It is safe to predict that education will remain high on the political agenda in the run-up to the 2026 Holyrood elections.<\/p>\n
\u00a0In recent years, many aspects of educational provision have attracted criticism and all parties will be anxious to claim that their policy proposals will lead to improvements.\u00a0 Among the topics that have featured in hostile press reports are these:<\/p>\n
\u00a0The Scottish Government has commissioned various reports to address these issues but its response to their recommendations has been slow and limited.<\/p>\n
Against this background, it is timely to ask what is currently happening. \u00a0\u00a0Funding and resources are at the heart of many (but not all) of the problems, and here the relations between central and local government are critical. \u00a0Statutory responsibility for educational provision rests with Scotland\u2019s 32 local authorities, but they have to operate within the fiscal, legislative and policy framework set by central government. \u00a0Sometimes it can seem that central government\u2019s flagship policies (e.g., to eradicate child poverty) promise more than they can deliver, leaving local authorities struggling to meet unrealistic expectations.\u00a0 Moreover, in a situation where local government staff find it hard simply to maintain existing services, there is little scope to engage in longer-term thinking or conceive of alternative approaches to managing their responsibilities.<\/p>\n
It would be wrong, however, to suggest that local authorities are simply victims of the inadequate resources and inflated policy rhetoric of central government.\u00a0 Earlier this year, the Audit Commission criticised \u00a0them for not adequately addressing the expectation gap between what communities need and what councils can reasonably provide. They were also castigated for insufficient transparency in reporting and a lack of effective transformation plans.\u00a0 These points raise sensitive questions about the quality of leadership in some local authorities, including the relationship between elected members (councillors) and officials.\u00a0 There is scope for a research project here, though it is by no means certain that it would have the cooperation of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).\u00a0 At national level, a similar enquiry into the quality of political leadership and the relationship between Cabinet Secretaries and senior civil servants might find it hard to negotiate the bureaucratic obstacles that would be put in its way.<\/p>\n
The fact remains that central and local government have to find ways to work together. Recent developments in education provide an interesting insight into how political expediency can lead to a suspension of hostilities, even if only temporarily.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mutual self-interest can be a powerful motivator.\u00a0 Despite their disagreements, both parties want to convey the impression that their stewardship of the educational system can be defended.\u00a0 Accordingly, an agreement between the Scottish Government and COSLA was reached at the end of 2024. It stated<\/a>:<\/p>\n Scotland\u2019s national and local government have reaffirmed their agreement to delivering improved outcomes for children and young people. [They] are committed to working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels next year. [They] have also agreed to make meaningful progress towards reducing class contact time for teachers, in recognition of the asks made by teachers and teaching unions. Medium and long-term joint workforce planning will take into account the importance of responding to issues including different local needs . . . All these measures will contribute to and acknowledge the critical importance of delivering excellence and equity in education for all children in Scotland.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The agreement also announced that funding available to local government would increase to \u00a3186.5 million, with additional funding of \u00a328 million from 2025-26 to develop the Additional Support for Learning workforce.<\/p>\n How were these good intentions to be taken forward?\u00a0 It is one thing to issue a press release promising better things to come.\u00a0 It is quite another to ensure that improvements actually happen on the ground.<\/p>\n The forum intended to achieve the shared objectives is an Education and Childcare Joint Assurance Board (ECAB) designed to improve attainment, attendance, relationships and behaviour. \u00a0Both the terms of reference of ECAB and its membership merit attention.\u00a0 It is to be a \u2018time-limited\u2019 group chaired jointly by the Cabinet Secretary for Education (Jenny Gilruth) and the COSLA spokesperson for Children and Young People (Tony Buchanan, a councillor from East Renfrewshire). The first meeting took place in April 2025 and the minute<\/a>s are publicly available (), though tabled papers are not. ECAB is responsible for developing its own work programme, meets every two months and will be reviewed after six months, leaving scope for it to be discontinued in advance of the election in May 2026. \u00a0<\/p>\n The terms of reference for ECAB require it \u2019to consider key national and local level data\u2019, and set strategic priorities. These should include \u2018a joint evidence-led education workforce strategy\u2019 and \u2018delivering improvements for the increasing number of children and young people identified as needing additional support for learning\u2019. A long list of other responsibilities, including contributing to cross-departmental work on child poverty, engagement with the ongoing education reform programme, and taking account of international surveys of educational performance, feature in the terms of reference.\u00a0 How all this is to be achieved in the time-frame set for ECAB is not clear.<\/p>\n What about the membership? Here a familiar pattern emerges, reminiscent of the early composition of the Education Reform Programme Board set up following the decision to replace the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Education Scotland.\u00a0 This was heavily criticised for being dominated by civil servants and senior staff in the bodies that were to be replaced. \u00a0It was described by one critic as \u2018insider dealing\u2019.<\/p>\n \u00a0In the case of ECAB, all of the representatives can be regarded as part of the Scottish bureaucratic establishment.\u00a0 Aside from the Cabinet Secretary and the COSLA political spokesperson, there are two LA Chief Executives representing the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE), two representatives of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES), two representatives of Education Scotland, one COSLA official, and no fewer than five senior civil servants from Scottish Government. The numeral balance between central and local government is quite even \u2013 the SOLACE and ADES representatives can be included in the COSLA group, with only the Education Scotland duo resisting obvious classification: it is an Executive Agency of Scottish Government but it works closely with local authorities and is well placed to understand the challenges they face.\u00a0 However, an earlier attempt to give more scope to schools and local authorities to develop their own initiatives, through Regional Improvement Collaboratives, had limited success and funding for the project has been discontinued.<\/p>\n Omissions from the membership of ECAB are significant.\u00a0 The General Teaching Council for Scotland is not represented, an organisation that is in a good position to comment on teacher numbers, recruitment and retention.\u00a0 Nor are any of the teachers\u2019 professional organisations included, who would be able to give first-hand evidence on teacher workload, pupil attendance and behaviour, and the struggle to cope with the numbers of ASN children. There is certainly nobody representing the voice of \u2018outsiders\u2019, such as the various \u2018think tanks\u2019 which have produced a number of papers<\/a> setting out alternative visions for Scottish education. The membership of ECAB is revealed as consisting mainly of the usual professional gatekeepers who enjoy narrative privilege, enabling them to put a positive spin on their own achievements.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
Who’s in, who’s out?<\/h2>\n