MSPs today sought reassurance that the improved pay offer for council support workers - including school janitors, catering staff and classroom assistants - will not be paid for by “clawing back” money for child abuse survivors and disadvantaged pupils.
Education secretary Jenny Gilruth responded with reassurances that there would be “no detriment” to either group and that the use of both pots of cash was about “reprofiling” funding.
Yesterday, school support staff started three days of strike action over pay, resulting in school closures in 24 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities.
However, while Unison went ahead with strikes, Unite and GMB Scotland suspended their plans to consult members over a new offer, made possible - according to deputy first minister Shona Robison - by “an additional £80 million of funding and flexibility from the Scottish government”.
Where that £80 million is drawn from came under scrutiny at today’s meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee, where Ms Gilruth gave evidence on the Budget and the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie highlighted a report by the Daily Record that £7 million was being “reallocated” from Redress Scotland - a scheme established to compensate those subjected to abuse in care - to fund the improved offer.
Meanwhile, Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy voiced concerns that £30 million of Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) - which goes directly to schools to support disadvantaged pupils - would be “clawed back” to pay for the deal.
Responding to Mr Rennie, Ms Gilruth said her understanding was that the money was being raised by allowing councils to redirect “£7 million of contribution to the Redress scheme in 2024-25”.
But she added that they would “still have to maintain their agreed overall contribution of £100 million” and that “the decision will not have a detrimental impact on the operation of this scheme”.
In response to Ms Duncan-Glancy’s concern that £30 million of PEF money would go towards the pay deal, Ms Gilruth said again that there would be “no detriment to levels of funding available at school level”, and that it was about a “reprofiling” of funds so that PEF was aligned with the academic year, as opposed to the financial year.
‘Debstabilise’ funding
Ms Duncan-Glancy said there were fears that the move could “destabilise some of the plans headteachers had made this year to use that funding”. She sought “reassurance that the funding will, indeed, be given back to that pot”.
Ms Gilruth said the government allocated PEF based on four-year cycles and that this had been done to provide “certainty” and to give “headteachers the opportunity to plan and recruit”.
“Any move away from that would be to the detriment of our young people,” she said.
In a letter from Ms Robison to Katie Hagmann, resources spokesperson for local authorities’ body Cosla - sent on Wednesday 20 September and seen by Tes Scotland - Ms Robison sets out the approach “to enable a significant enhancement to the current pay offer” for council support staff.
Ms Robison says that “the 2024-25 local government settlement will not be top-sliced for the forecast £7 million local government contribution to the Historic Child Abuse Redress Scheme”. This should “give councils confidence to make that £7 million available in 2023-24 for a revised pay offer”.
However, she also says the contribution should be made “in a reprofiled way in future years” and that “this will in no way impact on payments being made to individuals under the scheme”.
Funding for pay pressures
Ms Robison also says: “I am aware that the Local Government Attainment Grant, or Pupil Equity Fund, is provided on a financial year basis but used across an academic year by schools. Therefore a portion of the funding provided for the academic year 2023-24 is not expected to be utilised until the first quarter of financial year 2024-25.”
She adds: “I will allow councils to bring £30 million of this funding forward and use it to manage pay pressures in 2023-24 on a one-off basis, and commit that, in return, the PEF allocation for 2024-25 will increase by £30 million to rebalance this, therefore ensuring that funding continues to be available at currently planned levels going forward, with no detriment to schools.”
After the committee meeting, Ms Duncan-Glancy accused the government of “raiding the pockets of poor pupils to try and mask 10 years of local government cuts” and said that taking money from PEF “flies in the face” of promises to give headteachers long-term certainty to help their planning.
She added: “This government is failing to balance the budget enough to keep its current plates spinning. It’s announcing delay after delay on non-contact time, on the extension of free school meals and on reducing class sizes. It has no idea where the money is coming from.
“Years of this type of mismanagement and broken promises by the SNP mean too many young people are denied a fighting chance to reach their potential.”
