Scotland’s education secretary has said that City of Edinburgh Council’s plan for pupils to attend school for just one full day a week come August is not “strong enough”.

John Swinney said the inspectorate was now examining whether the authority had “sought every opportunity to use other accommodation to maximise the amount of time children and young people can be in school”.

He also said that all council plans for reopening schools would be scrutinised by inspectors.

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Mr Swinney, who is also deputy first minister, reiterated his desire that when schools reopen, pupils should be able to attend 50 per cent of the time.

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His comments follow the announcement by Edinburgh and Aberdeen councils that pupils will be in school a third of the time - something that Stephen McCabe, the children and young person spokesman for councils’ umbrella body Cosla, had warned could happen in schools that were close to or over capacity, in an exclusive interview with Tes Scotland last Tuesday.

Mr Swinney made his comments in an interview on BBC Radio Scotland this morning.

He said he had made it clear that he expected pupils to be in school 50 per cent of the time come the next academic year, but it was highlighted that Edinburgh was not coming “anywhere close to that”.

In response, Mr Swinney said: “Well, I accept that and I don’t think that’s strong enough. What the Education Recovery Group also agreed to was that we had to be innovative about the way we did this. We had to use, yes, schools, but also leisure facilities, public halls, church halls, town halls, vacant accommodation, other accommodation that was safe to use to try to maximise those opportunities.”

He added that all plans for reopening schools - including Edinburgh’s - would be scrutinised by the inspectorate to see if “they have sought every opportunity to use other accommodation to maximise the amount of time children and young people can be in school“.

“That’s a key assessment that is yet to be done with the plans that are emerging from local authorities,” Mr Swinney said.

The education secretary was also asked if that Scottish government would fund councils to achieve the goal of 50 per cent of the time in school next year.

He said councils had received £300 million of new money to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and that the suspension of the delivery of 1,140 free nursery and childcare hours - which had been due to start in August - had given councils financial flexibility of £200 million. He added the Scottish government was happy to look at specific proposals for additional resources.

However, in a statement, Cosla said if the Scottish government wanted more children back in school safely, it would have to make “quick decisions on funding”.

In a joint statement Mr McCabe, and Gail Macgregor, Cosla’s resources spokesperson, said: “Local authorities have been clear that the overriding priority in returning to face-to-face education is the safety of our children, young people and staff. The plans that all authorities are putting in place are fully informed by the guidance agreed jointly with the Scottish government.

“Throughout the crisis, we have worked closely with the Scottish government to ensure the viability of many of the services that support our partners in the delivery of education. That includes continuing to provide funding for services such as transport and childcare. Only last week council leaders were considering the net additional costs of dealing with the consequences of Covid-19 between March and June. Once funding provided by Scottish government is taken into account, the net additional cost to councils is £145 million for this period alone.

“Council plans are at an advanced stage but there is little doubt that as well as many of the practical challenges that each area will face, there are significant financial challenges. If more children are to return to schools safely, we need quick decisions on funding, which will give councils the confidence to address those challenges.”