Public sector reform could ‘drive the improvement we need’ in schools – Gilruth

Reform of Scotland’s public services could help “drive the improvement we need in our schools”, Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth has said.

The former education secretary, who is now responsible for managing the Scottish Government’s finances, said the reforms could be “an opportunity for education”.

She spoke out as she warned the coming financial year would be “challenging”.

Ms Gilruth told a fringe event at the SNP conference that “protecting education budgets is something I stood by as education secretary” adding that she would “endeavour” to do the same in her current role as Finance Secretary.

But, speaking at the event organised by the NASUWT teaching union, she stressed the need to “grasp the thistle on public sector reform” and “use it as an opportunity to drive the improvement we need in our schools”.

First Minister John Swinney has already set out plans to restructure both local government and health boards, with plans that could see the country’s current 32 councils replaced by between six and 10 strategic regional authorities, and up to 160 smaller community authorities.

Ms Gilruth recalled from her time as education secretary she would sometimes see “32 different councils do 32 different things”.

She added: “If you are trying to drive consistency in the education system, whether that be in behaviour support, whether that be additional support needs, that is a real barrier.”

Similarly Mike Corbett, Scotland official for the NASUWT, said that “having 32 councils sometimes having 32 different interpretations of national guidance does not always work”.

With the Scottish Government having embarked on a three-month consultation on its council reforms, however, he stressed the need to “take our time” when considering changes.

Mr Corbett said: “If we’re going to make changes, let’s do them properly.”

His comments came as he urged the Scottish Government to conduct an audit of councils to determine how many of them have acted on a national action plan produced by the Scottish Government to improve behaviour in the country’s classrooms.

Stressing that the nationwide plan had “some really important things in it”, the union official said that “too many local authorities, too many schools, have still just left that guidance on the shelf”.

Adding that he had written to Education Secretary Mhairi McAllan on the issue, he said he wanted the government to “audit local authorities”.

Mr Corbett went on to call on the Scottish Government to ring fence cash for improving support for children with additional support needs in schools.

He insisted there was a “crisis in additional support needs” as he told how the UK Government had announced a “significant spend” of billions of pounds to try to tackle such issues south of the border.

While he stressed Scotland should “work out our own solution”, he said that any additional spend that comes to Holyrood as a result of the spending by Westminster should be set aside to additional support needs.

Mr Corbett told how he had written to both the Finance Secretary and the Education Secretary urging them to “ring fence that money and spend it on additional support needs”.