaners. They hold responsibility for monitoring and making decisions about their cleaners to meet their own circumstances, in addition to having autonomy to make contract decisions for externally-supplied cleaning staff.

The department supports schools to get the best value from their resources. Support is provided through the establishment of national deals on common areas of school spending. The use of these deals for school resourcing needs is at the discretion of school and academy trust leaders. While the department encourages the use of its established deals, schools are trusted to get the best value for money when hiring their staff.