Reform Scotland has welcomed the Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) – which gives cash directly to schools to spend on closing the gap between pupils from richer and poorer backgrounds – but flagged up the “highly prescriptive” guidance that accompanies it.
Reform Scotland’s Commission on School Reform said the intention behind the publication of the guidance document was laudable in aiming to assist schools with relatively large sums of money per-pupil.
“However... the document is full of specific directions to schools about what they may and may not do... in this sense its tone is closer to what one might have expected from a set of operational requirements,” the paper said.
“Indeed the document, by repeatedly insisting they comply with established local authority processes and accounting procedures in disposing of their additional funds, rather suggests to schools that compliance with such strictures is at least as important as, or more important than, being innovative and creative.”
Commission member and former headteacher Frank Lennon said the PEF was the first key test of the government’s strategy that decisions should be taken at a school, rather than local authority, level.
He added: “The guidance is highly prescriptive about what schools may and may not do with the money, and places local authorities, not schools, at the heart of the whole operational process.
“Throughout the guidance, deference to local authorities is evident. This may be benign, but it is nonetheless damaging because it is precisely that system from which we need to escape.”
Unless the rhetoric behind the government’s drive towards school autonomy is matched by the reality, Mr Lennon said, “we will simply perpetuate the risk-averse and centralist culture which has been responsible for the lack of innovation to tackle the effects of poverty on attainment”.
However, a Scottish government spokeswoman said the Reform Scotland report missed the point of the guidance: “The scheme provides additional support to thousands of schools across Scotland to be spent at the discretion of teachers and school leaders. The operational guidance was discussed and agreed with headteacher representatives and key local authority representatives. This aligns with current school governance arrangements where statutory responsibilities for the delivery of education reside with local authorities.”
A spokesman for council organisation Cosla said: “The use of public money requires guidance to ensure it is used in line with the expectations of the policy. This guidance recognises the concerns of headteachers about being directly accountable for spending decisions.”
In December, the Scottish government announced that cash would be allocated directly to individual schools for the first time. Headteachers will decide how to spend the money, which will total around £1,200 for each pupil from P1 to S3 known to be eligible for free school meals.