Ceredigion council has spent more than £4,800,000 on supply teachers in county schools over the past five years, data shows, as money spent across Wales is described as “eye-watering”.

The figures were obtained by the Welsh Conservatives and show £252,913,528 has been spent on supply staff across Wales from 2016 until 2021.

In Ceredigion the amount spent on supply staff fell to £1,358,625.34 in 2020/21 from a high of more than £2m in 2018/19.

The spend in the county has dropped every year from 2018, with a total of £4,850,274.61 spent between 2016 and 2021.

In Powys, the council recorded a supply staff spend of £14,456,047.86 between 2016 and 2020 but did not make figures for 2020/21 available.

Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Education, Laura Anne Jones MS, said: “There is no doubt that supply teachers have been a major lifeline for schools across Wales as they’ve had to deal with staff shortages due to illness and self-isolation.

“However, the sums involved are absolutely eye-watering and I am sure taxpayers will question this mammoth amount of public money.

“It appears councils are becoming over-reliant on the overused and hugely expensive supply teacher system, and Labour ministers must do more to help our schools.”

A Ceredigion council spokesperson said: “Being able to access high quality supply staff is vital for school operations.

“We aim to utilise supply staff for short notice cover, and have moved to issuing more fixed term or temporary contracts when staff need to be engaged for a longer period of time.”