Education chiefs 'misled' council over Swedish trip

EDUCATION bosses have been accused of leading councillors "up the garden path" over plans to pay for their controversial trip to Sweden.

Education leader Councillor Marilyne MacLaren and director of education Gillian Tee asked councillors to approve 1,100 of funding from the departmental budget to send them to Stockholm to learn "possible lessons" from its school system.

Members of the education committee were told that the majority of the trip would be funded by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), which had agreed to pay 2,200 – but the organisation said today it had made no such commitment.

Furthermore, LTS said it would never fund this kind of trip for a local government politician.

Opposition councillors are "disturbed" that they were given misleading information, claiming that they could have ended up paying the full 3,300 for the trip without even being made aware of it and are demanding answers.

When the Evening News revealed earlier this month that Cllr MacLaren and Ms Tee were asking for the money for their Swedish trip, they were accused by parents of "exploiting" taxpayers' money at a time when they are making cuts to services across the children and families department.

The education bosses then later withdrew their request, claiming that an MSP who was also to attend pulled out, which led to LTS reducing the amount it was prepared to contribute, but LTS said it never agreed to pay for the trip in the first place.

Cllr Ricky Henderson, Labour's education spokesman, said: "I shall be seeking an explanation as to why there are some apparent factual discrepancies between what appeared in a council report regarding funding for the trip and the information that has now been presented by LTS."

Tory councillor Gordon Buchan, who sits on the education committee, said:"That kind of behaviour is not on. I will be looking for an explanation as to how that report was brought about because it's out of order. We have been led up the garden path."

Councillor Alison Johnstone, education spokeswoman for the Greens, added: "It would be helpful in future for us to have a copy of any paperwork so that we know where we stand on whether or not an application for funding has been accepted."

A spokeswoman for LTS said: "Learning and Teaching Scotland did not provide any funding for Edinburgh council for the proposed trip."

A spokesman for the council said: "Funding was agreed for the director's visit with the chief executive of LTS.

"It was never the case that we were requesting funding for the convener's visit – that would always be requested at a council committee."