Porters Grange School criticised over supply teachers’ bill (From Southend Standard)
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Southend primary school spent £214,000 on agency staff
5:00am Monday 17th September 2012 in Southend
Porters Grange Primary
A PRIMARY school in Southend has been criticised for spending £214,000 on supply teachers from expensive agencies.
Porters Grange Primary School, in Lancaster Gardens, paid out the money for the last academic year – 2011/12 – while spending just £520 on interim teachers it had recruited itself.
In sharp contrast, 16 other schools in the borough plugged temporary holes in their teaching rosters without resorting to using agencies at all.
Agency staff can be as much as £5,000-a-year more expensive than teachers recruited on regular deals.
The revelation prompted a disgruntled parent to accuse Porters Grange of wasting public money.
Terry Phillips, 38, of Cheltenham Road, Southend, said: “I know schools will have to have supply teachers every now and then because of problems with sickness and other issues. But using an agency rather than recruiting staff yourself is just lazy.
“If it can’t get the staff, it should look at all the other schools that do.”
More than £854,000 was spent on agency teachers by Southend schools during 2011/12.
In comparison, £1.06million was spent on supply teachers recruited by individual schools.
Many schools, such as St Mary’s Primary School, in Prittlewell, Bournes Green Junior School, in Southend, and Chalkwell Hall Infant School, in Westcliffl, were forced to foot five-figure bills for supply staff, but did so without using agencies.
In 2009, the National Association of Headteachers estimated teachers supplied by agencies could cost up to £5,000 per year more than staff recruited under a school’s standard terms.
Porters Grange was the only school to spend more than £100,000 on agency staff, with its outlay comprising nearly a quarter of its total wage bill.
Jane Theadom, Southend Council’s head of school support and preventatitive services, said: “Decisions about the use of supply teachers, including whether to employ directly or via an agency, are matters for school governing bodies.
“There is no council policy regarding this matter, but we always advise employing staff with the necessary skills, knowledge and expertise for their particular school and the needs of the children concerned.”
No one from Porters Grange’s governing body was available for comment.
Comments(7)
emcee
says...
2:37pm Mon 17 Sep 12
This story goes to show there is massive wastage going on in schools. Schools need to be managed like businesses and the only way to do that is to have a management team quite seperate from teaching staff. At the moment the management teams are mainly all teaching staff, they are not trained business managers. Under the current system, very rarely will you find management who know how to be financially efficient. OK, so most schools have bursars but these are still at the command of head teachers and are only there to move figures around.
Quite often, schools moan about the lack of money they have been allocated. However, if most of these schools better managed that money they would find that their budgets are quite generous.
Leaving teachers to manage the finances only promotes spending for self interest and convenience. The sooner school finances are managed by buisiness people, the better.
Russ13
says...
2:45pm Mon 17 Sep 12
As for other schools being able to cover absence using other members of staff...... could that not mean that the other schools are over-staffed to start with?
Yes, the school may be to blame here but there may be a set of reasons to justify this expenditure.
SuzyAnn
says...
3:51pm Mon 17 Sep 12
Nebs
says...
6:26pm Mon 17 Sep 12
emcee wrote:Lots of schools teach business studies. Surely those teachers are more than capable of sorting out what is, in reality, a fairly simple budget. And heads are on close to 6 figure salaries, if they can't manage finances then they don't deserve to be heads.
If you allow teachers to manage their own budgets then what do you expect.
This story goes to show there is massive wastage going on in schools. Schools need to be managed like businesses and the only way to do that is to have a management team quite seperate from teaching staff. At the moment the management teams are mainly all teaching staff, they are not trained business managers. Under the current system, very rarely will you find management who know how to be financially efficient. OK, so most schools have bursars but these are still at the command of head teachers and are only there to move figures around.
Quite often, schools moan about the lack of money they have been allocated. However, if most of these schools better managed that money they would find that their budgets are quite generous.
Leaving teachers to manage the finances only promotes spending for self interest and convenience. The sooner school finances are managed by buisiness people, the better.
emcee
says...
12:29am Tue 18 Sep 12
Nebs wrote:But that is the whole point.
emcee wrote:Lots of schools teach business studies. Surely those teachers are more than capable of sorting out what is, in reality, a fairly simple budget. And heads are on close to 6 figure salaries, if they can't manage finances then they don't deserve to be heads.
If you allow teachers to manage their own budgets then what do you expect.
This story goes to show there is massive wastage going on in schools. Schools need to be managed like businesses and the only way to do that is to have a management team quite seperate from teaching staff. At the moment the management teams are mainly all teaching staff, they are not trained business managers. Under the current system, very rarely will you find management who know how to be financially efficient. OK, so most schools have bursars but these are still at the command of head teachers and are only there to move figures around.
Quite often, schools moan about the lack of money they have been allocated. However, if most of these schools better managed that money they would find that their budgets are quite generous.
Leaving teachers to manage the finances only promotes spending for self interest and convenience. The sooner school finances are managed by buisiness people, the better.
For a start, do not think for one minute that all teachers know the subject they teach. Even if business studies teachers did know their subject it does not follow that they will become part of the management team or understand even budgeting on a large scale.
As for the highly paid heads, again, do not assume that because they they recieve a very high salary in proportion to what they actually do that they understand how to be efficient with the finances.
southendshrimper
says...
1:53pm Tue 18 Sep 12
Eric Whim says...
12:48pm Mon 17 Sep 12