A Bradford education chief has called for schools in the city to set up internal supply teacher pools after new figures revealed £8.2 million was spent on staff cover in the last year.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show how much taxpayers forked out to private companies to cover for teacher and school staff absences – with £4.2 million spent at primary schools, £3.7 million at secondary schools and £292,611 at special schools in the district from 2012-13.

The total figure spent covering sickness, maternity leave and other staffing problems has fallen in Bradford for the last two years, from £10 million in 2010-11 and £9 million from 2011-12.

But Councillor Ralph Berry, Bradford Council’s member for children’s services, said schools should look at alternatives to recruiting staff from agencies and join forces to create their own supply teacher pools, where staff from one school help by offering cover at another.

“The levels of supply teaching can be disruptive and unsettling for children and I would encourage schools to use more shared resources and develop partnerships for internal supply teachers,” he said. “There are better ways of dealing with these situations than picking up a phone and calling an agency.”

Bradford Moor Primary School spent the highest amount on supply staff of all primary schools in the district, paying £154,794 to agencies.

The school was placed in special measures after a damning Ofsted report, but the Telegraph & Argus reported earlier this month that it had since won praise for taking action to tackle its weaknesses.

Headteacher Janet Relton said the fact the school was in special measures meant it had spent more than usual “ensuring our staff have access to the training identified to improve outcomes for pupils”.

She added: “This was recognised in our recent Her Majesty’s Inspectorate monitoring report as one of the rapid and decisive actions to bring about the changes required. In addition, recent appointments of experienced teachers have meant that, from September, we will be fully staffed and be able to cover the majority of absences with internal staff.”

St Matthew’s CE Primary School spent £150,432 on agency staff, which headteacher Bob Curran said was ‘higher than normal’ last year. But he added: “After a number of recent appointments in the last few weeks I am pleased to say that school will be fully staffed when we re-open in September.”

The highest-spending secondary school was Grange Technology College, which paid £441,815 for staff cover last year. No one from the school was available to comment last night.