I would like to know how much each primary, secondary and SEND school in the LEA (of which data is held) has spent on Supply Teaching or Teaching Assistant cover with external companies, and how much has been spent with each of those companies per school. I would like this data from the 1st September 2020 – 1st July 2021.
Devon County Council (DCC) collects this information as part of the Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) which DCC is required to submit to the Department for Education, and this covers financial years only.
Therefore, please see this DCC webpage covering the financial year 2020 – 21, and this DCC webpage which shows the financial year 2021 – 22 for this information.
Regarding how much each school spent with each provider, DCC believes that the information you have requested is exempt under Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Commercial Interests.
Devon County Council considers that the release of this information may provide a competitive advantage to the requestor, and this would prejudice the commercial interests of the providers involved. We also consider that that the release of this information would be likely to be commercially prejudicial to the council, as realising this information could lead to providers benchmarking against prices submitted. This may then lead to future tenders being less competitive in the future.
Devon County Council acknowledges that there is a general public interest in openness and transparency. However, there is a strong public interest in ensuring that we get the best value for money when purchasing supply teaching, so that the maximum amount of money can be spent on services for the people of Devon. Therefore, for this reason we believe that the balance of public interest lies in withholding this information currently.