Has Scottish school scrutiny been 'weakened' by scrapping council education committees?

Several smaller local authorities have moved away from the traditional model

A fifth of Scottish councils have no dedicated education committee of councillors, analysis has found.

The trend continues despite growing pressures in the nation’s schools and nurseries in relation to staffing, pupil behaviour, attendance, attainment and the rise in the number of youngsters with additional support needs.

A school classroom setting

A leading expert said the removal in the 1990s of a previous legal requirement for councils to have education committees and dedicated education directors had led to a “weakening of concerted attention to intrinsically educational matters, such as the curriculum and assessment”.

About half of the £15 billion of the net revenue spending by Scotland’s local authorities each year goes on education - more than any other service.

The Scotsman found all the biggest councils in Scotland still have dedicated “education committees”, or similar, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife, Highland, Perth and Kinross, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, as well as North and South Lanarkshire.

However, they have been scrapped or amalgamated over the years at several smaller councils, often as part of a move to a “Cabinet model” to drive “efficiency and effectiveness”.

File photo of children in a school corridor. | National World

Falkirk Council became the latest to go down this road following an amalgamation of three bodies in June last year. Others include Argyll and Bute Council and Midlothian Council, as well as the local authorities for East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire.

Lindsay Paterson, emeritus professor of education policy at the University of Edinburgh, said the change dated back to the 1994 legislation that set up the existing 32 councils.

“Previously, going right back to 1929, councils had to have a specialist committee and a dedicated director,” he said.

“The change in the 1990s was in some respects understandable and welcome, following the trend of seeing education as part of wider social policy, which can allow better liaison with social work, for example.

“But it had the serious drawback that education gradually came to be treated [administratively and politically] as merely just another aspect of social policy.

“That led to a weakening of concerted attention to intrinsically educational matters, such as the curriculum and assessment, except insofar as they might serve wider social policy purposes.”

A Falkirk Council spokesperson said the authority merged its ‘executive' and 'education', 'children and young people executive' into a single body in June last year.

The body meets every four weeks, with every second meeting including a dedicated section for education and children’s business. Education performance reports are also considered at its scrutiny committee.

A spokesperson for Midlothian Council said it moved to a Cabinet-based model in 2003 when the number of committees was “streamlined”, including the Cabinet assuming the role of the education committee.

“The Cabinet works collaboratively with the full council and its work is overseen by the performance review and scrutiny committee, which comprises all the other 12 councillors and which has the power to ‘call in’ any decision of the Cabinet for further consideration,” the spokesperson said.

A South Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “Education policy and performance is scrutinised at formal education Cabinets of which there are a minimum of four per year.”

An Argyll and Bute Council spokesperson said: “Education and life-long learning is covered under our community services committee.”

East Ayrshire Council’s last dedicated education committee was in 2007, following a review of the previous committee arrangements and “unanimous support for the switch to the Cabinet model in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness”.

A spokesperson said the Cabinet has delegated authority to “discharge the council’s functions as education authority”.