Council looks at school trusts

Published on Monday 9 November 2009 08:55

EAST Lothian could become the first council in Scotland to set up arms-length trusts to run its schools.

The SNP-Liberal Democrat administration is considering the move, based on a model from south of the border, as part of a wider budget review.

SNP council leader David Berry said: "The idea is to look at school clusters – high schools and their associated primaries – to form trusts, and give them more freedom to spend money as they see fit to serve their communities."

He said a school could decide, for example, to reduce subsidised bus travel for pupils and use the money instead to bring in a specialist Mandarin teacher.