Fewer councils 'fairer for schoolchildren'

A SENIOR figure in education will today question whether a country of Scotland's size needs 32 councils, particularly at a time of budget cuts for schools.

Jim Thewliss, incoming president of secondary head teachers' union School Leaders Scotland, will claim the number of local authorities and their varying sizes has "created and perpetuated unfairness".

Speaking at the union's annual conference in St Andrews, Mr Thewliss will warn that some authorities can afford to allocate more money to schools because of economies of scale compared with others.

He will say the question of whether there should be more co-operation between councils is particularly acute given the budget statement this week.

Mr Thewliss will say head teachers have concerns about financial inconsistencies "inherent" in a system where 32 different administrations have 32 different ways of operating.

He will say: "The question must be asked, is it in the best interests of financial best value or in the equity of service provision to have a single administration serving a population of 625,000 in Glasgow, yet in the same small country three administrations to serve 270,000 in what was formerly Central Region?

"Not only does the current system of governance ignore the benefits afforded by economies of scale, but it has also created and perpetuated unfairness in the allocation of resources to young people in school.

"We know from information drawn from our members across the country that the cost per pupil ratio varies by over 2,300 across local authorities in Scotland."

The union last week accused the Scottish Government of created a postcode lottery of funding by introducing the concordat funding arrangements for councils, which removed ring-fenced education cash.

Pressure is increasing on the government to address the number of local administrations. Earlier this month the primary head teachers union called on the Scottish Government to reduce the number of councils.

Meanwhile, similar views were expressed by a key figure in favour of joint working between local authorities.

Professor Sir John Arbuthnott recently published the Clyde Valley Review, which proposed new approaches to joint working in local authorities.

Speaking at the conference yesterday, the former principal of Strathclyde University said council leaders in the Clyde Valley had "seen the train of spending cuts coming down the tracks".He said: "Local authorities are not being difficult or obtuse, they do want to deliver services, and efficiencies to citizens." Working together between councils in Glasgow, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and Inverclyde had already saved 70 million.

Education secretary Michael Russell, who will be addressing the head teachers at their conference today, said: "The debate on school governance and providing greater autonomy for headteachers is ongoing.

"Any revisions made, need be about enhancing opportunities for pupils and learners and not about bureaucracy.

"I hope to be able to come forward with proposals on the next steps soon."