New papers uncovered by Tes Scotland show that the Scottish government wanted to start phasing in its pledge to reduce teachers’ class-contact time at the beginning of the new school year in August, starting with a 50-minute reduction in the time primary staff spend teaching.
However, a freedom of information request also shows the proposals were rejected by local authorities’ body Cosla, which highlighted: the cost of the policy; the lack of consultation with parents, children and young people; and the need to consider new data on pupil numbers.
Last week, Tes Scotland reported that first minister John Swinney had written to councils in June threatening them with financial penalties if they failed to come forward with a “clear plan” for the delivery of the government’s 90-minute reduction in class-contact time promise - including “a proposed timeline for phased implementation” - in time for a meeting with unions on 20 August.
Funding difficulties
Councils, however, argue that current funding does “not come close” to the true cost of delivering the policy.
Local authorities calculate that the government’s policy to cut class-contact time by 90 minutes a week will cost between £253 million and £307 million and will require over 3,800 more teachers.
Current government funding for teacher numbers is £186.5 million and the goal councils have been set is to return teacher numbers to 2023 levels. If achieved, this would result in only around 600 additional staff in the system.
Nevertheless, the documents unearthed by Tes Scotland show that, in January, the government proposed a phased implementation of the contact time pledge with “a minimum 50-minute reduction in the primary sector by August 2025, aiming for the full 90 minutes to be in place by August 2026”.
The implementation in secondary would “also be phased”, said the proposal, which was shared with council leaders, but this would “need to be agreed based on further modelling and analysis of local circumstances”, it said.
The proposals were designed “to set out a clear path” and “allow meaningful progress to be made towards swift implementation of reductions in class-contact time”.
The government proposal said that “regardless of the route that is chosen, it is critical that initial reductions in class-contact time are made in the 2025-26 school year” and that councils should “remain laser focused on preparing for the implementation”.
‘Sufficient capacity’
Before a meeting of council leaders on 31 January, education secretary Jenny Gilruth wrote to Katie Hagmann, Cosla resources spokesperson, and Tony Buchanan, Cosla children and young people spokesperson, saying national modelling indicated that in “many council areas” there was “already sufficient capacity to deliver meaningful progress on reduced class contact, in primary in particular”.
She added: “On that basis, it is the government’s expectation that the phased implementation of reduced class-contact time can commence from the start of the next school year in August 2025.”
Ms Gilruth suggested that teaching unions would back phased implementation “over a longer timescale” if Cosla accepted their demand that the additional 90 minutes of non-class-contact time is used for preparation and planning, as opposed to “collegiate time”.
She said her aim was for the government proposals to be agreed by council leaders at a meeting on 31 January, so they could be shared at the meeting of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) on Monday 3 February.
‘Serious concerns’
However, in an email sent on 31 January, Ms Hagmann and Mr Buchanan said that while councils were keen to make “meaningful progress”, leaders had “serious concerns that the approach set out in the Scottish government’s paper may not be deliverable given the advice from local government professional advisers, the lack of consultation with parents, children and young people and the additional costs”.
They added: “In addition, consideration of the new population figures is now required.” Pupil rolls are not falling quite as fast as projected, and while overall numbers are declining, that is not the case for all local authority areas.
This position is reiterated in more recent papers seen by Tes Scotland, prepared for a meeting of council leaders on 27 June. The papers say that current levels “will not come close to the funding required to support this policy”.
However, with the threat of industrial action looming over the failure to make progress on the contact-time cut, Mr Swinney has ratcheted up the pressure on local authorities.
In a letter sent in June to Cosla president Shona Morrison, he said “a coherent and clear plan” - including “a proposed timeline for phased implementation” - had to be presented at the next meeting of the SNCT on 20 August or the government could “adjust, withhold or recover relevant monies allocated to individual councils for these purposes”.
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