Chronic teacher shortages and increased sickness absences have pushed schools to rely heavily on supply agencies, costing the education system nearly £1.4bn in the last year alone.
The majority of the £1.4bn was made up by academy schools which spent £847m on agency supply staff in the 2023-24 academic year, new analysis by Sky News using Department for Education data shows.
That’s nearly double the amount (in real terms) compared to 2014-15.
One headteacher told Sky News it can cost schools upwards of £200 a day for a “decent supply teacher”.
“In some subjects like physics, supply agencies can charge £300-£400 per day, and schools are being held over a barrel,” said Gary Moore, the headteacher at Regent High School in north London.
But it’s students like Zainab Badran who are feeling the impact.
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“Every lesson we would have a different supply teacher,” the GCSE student said.
“I didn’t feel like I was learning anything. We were falling behind.”
Mineche Kyezu-Mafuta, a Year 10 student, remembered her science class being taught by five different teachers in a week.
“We had subs, and we have science five times a week, so we had a sub for every single one of those lessons – the sub changed for every lesson,” she said.
“Students (were) out of their seats, throwing stuff, talking, just anything you could really think of would be happening in that class.
“It was very loud, students weren’t behaving, no one was really doing their work.”
The vacancy rate among classroom teachers is still three times higher than it was a decade ago.
Last year, the number of classroom teachers leaving was twice the number of newly qualified teachers joining the workforce.
At the same time, teacher pay has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living. Since 2015, the median teacher salary has increased by nearly 30%, while inflation has risen by about 50%.
Agency commission rates
Agency commission rates are another source of frustration for school leaders. A teacher earning £30,000 may cost a school approximately £36,900 through an agency, an effective 23% markup. This rate of fees continues to rise further with higher salaries.
Andy De Angelis, headteacher of a secondary school in west London, said: “UK agencies provide a CV and possibly help with references. I arrange the interviews.”
Sky News contacted several leading supply agencies for comment, but none responded.
A Department for Education spokesperson said work is “well under way to deliver on our pledge to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers so schools are less reliant on agency staff in the future”.
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“We are already seeing early progress with over 2,300 more secondary and special school teachers in classrooms this year, and over a thousand more people than last year have accepted places on teacher training courses starting this September,” they added.
“To support schools to get better value for money when hiring supply teachers and other temporary school staff, we have established the agency supply deal.”
‘Significant failings’
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But the teachers’ union NASUWT has said recent government-commissioned research shows less than 0.5% of school leaders reported obtaining supply teachers through the Crown Commercial Service framework.
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“Currently, the approach of government ignores the significant failings that exist in the provision of supply teachers,” it said.
“This creates unnecessary cost and adversely affects supply teachers, schools and pupils.
“The best way forward for both schools and supply teachers would be for schools and local authorities to be supported by the government to maintain their own supply pools.”
