Education reforms risk efforts to tackle child poverty: CoSLA

Councils have warned John Swinney his education reforms threaten the campaign against child poverty.

The education secretary wants to see a power shift from local authorities to head teachers as part of the SNP’s reforms to education governance.

CoSLA, the umbrella body for councils, fears that reducing their role could reverse the advances made in helping Scotland’s poorest children.

The submission to MSPs says narrowing the attainment gap “cannot be achieved in the classroom alone”.

“We believe that the proposed approach (from the Scottish Government) puts at risk the multi-agency improvements that national and local government has made so far towards improving the situation for children and young people living in poverty,” it said.

It added: “The local authority brings together professionals and colleagues across multiple services to provide a joined-up service for young people and their families and officers and elected members ensure accessible points for accountability.”

Mr Swinney responded: “Education, training and work are the best routes out of the cycle of poverty.

“We know that teachers cannot be solely responsible for driving young people towards those solutions. Attainment is never just the product of what happens in classrooms.

“The Scottish Attainment Challenge, backed by the £750 million Attainment Scotland Fund over the lifetime of this parliament, is already delivering great results. The proportion of pupils from our most deprived communities getting National 4s, National 5s and Highers is rising faster than in our richest communities; and there are record numbers of students from Scotland’s most disadvantaged areas going to university.

“But there’s still a great deal of work to be done and the Scottish Government is committed to doing everything possible to close that gap.”