School leaders and unions are urgently calling for “more help” from the government as increasing Covid disruption is leading to schools overspending their supply budgets by up to three times in some cases, amid wider concerns about energy and cost-of-living price increases.
Leaders have told Tes that they fear a “never-ending conveyor belt” of Covid disruption as some teachers are now testing positive for a second time.
In a snap poll, 84 per cent of teachers said their school had spent more than three times its supply budget as the financial year closed at the end of last month.
Of the with 769 respondents, just 16 per cent said they had used their supply budget as planned, or had spent less.
However, of that 16 per cent, some said this was due to not being able to get access to supply tutors.
Overspending on supply is affecting Covid catch-up
The news comes after the latest government data showed that 2.5 per cent of pupils were off school for Covid-related reasons on 17 March, while nearly one in 10 staff members were absent.
Earlier this month, supply agencies were reporting difficulties in satisfying the high demand for cover in schools, leading to year groups being sent home for remote learning.
In the poll, over a quarter of respondents (27 per cent) said their school had spent up to three times the amount in its supply budget and just under a third (29 per cent) said up to twice the amount.
Michael Tidd, headteacher of East Preston Junior School in West Sussex, told Tes that his school had spent around three times the normal amount this financial year, to the detriment of funds he was hoping to use elsewhere.
He added that his school is in a fortunate position because it has finance reserves so he will “just end up being in deficit by the end of the year”.
However, he would have liked to have spentt that reserve funding elsewhere, particularly on catch-up.
“There have been lots of times where what we want to do is invest in a bit of tuition or one-to-one support or small groups, and we just can’t do that.”
Similarly, Robin Bevan, headteacher at Southend High School for Boys in Essex, told Tes in an investigation into school finances: “I think we all anticipated extra supply costs in our budgets, but we all thought Covid would be over by different points. Even now, it’s still affecting our school significantly.”
Mr Tidd also revealed that catch-up tutors that his school has employed from the school-led tuition funding have had to turn to covering regular classes on arrival due to staff shortages.
He said this means that “those children who should be getting support have missed out” and their sessions have become “disjointed”, which often puts them “back to square one”.
Simon Kidwell, principal of Hartford Manor Primary School and Nursery in Cheshire, said his school had been employing part-time staff to do extra days focusing on catch-up, but that provision had now become “almost non-existent because that member of staff has been having to cover for staff absence”.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said Covid catch-up plans have been “totally derailed” in some schools by the “continuing massive disruption”.
In response to the stories of catch-up being disrupted to cover staff shortages, Mr Barton said “leaders may have had no option” other than to divert these catch-up lessons.
“This makes the government’s mantra that we are ready to ‘Live with Covid’ seem all the more ironic, as the reality in our schools and colleges is continuing huge absence among both staff and students,” he added.
Supply pressures increase
Issues with supply have risen steeply in schools since the beginning of February.
Data seen exclusively by Tes and collected by Teacher Tapp reveals an 11 percentage point increase in the number of respondents saying they had had “many problems” getting supply.
However, only just over one in five private schools (22 per cent) said they were having problems accessing staff to cover lessons, compared with 60 per cent of state schools.
Access to supply was worst in the South West (64 per cent) and North West (59 per cent) of the country, closely followed by Yorkshire and the North East (58 per cent).
And Slava Kremerman, CEO of Zen Educate, which matches supply teachers and support staff to vacancies, said it had seen a “sharp increase in demand this week” that matched “the level of bookings we saw at the peak of demand in the winter, during the first Omicron wave”.
‘Physical and emotional burden’ on staff
Vic Goddard, co-principal of Passmores Academy in Essex, told Tes that while his supply budget has not taken a hit, his staff have been pushed to exhaustion.
“It hasn’t been a financial burden, but it’s been a physical emotional burden on the staff,” he said.
Speaking about access to supply, he addedL “We’ve almost given up trying.”
He said it’s an “almost impossible situation”. Although there is the “occasional” access to supply, “generally nobody is offered”, he explained.
Although Teacher Tapp data suggests that private schools would be less affected by supply issues than those in the state sector, it has still been an issue.
Christopher King, CEO of the Independent Association of Prep Schools, said there was an “understandable reluctance” for support staff to come into schools with large groups of children.
Mr King said that his association had seen headteachers filling gaps in staffing “to ensure the impact is as minimal as possible on the pupils’ education”.
However, he said this was not a “sustainable solution”, especially in light of approaching assessments in the summer.
