Swinney in at deep end on council move to fund swim lessons

Secretary says it is not acceptable for government’s pupil equity funding to be used in this way

Dundee City Council has been slapped down by the education secretary after suggesting that money aimed at closing the attainment gap could be used to fund swimming lessons.

John Swinney said his officials had been in touch with the SNP-led authority directly to make clear it was not acceptable for pupil equity funding – money given to schools by the Scottish Government to help poorer children – to be used in this way.

The council previously said head teachers had been “given the opportunity to explore” the measure after it was announced classes would no longer be sent out of Dundee schools to learn how to swim.

Mr Swinney was pressed by opposition MSPs on whether this was an acceptable use of the cash as he appeared before Holyrood’s education committee yesterday.

He said it was not and confirmed it would be within his remit to remove any such grant allocated in this way.

Mr Swinney said he hoped this would make it clear “what the judgment would be about the utilisation of pupil equity funding as replacement for essentially a service that was there before”.

Scottish Labour’s education spokesman Iain Gray claimed Mr Swinney had “got himself in hot water over these SNP cuts to swimming lessons”.

He said: “The reality is that the SNP has now underfunded education to such an extent that councils such as Dundee are having to cut services that expand life chances and promote healthy lives.

“Then head teachers are told by council leaders to use attainment fund

The SNP has now underfunded education to such an extent that councils such as Dundee are having to cut services that expand life chances

money, meant to help the poorest pupils, to cover the cuts – only for John Swinney to later admit that isn’t what the money is for at all.

“This deeply embarrassing episode exposes the price of £1.5 billion of SNP cuts to local government.”

The £120 million public equity fund is given directly to schools, with head teachers expected to use the cash on initiatives aimed at closing the povertyrelated attainment gap.

The Scottish Government also previously provided grants to encourage children from more disadvantaged areas to learn to swim but scrapped the scheme in 2015.

Paul Clancy, executive director of Children and Families Services at Dundee City Council, insisted the total funding and resource allocated to swimming had “never been in question”.

He said the council were looking at new models for how they deliver swimming, which could include a range of options such as evening and weekend classes or instructors paid for by the local authority.

It is understood officials will now look to draw up proposals to take back to committee and parents by the end of October with the hope of implementing new plans shortly thereafter.

Mr Clancy “absolutely guaranteed” that the totality of the core budget used to fund lessons would continue to be used to teach children to swim.

John Swinney came under fire for not allowing pupil equity money to cover the cuts made by the SNP.