Conduct investigation threat over claims Glasgow councillors were 'misled' by officials about teacher cuts

An opposition councillor in Glasgow has been warned by the local authority’s top lawyer that she could face a standards investigation over claims elected members were “wilfully and cynically” misled about teacher cuts.

Labour’s Fiona Higgins was offered “strong advice” by Mairi Millar, the city council’s director of legal and administration, to take down a social media post containing the allegations

But the councillor refused, saying her “first duty is to the citizens of Glasgow”.

It comes amid ongoing questions over the decision-making process which led to the controversial axing of 172 teaching posts in the city in February.

The Scotsman previously highlighted that there was no clear mention of teacher cuts in the budget papers used to take the decision, and at no point in the proceedings did any official or councillor say that they had already been told by Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth that they would face a £16.5million funding penalty if they did not agree to maintain teacher numbers.

There have also been concerns raised about the type of equality impact assessment carried out in advance of the decision.

Then, emails emerged last month showing how the council’s finance director, Martin Booth, recommended altering the wording of the budget proposal relating to teachers.

In a memo to the authority’s education director and former chief executive, nine days before the budget meeting, Mr Booth said: “Given our experiences last year when a leaked option led to a reaction from SG, I thought it might be safer to soften the wording into reform and transformation rather than pure teacher reductions while maintaining a clear narrative that this will require significant staffing reductions.”

In response, the council’s education director, Douglas Hutchison, highlighted the lack of transparency.

“Thanks Martin, in terms of the wording, it is generally fine but I have an issue with the word transformation which suggests this is something positive which it isn’t, I prefer reform,” he wrote.

“The other main issue is the TBC in terms of head count. Its difficult to agree something that doesn’t have on the face of it the potential staff loss and so lacks a degree of transparency.”

Mr Hutchison had previously warned Mr Booth: “The challenge in doing this when we have a vague saving in the budget is who makes the decision?

“My concern is that with such a vague heading it isn’t clear that it means teachers and elected members will take a step back when the penny drops that this is about teachers.”

Other emails show how Lorna Goldie, head of resources in the council’s education services department, was warning before the budget about the potential loss of funding for probationary teachers, as well as the city’s £16.5m share of a £145.5m Scottish Government fund for maintaining teacher numbers.

The budget assumed the council would still get the money, despite the same budget axing 172 teaching posts. Under the code of conduct for local government officials, council employees must be “as open as possible in all the decisions and actions that they take”, and “should not restrict information unless this is clearly required by council policy or by the law”.

The council says “due process” was followed by officials in relation to the budget.

Mr Booth has already announced he is stepping down at the end of the year. It has been reported that he lost out on a bid to become the council’s new chief executive, despite having the backing of SNP council leader Susan Aitken. In the wake of the email revelation, Councillor Higgins posted on social media site X, saying: “That any Council Officer would abuse their influence to wilfully & cynically mislead Cllrs & the public is galling & I commend the Officers who have challenged this within these emails & others I have seen. I fully support the @GCParentsGroup (Glasgow City Parents Group) call for an investigation into this.”

Susan Aitken | John Devlin

The following day, August 28, Councillor Higgins was contacted by Ms Millar in her role as the council’s “monitoring officer”, the official in charge of legal governance at the local authority.

She said: “It is my view as Monitoring Officer that your pinned post, and any similar public comments made by you on any other social media platforms, are contrary to the Code of Conduct and could result in a complaint to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards.

“In view of this, it is my very strong advice that this post, and any other similar posts, should be removed immediately.”

In response, the councillor said: “Thank you for sharing your concerns, and it is my understanding that you have a professional responsibility to do so.

“My first duty is to the citizens of Glasgow and I will be keeping my tweet in place.

“I can’t imagine that a code of conduct proceeding would draw less attention to this tweet. But of course, if my tweet is making any particular officer feel uncomfortable, I invite them to do what they think most sensible.”

Last night, Councillor Higgins declined to comment on the email exchange, but the former teacher added: “I maintain my position that both councillors and council officers should be held to the highest standards in serving the citizens of Glasgow.” A city council spokeswoman said: “The council’s solicitor frequently gives confidential advice to elected members and we don’t comment on leaks.”

The spokeswoman added: “Officers were following due process in relation to the budget, and it is inaccurate to suggest otherwise.

“Every proposal was presented to elected members at the cross-party budget working group meetings ahead of 15 February.”