Councils threaten legal action against Scottish government over teacher numbers

Officials of local authorities have said ministers have a “case to answer legally”.

The local government body COSLA said it has consulted lawyers.

Chief executive of COSLA Rory Mair said: “We’ve now taken legal advice which suggests the Government have a case to answer about the legality of their behaviour over the teacher number issue and the imposition of this deal.”

COSLA is demanding deputy first minister John Swinney (pictured) “get back round the table with us and negotiate a deal”.

Mr Mair said legal action would not be immediate, adding: “I don’t think our first port of call would be to go to legal action, our first port of call is to go to Government and say these are the questions you’ve got to answer, we expect you to come back round the table and answer them.”

COSLA was “outraged and appalled” at the news in Mr Swinney’s budget that councils would lose money if they cut teaching staff or increased the ratio of pupils to teachers in their jurisdictions.

Councils will only get their share of the £51 million in government money if they satisfy the condition on teacher numbers.

COSLA asserted there is no link between pupil performance and the pupil to teacher ration.

Mr Mair said: “We’ve been saying for three years we do not believe teacher numbers is a good indicator to be used as a measure of performance in an education system.

“We believe the government haven’t behaved reasonably and on taking expert legal advice we believe there are four legal challenges the government have got to explain with regard to the way they have behaved.”

He added: “We think the whole approach the government has taken may be considered ultra vires in the sense that the parliament has set out the purposes for which the the local government finance order is to be used.

“It is to be used to finance local government services, it is not used by the government to coerce local government into doing things we don’t want to do.

“We’re not saying government shouldn’t ever get its way, but the way it gets its way is to negotiate.

“What it isn’t allowed to do is to use the local government finance order for their getting their own way, the parliament has not given them that power.”

A Scottish government spokesman said: “The Scottish government is firmly committed to maintaining both teacher numbers and the pupil-teacher ratio.

“Having not only the highest quality but also the right number of teachers in our schools to support our pupils is a policy we would hope local authorities would support.

“Despite the Scottish government providing a further £10m of funding, bringing the total to £51m, specifically to support teacher numbers, COSLA failed to reach agreement on the terms of a national agreement leaving us no alternative but to seek agreements with individual local authorities.

“Several councils have expressed a desire to meet with ministers to discuss the offer, which we very much welcome.

“Teacher number commitments have been a feature of the local government finance settlements since 2011/12 and the failure to deliver on this agreed commitment in 2014/15, despite additional funding specifically for that, was a material factor in informing the Government’s revised approach to funding in 2015/16.

“A further meeting between the Scottish Government and Cosla is planned for next week, but ministers have made clear that the conditions of the offer will not change.

“Ministers have acted legally at every stage, and it is unclear which regulations Cosla believe sets out that Scottish Ministers can or cannot act in this way.

“Ministers are obliged to consult before the annual Local Government Finance (Scotland) Order is laid before Parliament, which they did in the Local Government Finance Circular last December.”