SNP and Green councillors in Glasgow have been accused of giving officials ‘no alternative’ but to rapidly implement severe education cuts.

The claims have been made in response to confirmation that the initial round of teacher cuts across the city has already been arranged despite a lack of ‘further political consideration’ from elected councillors.

In a recent email to headteachers, Glasgow’s Director of Education – Douglas Hutchison – advised that probationer teachers would be allocated to some schools in an attempt to address "real concerns" about reduced staffing levels.

The Herald can now reveal that the email also confirms that an initial 172 teacher cuts – of a total of 450 that are planned – have already been actioned: 136 FTE posts have been removed from primary schools, and a further 36 have been cut from secondaries across the city. Since 2021, primary school rolls have fallen by “around 425”, but the number of secondary pupils has increased “by around 1,400” during that period.

Mr Hutchison's communication to staff also makes clear that he “made the decision that the [staffing] formula would be adjusted” in order to deliver on required cuts of £6.741 million from August 2024. There is no suggestion that Mr Hutchison has acted improperly, and his email explains that officials had to act extremely quickly in order to adhere to the timetable that had effectively been set by councillor’s decisions, as well as to provide schools with the information they require to begin planning for next year.

While acknowledging that communication with schools "could have been better", he states that "there have been significant deadlines that needed to be met in order to manage the reduction in staffing by the end of the current school session." He adds that the council has "a responsibility to those on fixed term contracts and to colleagues completing their probationary year", and recognises that for headteachers to be able to "plan appropriately" they needed to know their staffing allocations "at the earliest possible point."

The revelations contradict previous statements by politicians involved in passing the SNP-Green budget deal, such as Councillor Blair Anderson’s assertion that the detail of education cuts “is still a matter for further political consideration”. His comments were made in an email to a constituent in March 2024, just a few weeks after the budget had been agreed.

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When approached about the contents of the council’s communication with headteachers, Cllr Anderson told The Herald that “operational decisions rightly need to be made by officers”, but added that he and his colleagues “are very concerned about the way the staffing formula will impact on certain schools.”

He continued: “I have spoken with officers to raise these concerns – in particular, we don’t think that it is safe or sustainable to have only one teacher in a school not committed to class time at any given time. From the outset, Greens have been asking for education officers to come to the political oversight group to explain the practical impacts of how the staffing formula is applied. We expect them to be at the next political oversight group meeting and will be relaying the concerns being raised at that meeting."

The Herald understands that only two meetings of the political oversight group have taken place, with the first occurring more than two months after the budget had been passed. A source also told The Herald that no officers from the education department have in fact been asked to attend these meetings.

Cllr Anderson added: “We will be asking officers to explore options to ensure that no school is in that position of having only one available teacher. As Greens have said from the outset, we don’t want to make a single penny of cuts and will do everything we can to raise the money we need to maintain service levels, with a top priority being protecting the schools likely to be most impacted by the financial pressures facing the council.”

The Glasgow Labour Group education spokesperson, Jill Pigeon, told The Herald that the Director of Education had been given “no alternative but to re-evaluate the teaching formulas.”

“The political oversight group was not established in time to facilitate these discussions,” she said, “and then allow for final approval by the City Administration Committee. The SNP administration would have been aware of this when setting the budget, leaving the Director of Education with no other choice.

“Glasgow’s children and young people will suffer as a direct consequence of the SNP and Green councillors' decision to pass this element of the budget. Glasgow Labour’s alternative budget would have allowed for proper consultation and more time to raise revenue within the city.

 “The SNP and Greens have prioritised politics over people in this budget, and our children and teachers are the ones paying the price.”

The SNP Glasgow group was approached for comment but did not respond.