West Dunbartonshire's SNP council leader says he will “not defend the indefensible” as the Scottish Government moves to cut the area's local attainment fund by £2 million.
Since its launch in 2015/16 the local authority has received more than £12.5 million in funding from the attainment challenge funding pot which had been allocated by the Scottish Government.
The money is designed to close the school achievement gap between children from poorer backgrounds and wealthy ones.
However a revised model, for all 32 local authorities, will reduce West Dunbartonshire’s annual allocation to £5.1 million between March 2022 and 2026 which could have been £8.1 million had the former scheme remained in place.
Now the leader of West Dunbartonshire Council, councillor Jonathon McColl and opposition leader, councillor Martin Rooney will write to the Scottish Government to reject these terms and request the current level of funding to West Dunbartonshire remains the same.
A motion by Labour councillor John Mooney and addendum by councillor McColl was agreed unanimously at a full council meeting this week.
It read: “This council is appalled by the Scottish Government’s planned cuts to the share of the Scottish Attainment Fund which was assigned to address the poverty related attainment gap and improve outcomes for learners.
“The council would have received £8,175,260 between 2022/23 and 2025/26 if the funding had not been cut. They have decided to cut the funding which means that the council will now receive £5,195,080 which means we will lose out on £2,980,180 over the four year period.
“This is unacceptable and the council completely rejects them.”
The addendum added: “This proposal rejects the SNP cuts and calls on the chief executive, leader of the council and leader of the opposition to sign a joint letter to the Scottish Government to request that the current level [of funding] to West Dunbartonshire is maintained.
“The letter should also request a meeting with the relevant cabinet secretary and ministers to discuss the impact of this reduction on educational services in West Dunbartonshire.”
Speaking about the cuts to the attainment gap funding programme and how it would impact members of the community, councillors agreed this was not the right time to remove it.
Councillor McColl said: “It is an unfathomable decision taken at a national level. I had asked for more information from the Scottish Government ahead of this meeting on how they expected me as an SNP leader to defend the indefensible.
“At COSLA we recognise that while we have nine areas that were in the original attainment challenge fund, who have significant deprivation, we recognise that all 32 local authorities have pockets of deprivation and have children and young people who could benefit from additional funding in the same way we have benefited.
“What Cosla did not want to happen was for the government to essentially take the same pot of money with a little bit of a top up and distribute it among all the 32 local authorities. The effect of that will reduce our funding by 58 per cent.
“We can do our best to try and minimise the impact of this and we will continue fighting for funding to be increased for the benefit of our children and young people. I am flabbergasted by the decision and I am certainly not going to sit here and defend it.”
Councillor Mooney who moved the motion said the future looked bleak for those in the poorest communities.
He said: “If there were ever a good time to remove funding from a very deprived area like West Dunbartonshire, this is not it.
“I am also concluding that this significant reduction will probably widen the attainment gap at West Dunbartonshire even further regardless of whatever mitigations we can put in place.
“It does look like the outlook for raising attainment if these funding cuts remain in place, is bleak.”
The Scottish Government says that all school pupils experiencing poverty will benefit from targeted funding in 2022/23 to help close the attainment gap.
A spokesperson said: “Investment to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap is increasing. Our refreshed Scottish Attainment Challenge – backed by record investment of £1 billion in this Parliament – empowers schools and councils to drive education recovery and accelerate progress in tackling the attainment gap.
“Our new fairer funding model – to be phased in over four years – was agreed with Cosla and directly measures household income, providing a precise count of children impacted by poverty.
“All councils will now receive a proportionate amount of the Attainment Scotland Fund. West Dunbartonshire Council will receive over £5 million, alongside additional investment through the Care Experienced Children and Young People Grant and schools will receive significant Pupil Equity Funding over the next four years.”
