Addition funding relating to protecting teacher numbers and school hours: FOI release

Information requested

In your request, you asked for:

-It was mentioned here in a release from former Cabinet Secretary for Education Shirley-Anne Somerville: Protecting Teacher Numbers and School Hours (Feb 7, 2023)

As part of the statement, she says that "Additional annual funding of £145.5 million is also being provided to maintain increased teacher numbers and support staff. In the year ahead (2023/24), if this is not delivered by a local authority, the Scottish Government will withhold or recoup funding allocated for these purposes."

Request 1

• Can you please provide the full text of the agreement between local authorities (and/or COSLA) and the Scottish Government which governs how this £145.5 million should be spent?
• Please provide a date that this was agreed upon, and indicate which budget year the £145.5 million is attached to.
• Multiple statements, up until as recent as January 2024, indicate funding could be "withheld". This suggests that some of it is still with the Government. Please indicate how much of this £145.5 million has been paid to councils as of today (Feb 15, 2024), and how much each council received.
• If any of the funding is still held by the government, please indicate how much in total, and how much is earmarked for each local authority.

-During cabinet secretary Jenny Gilruth's statement on literacy and numeracy data on Dec 12, 2023, the funding is mentioned again.

Ms Gilruth reminds that the funding could be recouped and states that some local authorities have fallen short of the agreement:

"..a number of Local Authorities did not choose to use the additional funding to protect their teacher numbers.

"We have written today to each of the local authorities where the number of teachers has reduced to seek an explanation and I will meet with COSLA on this matter later this week.

"And whilst the Government will of course consider these reductions on a case-by-case basis, I will continue to reserve the right to withhold funding allocated to protect teacher numbers where that has not been the case."

Response

I enclose a copy of the information you requested.

The Scottish Government’s expectations with regard to the £145.5 million, including funding details, were set out in a letter to each local authority on 9 February 2023. This letter can be found in the attached Index of Enclosures.

You may wish to note that funding for 2023-24 will be paid in full.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400399233 - Information Released - Index of Enclosures

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