Exclusive:Education Scotland agency leaving posts unfilled after warning Scottish Government over budget pressures

‘Increasingly challenging’ financial position ahead of plans to break up schools agency

Bosses at Education Scotland have been forced to put strict limits on the recruitment of new staff amid "increasingly challenging" financial pressures.

The agency's advisory board highlighted "concerns" about the situation to Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth following a meeting in October, warning that achieving the government's priorities would be a "challenge" due to budget and staffing constraints.

Senior managers held talks to try to resolve the issues, after being left without enough funding to pay for posts that had already been created. They discussed a full recruitment freeze, as well as a review of the future of Education Scotland's properties, and the staff travel bill.

School desk and chairs in empty modern classroom. PIC: Rido - stock.adobe.com

A spokesperson confirmed to The Scotsman that additional financial controls have since been put in place "with immediate effect", including limiting recruitment to appointments deemed "business-critical".

The spending squeeze comes as Education Scotland, which oversees the country's state-funded schools and nurseries, faces being broken up under the government's plans for education reform, with a new national agency being created, as well as a new inspectorate.

It previously employed close to 400 staff and its budget was cut from £30.3 million to £28.7m between 2022/23 and 2023/24, despite rocketing inflation. Next year, it will be £29.2m.

During a meeting of Education Scotland’s advisory board in October, before the government’s spending plans for next year had been announced, members discussed how its "budget position has become increasingly challenging".

They also said the pressures could make it a "challenge" to deliver priorities set by Ms Gilruth, and they agreed to write to her raising their "concerns". Meanwhile, the board was updated on talks held by members of Education Scotland’s leadership team (LT) in September.

A note of the briefing said: “An in-depth discussion took place regarding the Education Scotland budget and several options were considered, including a recruitment freeze, a review of the organisation’s estates and travel and subsistence.

"Planned, but uncommitted spend was also reviewed. LT agreed to stop short of a full recruitment freeze, but to enhance existing processes to control and monitor recruitment. It was also noted that there were several budget transfers that were stopping either in the current financial year or next year.

"This created issues for the organisation because in some cases, permanent posts had been created, but there would no longer be funding to pay for these posts.”

Members also expressed “concern” at the failure to agree budget transfers for the Scottish Attainment Challenge, which invests in initiatives to help pupils from deprived backgrounds, and the programme of education reform. However, it is understood the delays have since been resolved.

Ms Gilruth has insisted that financial considerations did not play any part in her decision to delay the replacement of Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority last year.

Recruitment challenges in the inspectorate division of Education Scotland were also highlighted at the advisory board, with members noting schools were now being “given the option not to have their nursery class inspected if there had been an inspection by the Care Inspectorate in the preceding 18 months”.

The financial pressures had previously been discussed a month earlier, in September, by Education Scotland’s audit and risk committee.

A minute said: “It was agreed that with limited resources and no margin for increase in resources, priorities needed to be identified and other non-priority work stopped.”

The committee heard that a “reduction in headcount” was required, “yet there was an ongoing commitment to no compulsory redundancies”.

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie said: “I’ve been a strong advocate for the reform of Education Scotland. Now that is to happen, it is important we give the new bodies the resources they need to restore their authority.

"In the shorter term, cutting the budget of Education Scotland undermines that preparatory work at a time when education is struggling. To strip back on inspections for nurseries is a false economy, especially when private and voluntary nurseries are struggling because of government underfunding.”

An Education Scotland spokesperson said: “The Cabinet secretary set a number of priorities for Education Scotland to take forward. To progress these priorities, we have refocused our support and improvement work to ensure we are providing focus on these key areas.

“To help us manage our budget for 2023/24 in line with Scottish Government policy, Education Scotland has introduced additional financial controls which have been put in place with immediate effect.

"At present we are only recruiting where business-critical and we have introduced further controls to monitor recruitment activity. These controls will be reviewed on a regular basis."

The spokesperson said Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate had been taking a more “co-ordinated approach” to nursery inspections since 2022.

“Following feedback from the early learning and childcare (ELC) sector, Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate worked together to address concerns about ELC settings being over inspected and agreed that there should be at least 18 months between inspections of an individual ELC setting,” the spokesperson said.

“If Education Scotland announces an inspection of a primary school that has an ELC setting that was inspected by the Care Inspectorate within the previous 18 months, then the school would discuss with the local authority whether or not they would like the ELC setting to be part of the inspection. The inspection of the primary school would proceed as planned.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “It is a matter for individual agencies to manage their own budgets. Education Scotland has measures in place to address the issues raised, which will allow them to progress the government’s priorities.”