Schools funding may bypass local authorities, John Swinney indicates

School classroom - credit David Davies/PA Wire

A review of school governance may lead to individual Scottish schools being directly funded by central government, John Swinney has admitted.

In an appearance on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, the Education Secretary said the consultation, which will run until 2017, may conclude that some power should be taken off councils and given directly to schools.

This would mean “further financial flexibility” being devolved to schools, using funds previously controlled by local government.

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“There may be some decisions that are taken by local authorities that would be taken by schools instead,” he said.

“So for example, if further financial flexibility is devolved to individual schools, and they are able to take decisions about the way resources are used within schools, then conceivably some of these decisions would have been taken by local authorities in the past.

“That's entirely conceivable that that's what could happen, because it would give the schools the ability to take decisions that relate directly to the educational opportunities of young people in Scotland.”

Council leaders have voiced their concern over the plans, but Swinney added: “I've made it also clear that I want local authorities to retain democratic control over education services within Scotland, but that I want to encourage a much greater degree of co-operation between local authorities in how they use their services to add value to the educational experience of young people at a local level.”

The School Governance Review sparked concerns from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). Speaking after it was launched last week, a spokesman said: “I think we remain concerned that this is as open as we would hope and that we are not facing a set of pre-decided outcomes.”