Scottish Government are keeping hush on education funding

A proposal for how the Scottish Government will distribute £145.5m between local governments is being debated in near-total secrecy.

Presumably, the agreement in question defines each local authority’s share and sets out the specific conditions they will need to meet.

But we can’t be completely sure. We know that the funding is meant to protect and maintain teacher numbers across the country.

Whatever the other details are, however, the proposal has proven controversial. COSLA, the body representing local authorities, missed a July 12 deadline to sign, and neither side will answer questions about what happens next.

Instead, COSLA’s discussion is protected by a private session, and a spokesperson for the Scottish Government said that it would only release the proposed agreement after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

Why insist on the FOI route when it seems more than likely that it will result in the information being made public regardless? We asked the Scottish Government that question as well. We haven’t received an answer so far.

There are a few details we know about the special teacher fund and a few reasons why the full picture remains cloudy.

According to information released earlier in the year via FOI requests, we know the previous breakdown of funding between councils from 2023/24.

But, here is where the situation gets murky.

We don’t know for sure:

• How much is allotted to each council in 2024/25
• What conditions councils need to meet to receive their share
• When the money will be paid
• What happens if a council doesn’t meet the conditions
• What happens if COSLA does not sign on to the agreement?

There are reasonable guesses in some cases, but there are also good reasons to be hesitant about making any assumptions.

It’s possible, of course, that the funding split this year is the same as last year’s.

When asked in Holyrood whether Glasgow City Council would lose its share of the special funding because it plans to cut 172 teacher posts this year, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said that “Glasgow have been offered funding of £16.5m in 2024/25 to maintain teacher numbers, which is of course their share of the £145.5m”.

That matches Glasgow’s share from 2023/24. But until the government releases the details of this year’s agreement, we can’t be sure if the other councils' shares will remain the same.

Another complication: some councils are expected to have fewer teachers than last year.

So, if a council does not qualify for its share, what happens? Would Glasgow’s £16.5m be split among the other local authorities? Would the government allow Glasgow to keep a portion based on a separate agreement or mitigating factors?

Or would the Scottish Government put that money back in its pocket?

We have asked the government and COSLA about the possible repercussions for undistributed funding.

But at this point, it’s not even clear how the government will decide whether councils have “protected” their teacher numbers.

Teacher numbers are published every year. But measuring councils against their 2022 numbers makes sense because this was the first measuring stick for this new type of funding: after all, if a council lost teachers from 2022-23 and then held steady between 2023-24, that council hasn’t “maintained” or “protected” teacher numbers. It has lost teachers.

What’s more, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth wrote to councils in February 2024 to say that some councils would be measured against their 2022 levels to receive their funding for this year.

More specifically, she wrote: “My officials will be in touch with individual councils to agree grant conditions, including the number of teachers I expect to be maintained.

“For those councils where numbers did fall, that may include a return towards 2022 levels where we have not fully accepted the mitigations presented.” 

That stance appears to have changed, however.

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In response to previous requests for information earlier this year, government spokespeople insisted that councils will be measured against their “most recent census data,” which means a comparison of the December 2023 report and the upcoming December 2024 data.

But mixed messaging has been a characteristic of the special fund since it was first announced, so it’s hard to know what to accept.

In February of 2023, then-Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville announced the new £145.5m special funding for councils to “maintain increased teacher numbers and support staff”. The official press release also stated that if any councils failed to do so, the “Scottish Government will withhold or recoup funding allocated for these purposes”.

In practice, it has never been fully clear whether this money was meant as a reward for maintaining or increasing teacher numbers or whether it is meant to be spent specifically for this purpose.

Nor has the government been consistent about whether failure to meet the conditions would result in “withholding or recouping” the funding.

Councils have fallen short every year, but the government has always paid out up to this point.

(Image: Derek McArthur)
When asked for details of the agreement, a Scottish Government spokesperson said:

“We are continuing to engage with COSLA as a matter of priority to find a resolution which ensures that teacher numbers are protected.

“The Scottish Government’s budget, which was endorsed by Parliament, protected funding for teacher numbers.

“We are, therefore, making £145.5 million available for that purpose and we hope that councils will act in the best interests of pupils and agree to maintain teacher numbers.”

Finally, the other source for details on the proposed agreement, COSLA, is currently protected by private discussions.

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As a “membership body,” COSLA is not subject to FOI law – even though councils very much are.

When asked how COSLA decides what should and should not be private, a spokesperson said that these decisions take into account whether the discussion is part of developing a negotiating stance and whether “publication would inhibit free and frank debate and development of that policy” – language lifted from FOI rules.

In other words, a body that represents Scotland’s local authorities and negotiates on its behalf with the Scottish Government, all of which are public bodies subject to FOI law, can hold sessions in private and withhold information largely at its own discretion.

So, how to find out? Either one or both sides has a change of heart, or they come to an agreement and make a public announcement.

Or, just as likely, check back in 20 working days.