Parents and teachers have accused Glasgow City Council of a “grave betrayal of trust” and “an attempt to deceive” over plans to cut to teacher numbers.

Internal emails released under Freedom of Information (FoI) laws show a conversation in which a senior official writes of the need to “soften the wording” being used to avoid talking about “pure teacher reductions.”

The chair of the Glasgow City Parents Group has called for an investigation. A council spokeswoman said the communications were “operational email exchanges between officers about a budget option.”

The email exchange begins on February 5 2024 with Martin Booth, the council’s Executive Director of Finance, contacting Douglas Hutchison, Executive Director of Education, regarding the use of “more generic” language in a particular option for the forthcoming budget.

Mr Hutchison replies that his department will “do what we are asked to do”, and confirms that former council Chief Executive Annemarie O’Donnell had “mentioned the option being discussed of branding the savings in this way.” However, while he accepts that the approach “might work to get the budget agreed” he also adds that “the reality is we are cutting teacher numbers”.

He then warns that “nurture, deprivation, additional support needs and the attainment challenge” will be at risk as these are additional to core provision. Mr Hutchison also raises a concern about the language being used because the “vague heading” means that councillors may not be willing to back the proposals “when the penny drops this is about teachers.”

In response, Mr Booth says that he has been “completely honest with the core group of politicians”. He adds that "it is not possible to produce a balanced budget for any Local Authority where Social Work and Education are heavily protected" but accepts there is still “a risk”. He adds they can work out the detail “once we get a budget through”.

The next day, Mr Booth advises that he has had “further discussions” with Ms O’Donnell and that he has now “attempted to reword” the budget proposal: “Given our experiences last year when a leaked option led to a reaction from [Scottish Government], I thought it might be safer to soften the wording into reform and transformation rather than pure teacher reductions while maintaining a clear narrative that this will require significant staffing reductions.”

In his reply, Mr Hutchison objects to the use of the word “transformation” because it “suggests this is something positive which it isn’t.” He also states that it is “difficult to agree to something that doesn’t have on the face of it the potential staff loss and so lacks a degree of transparency.”

Mr Booth responds saying he has changed “transformation” to “reform” and added a sentence saying that “significant staff cuts” will be coming, but that detail will only be provided “once plans developed”.

An updated ‘Budget Savings Template’ attached to the email outlines a “reform programme” that will “look at all aspects of education and how it is delivered.” On the scale of the savings to be achieved, it states: “For the level of savings required it will be necessary for a significant reduction in staffing levels but until further work is completed it is not possible to quantify this. This information will be provided via the governance structure as soon as possible.”

READ MORE

Later in the document, in a section entitled “Personnel Implications”, it states that the need for voluntary and early retirements in order to achieve proposed levels of savings is “very likely”.

The previous version of the document explicitly stated that “turnover within the primary and secondary estate would not be able to manage this level of attrition” but this sentence has been removed from the updated document sent by Mr Booth.

SNP and Green councillors passed a budget, including plans to cut up to 450 teachers over three years, less than two weeks after the email exchange in question took place.

Since then, parents have held a series of protests, including a March for Education through Glasgow city centre, and begun legal action against the council. Members of the EIS teaching union are to be balloted for strike action, with NASUWT and the AHDS expected to follow suit.

Leanne McGuire, Chair of the Glasgow City Parents Group, told the Herald that the contents of the council email exchange are ‘shocking’ and reveal ‘a grave betrayal of trust’ by those in charge: “The emails expose a calculated and deceptive effort by the Director of Finance and senior officers to not only force through damaging teacher cuts but to actively manipulate language in order to hide these cuts from the public, councillors and the Scottish Government. This is a clear breach of transparency and accountability, showing a complete disregard for the welfare of our children’s education.

“The secrecy and underhanded tactics revealed in this FOI are utterly unacceptable. It is now painfully clear that those in charge prioritised protecting their budget over protecting our classrooms, and they were willing to deceive to do so. We demand immediate accountability from those responsible, a full investigation into this disgraceful conduct, and a commitment to reversing these harmful decisions. Glasgow’s children, parents, and teachers deserve better than this cynical and duplicitous leadership."

Glasgow EIS branch secretary Jane Gow also hit out at the council, pointing out that the union raised concerns in mid-February about a lack of transparency in the way in which teacher cuts were presented in the budget: “This read as an effort to conceal these plans in order to get the budget voted through and Councillors were questioned about this at the time.

“The publication of emails today under an FOI request is deeply shocking in that we see the blatant manipulation of language and wording in an act of what can only be seen as an attempt to deceive so that these damaging cuts, which will impact on the life chances of our young people in the city for years to come, could be driven through.

“The EIS strongly condemns this deceptive practice come to light today and calls for officials to be held to account.”

READ MORE

Glasgow Labour education spokesperson Jill Pigeon told The Herald: “It is disappointing to think that anyone would be covering up the truth of what these cuts would mean. The rush for these cuts to go through is also surprising when we have a three year budget model.

“The cuts will have such a profound impact on our education.”

Asked whether the Greens, who helped pass the budget, had been aware of the conversations, Councillor Jon Molyneux said: "As councillors in an opposition party, we have no input, insight or involvement in personal correspondence between officers or the wording they use when discussing council business. 

"Green councillors voted for the budget which contained the least amount of savings from Education services as well as the greatest amount of future revenue-raising potential. We continue to lobby for more funds and work constructively to raise new sources of revenue so we can avoid the need to make future cuts."

A spokesperson said that the Scottish Government is “committed to protecting teacher numbers and we are offering local authorities over £145 million for that purpose.”

“Talks are continuing with COSLA to reach an agreement which ensures that teacher numbers are protected, and we would strongly encourage any council planning teacher cuts to reconsider.”

A council spokeswoman said: “These are operational email exchanges between officers about a budget option.

“Elected members make budget decisions not council officers.

“Open and frank discussions on service departments’ savings took place at the cross-party budget working group.

“Teacher post reductions were also discussed at length by all parties on budget day in February.

“There is no suggestion of compulsory redundancies and the reductions this year have been managed via natural turn over, primary staffing formulas and not filling temporary posts.”