Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have conducted or commissioned research into the determinants of schools’ overall staffing decisions, and the balance they strike between hiring administrative and teaching staff.

The Department continually reviews information about schools’ staff deployment; for example through the School Workforce Census.

A wide range of complex factors determine deployment decisions, including school type and curriculum priorities.

In June 2013, the Department published the Review of efficiency in the schools system, which identified effective workforce deployment as one of the key characteristics of efficient schools and set out examples of school practice. The review has been attached to this answer.

The Department has also published information for schools to enable them to compare their expenditure with other similar schools. This includes tools on the School Financial Health and Efficiency collection available on gov.uk to support schools in carrying out financial reviews and self-assessments.