Labour creaming off money for schools

Dear Editor,

There is no doubt that North Lanarkshire Council is trying to cream off cash intended to help the education of our most vulnerable pupils.

The council budget for 2017-2018 orders savings of £319,000 on breakfast clubs and £2.78 million on classroom assistants.

It states: “It is proposed to allow headteachers, either individually or collectively, to consider the continuation or enhancement of existing breakfast club provision under the flexibilities afforded under the pupil equity fund.” Ditto for classroom assistants.

In other words North Lanarkshire’s approved budget openly proposes to break the Scottish Government’s rule that PEF is purely additional funding. Labour shamelessly plans to snatch £3.099m from the £8.8m given directly to schools by the Scottish Government specifically to narrow the poverty-related attainment gap. This seems to have been hastily reduced to £1.3m.

The council has already slashed nurture groups for the needy in primaries and will now remove specialist care for vulnerable under-twos in family learning centres’ baby rooms.

North Lanarkshire Council is not strapped for cash, as evidenced by there being no rise in council tax, but socially deprived pupils and babies appear to be easy targets in Labour’s 2017-2018 budget.

It’s time for parent councils to ask why money is being taken from their schools. Tom Johnston, SNP education spokesperson, North Lanarkshire Council