SCHOOLS in Trafford could be saving themselves up to £200,000 on their phone bills, according to an independent telecoms broker.

In research carried out by Equinox, it claims that the amount of money which could be saved by schools across the North West amounts to £7.1 million.

The research carried out by the firm suggests that eight out of ten of the 105 schools in Trafford, have not checked what they should be paying for telephone calls in the last five years.

According to Equinox phone bills for schools have crept up over the last few years, not because they are making more calls or the rates have increased, but because of the patterns of calls being made.

Ten years ago the majority of calls made to parents by the school would have been to landlines, with the occasional office number thrown in. However, over time the mix of numbers has migrated from landlines to mobiles, which have higher tariffs.

According to Equinox's Dave Millett, the smallest savings it identified was 35 per cent and the biggest being over 80 per cent.

He explained: "This latter figure equated to the cost of employing another teaching assistant for that school and with school budgets under constant pressure, it makes absolute sense to ensure they are on the right tariffs.

"Even if the saving is only a few thousand a year, that is money they didn’t previously have and can be used to help educate our next generation."