You can find information about that here. We will provide updates as progress continues over the next few years.
Why is action needed to protect and develop our education services?
We want the best for our young people. We want to deliver Education services that gives them a great start in life. And we are doing that.
Did you know… Argyll and Bute is consistently in the top 10 council areas for supporting pupils into training, further education or employment – so helping our young people leave education in a better position than most in Scotland to build the lives they want.
However, Education in Scotland is going through a great deal of change. At the same time funding for education, and public services more widely, is limited and reducing. And locally the needs and demands of our young people are changing.
This means that we must take action to protect and develop effective education services into the future.
What changes are affecting education in Argyll and Bute?
Nationally, in brief:
- Work is being done to progress RCCT – reduced class contact time for teachers
- There is a growing emphasis on delivering education digitally, equity of access and collaborative working.
Locally, in brief:
- our geography continues to present challenges. Argyll and Bute has the highest number of schools in Scotland on islands and primary and secondary school rolls are projected to fall;
- Did you know, for example in terms of cost, Scottish average cost for per pupil for pre-school education places was £11,659 (2023/24), but in Argyll and Bute it was £15,310
- At the same time demand for specialist ASN (additional support needs) provision is rising.
- Recruitment – finding the people and skills we need to teach our learners is always difficult
What is the council doing to look after education services in response to these changes?
We commissioned an independent review of our services, carried out by external education professionals. It looked at how the council, given the challenges it faces, could ensure sustainable education services that deliver opportunities and positive outcomes for young people into the future. You can read about the findings of the review here.
We have also been ‘trying and testing’ different ways of working as need has arisen. For example in part to address recruitment issues, we have some ‘shared headships’ (one head teacher overseeing more than one school) in place; and to better support young people with additional needs, we have invested millions of pounds in a number of support centres.
What is happening now?
The independent review made 10 high level recommendations for action over 4 years to 2029.
You can read about them in the review findings report on pages 22 to 82 here
A dedicated project team is developing more detailed proposals that will go to future meetings of the Community Services Committee for consideration. We will provide updates here on decisions made.
