Gross expenditure: Financial spending by LA maintained schools, before any deductions are made.
Net expenditure: Financial spending following deductions of income from catering, supply teacher insurance and community-focussed income.
Gross expenditure reported by LA maintained schools has increased. Between the years 2011-12 and 2020-21 gross expenditure decreased year on year. This trend reversed in 2021-22 with an increase in gross expenditure, this trend has continued into 2023-24. The decrease was driven primarily by school conversion to academy status and therefore reduction in the number of schools included within this publication. In the latest two years, this decrease in the number of LA maintained schools has slowed.
In the financial year 2023-24, LA maintained schools' gross expenditure was £25.9 billion, 2.9% more than in 2022-23 when total expenditure was £25.1 billion:
- £11.6 billion (44.8%) spent on teaching staff,
- £5.0 billion (19.3%) spent on education support staff,
- £2.7 billion (10.6%) spent on supplies and services,
- £1.5 billion (5.9%) spent on premises and occupation related costs,
- £0.8 billion (2.9%) on supply and agency teachers,
- £4.3 billion (16.5%) on other spend, including staff training, indirect employee expenses, costs of finance, community costs and insurance payments.
Full details of all school expenditure can be found in Table 2.
In 2023-24, £757.6 million was spent on supply teaching costs, an 8.5% increase from 2022-23.
This includes:
- £128.8 million on supply teaching staff employed directly by the school, 16.7% higher than in 2022-23.
- £521.9 million on agency supply teaching staff, 7.5% higher than in 2022-23.
- £106.9 million on supply teacher insurance, 4.8% higher than in 2022-23. This cost decreased year on year between 2015-16 and 2021-22, but started increasing again in 2022-23. Supply teacher insurance includes premiums paid to insurers for supply teacher cover and to the LA for centrally managed supply schemes.
Spend on supply teaching varies by phase
Spend per pupil on supply teaching was highest in pupil referral units. It accounted for 6.2% of all staffing costs in 2023-24 and totalled £1,394 per pupil - the majority of this for agency supply teachers. This compares to spend per pupil on supply teachers in:
- Special schools - £929 and accounted for 4.3% of all staffing costs in 2023-24.
- Secondary schools - £188 and accounted for 3.3% of all staffing costs.
- Primary schools - £199 and accounted for 4.0% of all staffing costs.
- Nursery schools - £290 and accounted for 3.0% of all staffing costs.
In 2023-24, LA maintained schools spent £5.0 billion on education support staff. Education support staff include teaching assistants, who are more widely employed in primary schools, pupil referral units and special schools.
19.5% of total gross expenditure in primary schools and 32.6% in special schools was spent on education support staff. For pupil referral units, 18.4% was spent on education support staff. This compares to 11.1% in secondary schools. These percentages are similar to 2022-23.
Higher supply teacher costs and higher education support staff costs both contribute to the higher spending per pupil seen in pupil referral units and special schools. However, places in both pupil referral units and special schools attract high needs funding as additional costs are needed to support the needs of pupils placed in these settings. Hence the expenditure per pupil is consistently higher across years for both pupil referral units and special schools.
Gross expenditure per pupil varies by local authority, with the highest in Inner London. This is generally the case for all phases of school. It should be noted that North Somerset appears to have a particularly high expenditure per pupil when considering all school phases. This is because the majority of LA maintained schools within this LA are special schools, which tend to have a higher expenditure per pupil.