Attainment gap cash spent on police

Money aimed at cutting the attainment gap in Scottish schools has been spent on campus police officers in one council area, MSPs have been told.

Holyrood’s Education Committee heard some schools in North Ayrshire had chosen to spend part of their allocation of pupil equity funding (PEF) on having officers in schools.

The government’s PEF scheme hands funding directly to schools to spend on initiatives aimed at closing the povertyrelated attainment gap, with £120 million distributed in 2017-18.

Martin Canavan, policy and participation officer at Aberlour Child Care Trust, questioned the decision and said it was an illustration of “a real inconsistency around how the understanding of PEF is being interpreted and applied and used by different schools”.

He told the committee: “Where there are good relationships with schools, where head teachers are quite proactive and understand issues that are happening before and beyond the school gates then PEF is a really, really good model, where existing relationships and community relationships are already in place.”

He said the example of campus police officers was one where there was concern.

“We’re not entirely convinced that campus police officers are a particularly good use of PEF funding,” Mr Canavan said.

“That’s not to say there isn’t a role for police in schools, but when it’s uniformed police patrolling campuses we’re not entirely sure that’s an appropriate use of PEF funding.”

The decision was defended by John Butcher, executive director of education and youth employment at North Ayrshire Council.

He said the initiative was “breaking down some of the barriers between Police Scotland and local authorities and children and young people”.

MSP Mary Fee said: “I struggle to see how having officers in a school can raise attainment.”

Mr Butcher responded: “Campus officers don’t patrol school. They don’t wander about the schools in their uniforms. They are involved in Duke of Edinburgh’s awards. They encourage young people to be part of the school, to get into school, they work with parents to break down those barriers between police, between schools and to encourage those parents to send their children to school to get that involvement.”