Highlands will need cash to reopen schools
To get children back in education by the Scottish Government’s deadline in August Highland Council will need more money, according to leading councillors.
The chairman of the education committee John Finlayson said the bottom line is that to do what the government is asking "costs money."
He said there is "stress and difficulty" around planning because the situation is unstable with particular fears centred on late changes.
But the government’s failure to announce more funding for local authorities to deliver face-to-face teaching at least 50 per cent of the time is hampering planning for the reopening of schools.
The depute leader of the council Alasdair Christie hit out at the government over a lack of clarity on whether the funding was going to come or not.
He said that if not extra cash were to emerge then it would be "damaging" to parents, teachers and pupils.
This week criticism of the government’s stance has been vociferous from opposition parties with both the Conservatives and Labour accusing the SNP of being in disarray over education.
Cllr Finlayson said: “Crucially for me is the need to get additional resources from the Scottish Government to support the plans that authorities and schools draw up.
“We are now expected to aim for at least a 50 per cent face-to-face education diet and this cost money – in terms of possibly needing to acquire additional building space and also employing more staff.
“I know from personal experience that the barrier to offering more school time is not always space, it can be additional staff and we need resource and finance to support schools to offer more time.”
The range of issues to be considered is huge according to newly appointed interim executive chief officer for education Paul Senior.
Among them are transport, communications, early learning and childcare, catering, facilities management, IT and staff as well as rural issues as he described the government’s calls as a “stretch.”
“Some of the key considerations are 203 schools, 50,000 young children aged 0 – 19, 2400 full time equivalent teaching staff and 950 full time equivalent support staff," he said.
“That kind of gives you a feel for the scale of the ask here in terms of mobilising all of those schools and settings and getting them up and running in a safe and secure way in a planned way to meet the 50,000.
“That involves catering solutions making sure that our children and young people are getting access to meals and nutrition, transport making sure our children are getting to school, facilities making the environment ready and secure, and resource implication – that is a big stretch for us.”
Cllr Alasdair Christie, who leads the powerful recovery board, has called for a common sense approach saying urgent clarity about the funding position is needed.
: “If the Scottish Government doesn’t provide additional funding then we would probably have to have an emergency budget to discuss education, we’d probably need to have an emergency council meeting.
“It would be damaging for teachers, damaging for parents, damaging for pupils, and damaging for the economy. So we have to hope that common sense prevails and the correct and necessary resources are given to education.”
