MORE than £2 million was spent on supply teachers in Cheshire West schools last year, data shows.

A freedom of information request found that £2,287,262.62 was spent on supply teaching and support staff from April 2019 to March 2020.

Spending ranged wildly from school to school, with Ellesmere Port Catholic High School’s £162,137 top of the list.

However, although this spending comes from the public purse, it is up to individual schools to set their own budgets for supply staff.

A spokesperson for Cheshire West and Chester Council said: “This is expenditure incurred by LA maintained schools in the borough, not by Cheshire West and Chester Council. The spend on supply staff is not determined by the Council. Schools have delegated funding for the provision of education and, under the Scheme for Financing, individual schools are able to determine how they prioritise their funding and which suppliers they use. 

“The information included in the FOI request has been provided by the Council because maintained schools are part of the Council’s accounts and the information requested is available from the Council’s finance system.”

The lowest spenders on the list were Highfield Community Primary School, spending just £84.99 during the year.

In total, £1,481,570 of the £2.3 million was from primary schools, with £583,000 from secondary schools.

Just over £200,000 of the sum was spending from special schools.