Money will be withheld or taken back from any council that presses ahead with plans to reduce teacher numbers, education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has told the Scottish Parliament.
In a statement this afternoon she also said that consultation would begin soon on legislation designed to standardise the length of the school week in Scotland - albeit with some flexibility - in a move designed to stop budget-saving local plans to reshape how “learning hours” are arranged in schools.
Ms Somerville said both moves were “crucial” to improving education, but one political opponent said the announcement was a sign of “blind panic” in government.
The Scottish government today said it would “withhold or recoup funding” designed to increase teacher and support staff numbers if a local authority does not deliver on these aims, confirming plans exclusively revealed by Tes Scotland in January.
It added: “Regulations will also be introduced under legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2016 to enshrine a statutory minimum number of school hours.”
Ms Somerville said: “We are committed to recruiting more teachers and support staff, and we have already provided significant additional funding to local authorities to help ensure this happens.
“The Scottish government recognises the challenging budgetary decisions facing councils and that is why the deputy first minister [John Swinney] has committed to delivering a new deal for local government.
“However, this government has a clear commitment to improving education - and maintaining both teacher and support staff numbers and learning hours is crucial to that.”
She added: “I recognise the importance of strong partnership working between local government, central government and Education Scotland to achieve our ambitions.
“I will be writing to [local authorities body] Cosla today, and each individual council in the coming days, to set out the details on protecting teacher and support staff numbers, and next steps on learning hours.”
Before Ms Somerville addressed Parliament this afternoon, Cosla’s presidential team issued a joint statement, which said: “The timing and approach of the Scottish government’s latest move undermines the democratic mandate of local government and is a U-turn on previously agreed flexibilities for councils over their budgets.
“It is not the case that local government wants to cut any of our services; we have to work with the budgets we have and unless there is more funding, we are forced to make democratic decisions on priorities for the communities we serve.”
The Cosla statement added: “On the one hand, our budgets have been cut in real terms, and on the other hand, the Scottish government is intervening with additional policies, which means significant cuts will have to be made in other areas that support children, young people, families and our communities.”
In the parliamentary exchanges that followed Ms Somerville’s statement this afternoon, Conservative MSP Stephen Kerr said that it “destroys what little good faith still exists between councils and the Scottish government”.
He added that it would result in cuts to a wide range of education services and jobs, including swimming lessons, after-school clubs and school meals.
Labour education spokesperson Michael Marra said the announcement showed a government in “blind panic” and that it was “simply not possible” for councils to redraw their upcoming annual budgets at this stage.
He added: “This statement is woeful. It offers zero clarity to parents, pupils, teachers or to taxpayers.”
As Tes Scotland exclusively reported on 26 January, the Scottish government had told councils that it intended to enshrine in law the number of learning hours that primary and secondary pupils must receive each week.
It also said that it planned to introduce “financial sanctions for local government” if the pupil-teacher ratios recorded in 2022 were not maintained.
The measures, which had been set out in papers from Cosla, came in response to local authority plans to cut teacher numbers - notably in Glasgow - and even the length of the school day in order to balance budgets next year.
At First Minister’s Questions on 26 January, Nicola Sturgeon said that the government intended to “act to protect teacher numbers” after initial reports that councils were considering drastic cuts in order to balance their budgets, but it was not clear how it planned to do this.
Ms Sturgeon said that Ms Somerville would “set out more details to Parliament in the coming days”, which, 12 days later, led to today’s statement from the education secretary.
