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Councillors express concerns over £2.6 million Pupil Equity Funding underspend in Aberdeenshire


By David Porter

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A report on Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) which was brought before councillors at Aberdeenshire's education and children's services committee has highlighted a massive £2.6million underspend in the ring-fenced additional budget provided directly to schools to help address the poverty-related attainment gap.

The report stressed that the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted on the planned spend of this money.

In some cases, schools have been unable to recruit both teaching and local government staff into fixed term positions they feel the fund would be best spent on to support vulnerable young people.

In others retaining these staff who often move on to permanent posts elsewhere has been an issue.

They have also faced challenges in accessing resources or services to spend the money in different ways, due to the difficulties companies have had in staffing their workplaces across a range of industries.

Director of education and children’s services, Laurence Findlay also explained that there is a huge amount of work done in schools to engage with young people and families about how the money is spent, and sometimes when they decide on very specialist support such as speech and language therapy, there is a lack of trained professionals available locally so it’s back to the drawing board.

Councillors voiced their disappointment in the cumulative impact of the underspend and asked for more resources to support schools with this important work.

They were provided with assurances that this is an improving picture and measures set out to support schools, including sharing good practice, is a helpful way forward.

Head of Education Vincent Docherty highlighted that there are many excellent examples of where PEF monies are working well, including schools that have partnerships in place with MCR Pathways to provide mentoring to care experienced young people or are running breakfast cart initiatives to ensure all children can enjoy a healthy start to their day.

Councillors were also provided with updates on the services’ financial performance, including forecast budget positions and progress in achieving savings.

This report resulted in a query about motivations for dual headships in schools – where one head teacher looks after two schools – noting that modest savings had been realised even though this is not promoted as a money saving exercise.

Councillors were assured that modest savings are a bi-product rather than a driving factor, and that dual headships give head teachers the time and space for strategic leadership (rather than teaching classes in a small school) and that savings are minimal because often additional depute roles are put in place.

This work stems from difficulties recruiting enough head teachers, particularly for primary schools, rather than budget savings.


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