Plans to axe dozens of teaching positions across Dundee have been given the seal of approval as the SNP administration’s budget is passed.
The local authority’s budget proposals, published earlier this week, outlined plans to cut 32 full-time teachers across the city’s primary and secondary schools.
This reduction will save the council around £1.9m in the upcoming financial year.
However, the move had been branded “mad” by opposition councillors, who proposed varying amendments in their own budgets that they said would see the posts saved.
These included:
- Using £2.1m from Dundee City Council’s Covid reserves and renewal & repair fund (Labour and Conservatives)
- Using £3.4m Dundee City Council’s Covid reserves and renewal & repair fund (Liberal Democrats)
But at a budget meeting held on Thursday, none of the amendments received enough support to pass.
What does this mean for teachers?
The approved saving is expected to be delivered in two ways:
• changing the existing formula for mainstream teachers which will result in a reduction of approximately 28 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers based on projected pupil rolls.
• changing the allocation of newly qualified teachers to primary schools, increasing from 0.6 FTE to 0.7 FTE. This equates to an approximate saving of 4.7 FTE based on projected pupil rolls.
These savings have been identified by officers in the council’s Children and Families Service, rather than the SNP administration.
Children and families service ‘oversensing’
As of September 2023, Dundee had total of 1,431 teachers working across primary and secondary schools.
This is greater than the 1,395 the Scottish Government expects the local authority to maintain.
Audrey May – executive director of children and families service – stressed the cuts will not result in job losses but rather was changing the formula used to staff schools.
Speaking at Thursday’s budget meeting, she added: “We are over spending and over budget so we are getting our budget back in line.”
Conversation