SNP MAGPIES RAID THE NEST OF THE MOST VULNERABLE IN SOCIETY

In 2015 Nicola Sturgeon proclaimed that she should be judged on her record on education which is a bold statement to make by anyone at any level. However, it now appears that Covid-19 is providing a perfect opportunity to bury the many failures and empty promises that were pledged to every parent and school child in Scotland by the SNP administration.

Given the never ending changes that Scottish Education has been subject to, under the SNP government, and the imposed financial moves which neatly shifts blame to others and makes Head teachers directly accountable for the predicted Scottish Government failings in education, it seems ironic that the administration are now trying to claw back the finances they entrusted to supposedly “empowered” Head teachers and schools ensuring they could support the most vulnerable children in our society so they can plug gaps indeed  gaping wounds in local authority budgets. Local Authorities and schools have been told time and time again that PEF (Pupil Equity Fund) and SAC (Scottish Attainment Challenge) funds were strictly to be used for additionality and ring-fenced for the most vulnerable families and were not to be used for plugging gaps in local authority funding.

However, it has become apparent that Renfrewshire Council are about dip into those pots of monies and not to use it for it was intended. At the Emergencies Board (3^rd July 2020) the Council have

admitted that in order to mitigate against the £55m budget deficit, they will be looking at using flexibilities in existing budgets and “This will include deploying permitted flexible use of existing funding streams linked to Early Learning, Pupil Equity Funding and Attainment Challenge Funding, as well as options to redirect and repurpose existing approved resources where the impact of COVID-19 disruption presents such opportunities.”

It is clear, that this amounts to theft from the very most vulnerable families to take these funds and plug the financial failings that we were once told this money was not for. To be told now that this cash can be used  to help plug unspecified “funding gaps” caused by COVID-19, is taking money away from these vulnerable families. What happened to closing the attainment gap? What happened to making it a fairer and more level playing field for all of Scotland’s children? The government’s own April 2020 guidance, states clearly what the flexibility of these funds are to be used for.

We are told that this is due to Covid-19 but all involved in education know that the gaps and failures were already there. The SNP led Government are merely blaming Covid-19 for their previous failings. Local Authorities funding has been salami-sliced for years as the SNP slowly strangle councils they cannot control and gradually attempt to circumnavigate decision making away from local government elected members into the central Scottish Government hands.

The failing Regional Improvement Collaborative experiment is a perfect example of this power grab. Quangos across Scotland put together by the Scottish Government were simply designed to take decision making control away from local authorities in all education matters under the guise of collaboration and changing education for the better. These large and cumbersome groups receive vast amounts of state funding, paying wages on appointments where very little tangible seems to happen. What have these self-appointed groups achieved since their conception? Ask any teacher at the chalk face and they would be hard-pressed to tell you how the Regional Improvement Collaborative's make a difference to them or their young charges. Yet tellingly, Holyrood’s pet project and related significant financial resources, are not included in this nest plundering.

Let’s not forget that it will be the very most vulnerable children and their families that suffer most if this funding is spent elsewhere. Coronavirus has kept children out of schools for nearly four months, exams were cancelled and the stress that lockdown has had on many young people will undoubtedly be significant. Those with learning difficulties, living in poverty and with mental health issues, have been disproportionately affected as a result of the pandemic. After John Swinney’s recent  U-turn/“surprise” announcement that all children will return to full time schooling in August, we must ask ourselves, is this the right time to be raiding the nest of  school coffers, potentially assuring that the attainment gap widens ever further?