East Ayrshire Council chiefs were grilled over the drastic changes to the local authority's summer scheme as kids with additional support needs look set to lose out this summer.
The local authority's head of education defended the remodeled offering at a meeting of the full council and put on record that she was "proud" of what was available to kids in the area.
Parents voiced grave concerns for ASN children facing upheaval over the long summer with the regular scheme previously available in 2019 no longer available.
Linda McAulay-Griffiths said her department did not bear the sole responsibility for providing a summer scheme but did concede that the amount of time offered to kids to spend in school had diminished.
The education boss and council chief executive Eddie Fraser offered staff shortages as the reason as why the summer scheme couldn't be operated like it was in 2019.
Labour councillor Elaine Stewart probed Mr Fraser on the issue of communication, with parents and guardians only finding out about changes 12 days before schools broke up for summer.
The council boss said he was of the understanding that discussions for the new programme had been ongoing since January/February.
He said: "We should've been better at how we communicated that over the period of time."
He later admitted: "It's not the same programme and I don't think there's any point kidding on it is the same programme."
Council leader Douglas Reid said the move wasn't a cost-cutting exercise but expressed his concern at the issue.
"It is concerning and something we want to address," councillor Reid said. "Parent councils were contacted and consulted. Maybe there was a better exercise in making sure that information was effectively put out to all the parents concerned.
"It's not a cost-cutting exercise or anything like that. There's issues relating to the availability of staff which were beyond out control.
"It's important we get this right and we'll be monitoring the situation."
Launching a staunch defence of the summer scheme Ms McAulay-Griffiths calling the situation an "imperfect storm".
She said: "Every young person attending an ASN school has got the opportunity to be in school at points during the summer but I absolutely recognise that first of all, this is a multi-agency approach. Education do not have the responsibility on a sole nor statutory basis for the provision of a summer scheme but having clearly been involved in the past it's not something we'd seek to withdraw from."
"The big issue is around staff shortages, and that's staff having the first chance to get a holiday in perhaps two or three years with many of them perhaps taking rescheduled holidays so it's really been the 'imperfect storm', if you like, of circumstances where we'd normally have more staff available to us therefore more time available in schools.
"We have over 400 events taking place over the summer in addition to what's happening in the schools. Over 400 events, some of which are tailored for ASN pupils. In its widest sense a third of our young people are ASN in East Ayrshire - that's almost 10,000 children.
"We're really proud of the remodeled offer but we do acknowledge that it's a different offer in regards to those who attend specialist centres like Hillside and Willowbank.
"There's no getting away from acknowledging that time in school has reduced and I absolutely accept that but ultimately in terms of a multi agency offer, this is a much bigger offer with more funding than we've ever used before to make that happen.
"In terms of a bringing together of services, we're proud of what's out there for all young people in East Ayrshire across the summer but do recognise that the time in school offer has diminished given that it is the school holidays and we were very short on staff who had availability."
Councillors along with the chief executive, head of education and council leader all informally agreed to revisit the matter to see what worked and what did not.
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