Total cost of education governance review: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01133
Date received: 16 June 2017
Date responded: 7 July 2017

Information requested

1. What has been the total cost of the governance review from its commencement to the publication of materials on the 15th of June? (NB This figure should include all costs - preferably with breakdowns - such as the production of the consultation, events which took place during the consultation, analysis of the responses and production of documents made available on 15th June 2017).

2. What meetings took place to discuss the design of the consultation, the responses received, and the final decisions around future changes to educational governance and structures? Were these meetings minuted?

3. What are the projected costs of implementing the proposed changes announced on the 15th of June 2017 (i.e. how much does the government estimate it will cost, in total, to establish the new system being proposed)?

4. How much does the government expect Regional Improvement Collaboratives to cost annually? Can the government provide a breakdown of this estimate including staffing costs?

5. Will the government make any additional funding, over and above that announced prior to the 15th of June 2017, available to facilitate the wide-ranging changes outlined?

6. How will teachers be affected by plans to have councils remain their employers while Headteachers are made responsible for staffing? For example, will the changes proposed make it easier for HTs to remove staff? If a Headteacher decides that they want to get rid of a weak member of staff, would that individual still have a contract with the local authority?

7. The documents make reference to Headteachers being able to "reward" good teachers. What form will this take? Will the government rule out financial rewards for teachers deemed to have performed well by Headteachers?

8. The documents state that Headteachers will decide "curriculum content and offer." Does this mean that HTs will be able to decide which subjects are available in their school or how many subjects a student can study (for example, the number of subjects available to students in S4)? If so, is the government comfortable with the inevitable local, regional and national disparities that this will create?

9. The Next Steps document suggests this will be transferred from Local Authorities to schools, which will be "working with partners to meet learners' additional support needs at school level." The only mention of ASN I can see for councils is that they will be responsible for placing students with ASN in an appropriate school. Does this mean that responsibility for ASN provision will be transferred to schools?

Response

1. The total cost of the Education Governance Review is £100,230.72. A breakdown of this total can be found in Annex A.

2. Officials met regularly with internal colleagues, independent contractors and Ministers during the process of designing the consultation document, analysing the responses and identifying emerging themes from the consultation responses and the development of policy proposals. Our aim is to provide information whenever possible; however, I am unable to provide an exact breakdown of those meetings and can confirm that no minutes were taken.

3. A full financial memorandum will be produced for any legislative changes and will be published alongside the legislative changes. Other changes will be considered as part of the Government's Draft Budget if the proposed expenditure is in 2018-19.

4. As set out in the Next Steps document we will work with local professionals, local government, and national bodies in defining the detail of regional improvement collaboratives geographies and the arrangements for regional improvement models. It is therefore not possible to provide any costing at this stage.

5. Yes. Specific additional funding required will be considered through the Scottish Government's Draft Budget.

6. Local authorities will remain the employer and individuals will retain their employment rights. However, the policy intention as set out in the Next Steps paper is that headteachers will be able to select the teachers and staff in their school and decide on school management and staffing structures.

7. Our next steps paper makes no reference to headteachers being able to reward good teachers. Local authorities will continue to be the employer of teachers. Teachers' pay and conditions of service remain a matter for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers.

8. Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) already provides a flexible framework which encourages teachers to develop the learning opportunities that best meet the needs of individual learners. The creation of the Headteachers' Charter will clearly define school leadership responsibilities with headteachers being the leaders of learning in their schools. As such, headteachers will be empowered to decide which subjects are available in their schools in order to improve learning and teaching and make the best decisions for the children and young people in their schools within the CfE framework.

9. The Education (Additional Support for Learning) Scotland Act 2004 gives education authorities key responsibilities in relation to the identification, provision for and review of additional support for learning. There are no plans to change the legal position of the provision of additional support for learning. Schools currently provide a range of support to pupils with additional support needs within the framework of additional support for learning and this will continue also.

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FOI_17_01337_Annex_A_table.pdf

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