When teacher numbers have fallen, education secretary Jenny Gilruth has pointed the finger of blame squarely at councils. They are, after all, the employers of teachers, as she has frequently pointed out.
However, Tes Scotland can reveal that, in correspondence with the Scottish government, councils have robustly defended the drop in numbers recorded when the 2023 teacher census was published in December.
A total of 15 councils saw teacher numbers fall between 2022 and 2023: it was a drop of 160 teachers across Scotland, ranging from one teacher in Clackmannanshire to 125 in Glasgow.
Councils explain drop in teacher numbers
Yet the 15 councils - which were asked by the government on 12 December to provide “any mitigating circumstances” by 19 December - were unapologetic.
Using freedom-of-information legislation, Tes Scotland secured their explanations for these drops.
The councils cite:
- Cuts in Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) funding. Cash previously targeted at nine councils is now being spread across all 32 authorities and those losing out say teacher numbers have dropped as a direct result.
- The failure of SAC funding to keep pace with inflation. Glasgow City Council said that while SAC funding has remained “fixed”, teacher salaries have risen, resulting in it employing 23 fewer teachers with this money by census time.
- Cuts to the general revenue grant from government to reflect falling pupil numbers. North Lanarkshire Council said it lost £1.8 million over two years (due to falling rolls) “that would have been available to schools to fund teaching staff”.
- “Acute recruitment challenges” in secondary. Moray Council said some secondary posts have been advertised a dozen times and remain unfilled; Aberdeenshire Council said it was experiencing “a significant recruitment crisis” in secondary.
- Headteacher posts were also going unfilled. Moray said “even acting [headteacher] posts” were being “repeatedly advertised with no suitable applicants to interview”, and the council reported that it was having to increase joint headships.
- A drop in the allocation of probationers was cited by many councils as affecting their teacher numbers. Aberdeenshire requested 66 secondary probationers and was allocated 18, for example.
- A higher drop-out rate among probationers. Renfrewshire Council said there had been “a significant drop-out rate compared to previous years”, adding: “This trend is continuing.”
- The government push to devolve more power over staffing to schools. Fife Council said it has devolved staffing decisions to secondary schools but this means it is “unable to proscribe a specific minimum teacher staffing number”.
The Scottish government has repeatedly expressed its frustration that teacher numbers fell in 2022 and in 2023, despite councils receiving £145.5 million to invest in school staff.
Ms Gilruth had threatened that some of the funding could be withheld from the 15 councils where teacher numbers had fallen. However, in February she relented and wrote to councils saying that, while the fall in teacher numbers was “extremely disappointing”, she did not think reducing their funding was in the best interests of pupils.
However, the correspondence uncovered by Tes Scotland makes clear education directors’ and council chief executives’ anger and frustration that this “blunt threat” - as East Ayrshire puts it - was ever made. And they explain, often in great detail, why they have not been able to maintain teacher numbers.
Scottish Attainment Challenge funding
A recurring theme was changes to the way the Scottish Attainment Challenge is funded.
Funding previously targeted at the nine councils with highest levels of child poverty began, from 2022 , to be redistributed across all 32 councils through the Strategic Equity Fund.
Although this is intended to be fairer, most of the nine “challenge authorities” - Clackmannanshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire - are ultimately millions of pounds worse off.
Explaining why the number of teachers had fallen in his authority, East Ayrshire chief executive Eddie Fraser pointed out that “eight of the nine [challenge] authorities are included in the list” of councils where teacher numbers had fallen. He said that “this does not surprise me” because they “saw their budgets reduced by £6.3 million” in 2023-24.
North Lanarkshire chief executive Des Murray says that by 2025-26 his authority “will lose in excess of £4 million of annual funding through the attainment challenge”. This money was “predominantly used to support teacher and school support staff posts.”
Between 2022 and 2023 East Ayrshire said the number of teaching posts funded through the attainment challenge reduced by 16. Over the same period, Renfrewshire employed 20 fewer teachers using attainment challenge funding; in North Ayrshire it was 24.
North Ayrshire chief executive Craig Hatton added in his letter that teacher numbers would continue fall “in the next two years as this funding continues to reduce”.
Impact of ‘fixed’ funding
Councils where teacher numbers fell also said that attainment challenge funding, including the Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) allocations that go directly to schools, had failed to keep pace with inflation. The upshot, the councils said, was that fewer teachers and support staff could be employed, as salaries have gone up but funding has remained “fixed”.
Glasgow education director Douglas Hutchison said in his response that fewer teachers were being employed through the Pupil Equity Fund and Strategic Equity Fund “since these budgets were allocated as flat cash while teacher salaries increased, meaning fewer can be paid for with a fixed grant”. Some 23 fewer teachers were employed in Glasgow using attainment challenge funding in 2023 than in 2022.
Renfrewshire also highlighted that PEF “has not increased to take account of recent pay awards to both teaching and non-teaching staff”. Children’s services director Janie O’Neill said: “This would mean fewer staff can be paid for with this fixed grant.”
In other councils the problem was that they wanted to recruit but couldn’t.
Recruitment crises around key posts
Aberdeenshire education and children’s services director Laurence Findlay said the council was “in the midst of a significant recruitment crisis within our secondary sector” and that headteachers “are advertising vacancies on multiple occasions, yet recruitment to key posts remains unsuccessful”.
School leaders are having to take “unpalatable decisions around the curriculum” - including ceasing to deliver certain subjects to certain year groups. Mr Findlay also said that primary staff are being used to plug gaps in secondary.
“Throughout the past year we placed 459 separate adverts for secondary teachers, 258 of which were re-adverts,” he said.
Moray depute chief executive Denise Whitworth told the government that, in spite of offering “financial incentives”, the council was advertising posts in subjects such as craft, design and technology and home economics “more than 12 times each without success”.
“This has meant no appointment and there are also no supply teachers available in these areas,” she added.
A plea “to find solutions for the acute recruitment challenges we experience across Scotland at present” is made by Sheena Devlin, executive director of education and children’s services in Perth and Kinross Council, who is also president of education directors’ body ADES.
Heavy reliance on probationers
Councils’ reliance on probationer teachers to fill staffing gaps in schools was also laid bare.
Several councils were left with posts to fill after they did not receive anywhere near their requested allocation of probationers.
Fife requested 133 secondary probationers and received 69, “the lowest percentage in the last 10 years”. Largely as a result of this, it started the 2023-24 school year “with 54 teacher vacancies”.
Highland Council bid for 64 secondary probationers but received 32; Aberdeenshire requested 66 secondary probationers but was allocated 18.
And, among the probationers they have been allocated, the councils said dropout rates were higher.
Glasgow was allocated “fewer probationer teachers” and said there had been “a significant drop-out rate”.
Renfrewshire said it had seen “a significant drop-out rate compared to previous years”, adding: “This trend is continuing.”
Tes Scotland revealed earlier this month that, by January, 559 probationers had opted out of the Teacher Induction scheme, which equates to just under 18 per cent of the original cohort allocated places in May 2023.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The Scottish government is determined to raise attainment and close the poverty-related attainment gap and classroom teachers will play a central role in this.
To that end we are providing local authorities with £145.5 million in next year’s budget to protect teacher numbers and are investing £1 billion over the course of the parliament in the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
The spokesperson added: “The 2024-25 Scottish Budget provides record funding for local government of over £14 billion, while Scotland’s education and skills budget has grown to over £4.8 billion.
“Councils have statutory obligations in respect of education, and have a shared commitment with the Scottish government to deliver the best outcomes for people and communities under the Verity House Agreement.”
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