Council cuts will affect teaching quality, say local government representatives

Cuts to council budgets will damage the quality of classroom teaching, representatives of local government have told MSPs.

Speaking to the Scottish parliament’s Education and Culture Committee, councillors said local authorities would try and protect individual school budgets but cuts would fall on student support and “peripheral” services like specialist music and art tuition.

“There is no way local authorities can lose sums like £130m over the space of two years and not have some level of impact in terms of education provision,” said Councillor Malcolm Cunning of Glasgow City Council.

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All of Scotland's 32 councils have now accepted the Scottish Government's £10.3bn funding settlement, which sees local authority budgets reduced but with commitments to maintain teacher numbers.

Councillors told the committee this meant support staff would be cut, making teacher’s jobs more difficult.

“Decisions have not been made, but what you may well find is there are fewer support staff within schools and therefore teachers are standing at a photocopier rather than in the classroom,” said Cunning.

Independent Shetland councillor Gary Robinson said he was “annoyed” to hear ministers talk about a one per cent cut to local government.

“Sorry, but I don’t know that council. I don’t recognise it. If I could put some figures on the table for my own council, we’ve seen the biggest percentage cut in expenditure this year of 5.1 per cent in cash.

“Our budget is just over £100m, our grant in the current financial year is £87m, our grant in the next financial year will be £82m with about £1m share of health and social care integration money, so you do the maths,” he said.

Other services which support vulnerable families are also at risk, the councillors warned.

Councillor Stephanie Primrose, education spokesperson for council umbrella body COSLA warned teachers will have to take on more responsibilities. “They’re not social workers, they’re not counsellors, and as we cut back on those services teachers are going to be under increasing strain to deal with some of the really complex issues,” she said.

SNP MSP George Adam said councillors should look for solutions and big ideas in a “difficult situation”, but councillors warned teachers will find it hard to innovate when they are under increased pressure.

Edinburgh councillor Paul Godzik said local authorities were being more constrained in making local choices.

“If you constrain the flexibility through increasing Scottish Government directions in terms of how we direct our resources then that innovation, those ideas are not going to come to fruition,” he said.

Glasgow’s assistant director of education Ian Robertson said further reform of the senior phase was likely, with schools sharing teachers and services.

“We have to sit down with secondary headteachers and tell them that, if their raison d’être is to optimise choice for young people, schools cannot be islands, which is how they have been working for years. They try to be all things to all people and, invariably, I get complaints from people who want to know why their daughter cannot study three sciences because the school cannot offer them,” he said.

He also said councils would be forced to look at the greater use of technology. “If a school cannot get a physics teacher for love nor money, why can it not have a virtual one? We will be pushed down that route to address certain practical challenges that we face,” he said.

Education secretary Angela Constance insisted the funding deal was fair.

“While we all recognise the financial constraints, we need to focus on what we can do with the resources we have. Attainment is increasing and the gap is closing, and we need to continue in that vein,” she said.