Education secretary Jenny Gilruth has written to Scottish councils saying that she will not withhold funding over the drop in teacher numbers last year.
Local authorities were allocated £145.5 million for 2023-24 to invest in “increased teacher numbers and support staff”, and the Scottish government had said that some of the funding could be held back if teacher numbers fell.
When the teacher census was published in December, it showed a drop in teacher numbers for the second year in a row.
However, in a letter to councils this week, Ms Gilruth says that while the fall in teacher numbers is “extremely disappointing”, she does not think that reducing council funding is in the best interests of pupils.
Ms Gilruth writes: “I do not wish to create a risk of services having to be withdrawn at short notice due to action taken on staffing by a local authority.”
She goes on to say that more stringent teacher-number targets will be put in place next year.
She adds that she hopes that deciding not to invoke financial penalties over teacher numbers will “unblock” a stalemate with councils over setting the minimum number of hours children must spend in school.
Teacher numbers and cuts to learning hours
In her letter, Ms Gilruth says it is “extremely concerning that some local authorities have proposed cuts to the level of learning hours as part of their 2024-25 budget consultations”.
“I am clear that this would not be acceptable,” the education secretary adds.
Ms Gilruth says that “should no voluntary agreement be reached”, she plans to “proceed with regulations”.
However, Ms Gilruth’s letter - as well as a lack of progress over budget negotiations and the council tax freeze - has proven to be the final straw for councils.
Councils have been warning that the forthcoming budget settlement from the Scottish government could have disastrous consequences for them.
Cosla, the councils’ umbrella body, has now declared itself in “dispute” with the government over funding, specifically highlighting Ms Gilruth’s ”extremely disappointing tone”.
Councils and directors of education have long argued that they should be judged on outcomes, not inputs, such as teacher numbers and learning hours.
Councils want flexibility on spending
They say that having to maintain teacher numbers leads to harsher cuts in other areas, as well as teachers being employed at the expense of other staff, such as classroom assistants.
They argue that councils should have the flexibility to spend education funding as they see fit, based on their local context - especially at a time of decreasing budgets.
However, in her letter, dated Monday 12 February, Ms Gilruth argues that having fewer teachers would make it harder to close the attainment gap, improve outcomes and address dwindling attendance and poor behaviour - as well as realise the government policy on reducing teachers’ class-contact time.
She also says that the school week “is the backbone of our education provision and benefits all our children and young people” and that “any measures that materially reduced the number of hours children spend learning in school would be expected to reduce pupil attainment and wellbeing and undermine efforts to close the poverty-related attainment gap”.
Ms Gilruth remains “keen to come to an agreement with local government on the provision of learning hours in local authority schools”.
However, she adds that “in the continued absence of an agreement” she will “take steps towards utilising the powers in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to prescribe in the regulations the number of hours made available”.
She also makes it clear that next year she expects “teacher numbers to be protected by councils” and that she plans to hold councils to more stringent targets.
Ms Gilruth says that in 2024-25 every council will be given a set number of teachers that it has to maintain, and that some will be required to return teacher numbers to 2022 levels.
Teacher numbers fell in 15 councils last year, based on figures published in the 2023 teacher census in December.
In some small councils, such as Clackmannanshire and Shetland, the drop was just one or two teachers. However, East Ayrshire had 37 fewer teachers in 2023 than 2022, while in Glasgow teacher numbers fell by 125 between 2022 and 2023.
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