Highland Council has the highest education vacancy rate in Scotland amid concerns temporary contracts are impacting ‘on our children’s education’
Highland Council has by far the most education vacancies in Scotland with the local authority offering a disproportionately high number of temporary contracts.
Following a tip-off about the employment situation in the north regarding education just days into the new term, a search of the portal advertising public sector jobs for all 32 local authorities showed how many positions were vacant.
The council currently has 126 education vacancies: 39 (or 31 per cent) are permanent contracts; 77 (61 per cent) are temporary contracts - the rest are for casual, relief or supply work.
The local authority’s leader of the opposition Councillor Alasdair Christie is worried that “with all these vacant posts, the question must be asked: What damage or impact is it having on our children’s education?”
The council, however, said it is normal to have such a large number of vacant posts after the summer due to resignations, need for more teachers, leave-taking but that is not reflected in other local authorities.
Most of the permanent contracts are for teachers, principal teachers or head teachers all over the region - Merkinch, Culloden, other parts of the city, Nairn, Plockton, Tain, Dingwall, and Wick among others.
Many of the temporary contracts go to pupil support assistants (PSAs) who work in the classroom alongside teachers often with additional support needs and end at the end of term in July, others continue until September.
Even when considered next to other largely rural local authorities, the proportion of temporary contracts offered compared to permanent ones is high and so does not offer job security due to the length of the contract or the hours offered.
In Aberdeenshire, 78 per cent of education jobs vacancies are permanent, 22 per cent are temporary and in Argyll & Bute the split is 48 permanent to 52 per cent temporary.
In Perth & Kinross it is more balanced with a 43 to 47 per cent of permanent to temporary (the rest were casual or supply work) while Moray was seeking permanent candidates for 63 per cent of its vacancies and just 27 per cent temporary.
Many of the positions are considered key to functioning classrooms. The council said a PSA would support learning, teaching and personal development with additional support needs.
One advertisement for a PSA at Merkinch Primary in Inverness offers 15 hours per week until July 3 next year and the pay is between £8724-£9599 per year - between £727 to just under £800 a month.
Permanent roles also exceed the total vacancies in most other councils’ education departments with 39 - mostly teaching - positions available.
Three headteacher roles are open at Tain Royal Academy, Fortrose Academy and Auldearn Primary School and there are 22 teaching jobs available according to myjobscotland.
Cllr Christie said: “I think the disparity between the number of temporary and permanent educational posts compared to other local authorities in Scotland needs to be fully investigated to see if Highland is an outlier and actually not doing things in the same way as other local authorities.
“For temporary staff you can understand if it is covering a maternity leave but if it is looking after children numbers then we should have better planning mechanisms in order to have permanent contracts and thereby encourage more people to apply for the position.
“I think security of employment is critical, especially in the cost-of-living crisis and if we are to attract and retain anyone who wants to make a career in these roles the temporary contract situation must be addressed.”
A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “The Highland Council was very successful in recruiting to primary teaching posts before summer for the new session which started on August 19.
“However, it is more challenging to recruit to secondary teaching vacancies especially as there are national shortages across some subject areas.
“This means that in some cases the adverts are a follow-up from our main recruitment exercise which took place in the spring and summer terms and so are not being advertised for the first time.”
The council does not advertise during school holidays due to the low response rate; resignations at the end of term; school roll changes that mean more staff are needed means “it is not unusual to have a high number of permanent teacher vacancies”.
The reasons for temporary contracts could be maternity leave; management time for promoted staff; probationer teacher cover; class contact reduction cover and Pupil Equity Funding provided by the government and often used for additional PSAs.
She added: “Whilst we are advertising a number of non-teaching vacancies on a temporary basis for the school session for the reasons outlined above, a review of temporary contracts was undertaken at the end of the session 2023/24 which has resulted 130 non-teaching staff being moved onto permanent contracts from the start of session in August 2024.”
