Six schools in Brighton and Hove have vacancies for head teachers with just a week to go before the new school year begins.

However, further down the teaching scale the city is faring better than many of its counterparts across England and Wales.

All of its primary schools are fully staffed and in secondary education there are the equivalent of only 2.4 full-time secondary school jobs and one special school post being advertised.

Schools throughout Sussex are bucking a national trend which chief inspector of schools Mike Tomlinson has described as the worst teacher shortage for 40 years.

Across the two counties there are less than 70 vacancies in schools because of the popularity of the region to live and work.

The figures compare favourably with Surrey, which is 330 teachers short.

School chiefs in West Sussex say they expect many of the 44 teaching vacancies advertised at the end of last term, which represent 0.68 per cent of the county's 5,000 teaching positions, to have been filled during the summer.

In East Sussex there are 13 full-time vacancies in secondary schools, nine empty slots in primary education and three empty special school posts. The figure is 0.72 per cent of the 3,600 teachers.

David Hawker, Brighton and Hove's director of education, is leading a recruitment and retention task group to try to attract head teachers to the city.

A spokeswoman said: "There aren't too many problems regarding teaching shortages but the situation with head teachers is a worry.

"We've set up a task group, made up of head teachers which is looking at how we can best attract new talent and support schools."

A spokeswoman for East Sussex County Council said: "This year's figures are an improvement on last year and we've been helped by additional resources from central government.

"Reduced timetables and reorganised classes are not an issue for us because we do not have a significant problem."