The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday December 05 2024 #Budget #Education
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00:00Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.
00:04My name's Dale Miller.
00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by our Education Correspondent,
00:10Callum Ross.
00:12It is the day after the Scottish budget.
00:14There was plenty of attention yesterday around what Shona Robison had to say,
00:19and there's no surprise as we look at the front page of today's Scotsman that we led
00:24on the budget.
00:25You can see a picture of Ms. Robison and First Minister John Swinney ahead of entering
00:31the Chamber at Holyrood, as well as our full coverage inside today's paper.
00:37The rabid ed of the hat, so to speak, was a vow to end the two-child benefit cap, although
00:42there are still some question marks around how that move will ultimately be funded beyond
00:48next financial year, details of which the Scottish government have to further up.
00:54They've spoken about working with the UK government on this to achieve the aim.
00:59There are obvious political arguments to be made here, and perhaps political leverage
01:06for the SNP, given it's something that Sir Keir Starmer and the UK government have said
01:11that they did not want to do at this stage.
01:14There was also other significant decisions in their record spending for the NHS and health
01:20that will be significant, given the issues around waiting lists and the declining performance
01:25of the NHS here in Scotland.
01:27But also, there was a decision around a no-freeze extension to council tax, meaning there will
01:36be the option for council tax to be raised across local authorities next year.
01:42So, watch this space.
01:43You can read all the latest from the Scottish budget at scotsman.com.
01:48Callum, you were also reporting on the reaction from the education sector, both universities
01:54and college representatives had a view on what came out of the budget yesterday.
01:59Just run me through what they had to say.
02:02That's right, Dale.
02:02I mean, colleges and universities are not in a good place at the moment financially.
02:06We've spoken about that regularly.
02:09We've been writing about that all the time, really.
02:11Job cuts at Edinburgh University, Dundee University, Robert Gordon University.
02:16There have already been a number at Aberdeen University.
02:19Colleges are in an even worse position, really.
02:22You know, they've been cutting jobs for years.
02:25I was speaking to a college principal last week who sort of, you know, their view is
02:30that essentially the sector's in managed decline at the moment.
02:34Others have gone as far to describe it as a burning platform.
02:38Colleges have had 17% real terms cut since 2021-22.
02:44So, I mean, both colleges and universities were really kind of hoping for good news in the budget yesterday.
02:52I mean, what was announced, it wasn't as bad as last year when, you know, their funding actually did decline.
02:58There was an actual reduction in funding.
03:02Their money is going up, just not as, it's just not keeping pace with inflation.
03:07So, it's real terms, real terms cuts.
03:11And that continues a trend that's been going on for a number of years.
03:14And, you know, the impact is, you know, you're seeing the impact of that all the time at the moment in recent months with these announcements.
03:23Colleges in particular, I think, were really disappointed with the budget, a 1.8% uplift, again, below inflation.
03:34Colleges Scotland said leaving colleges millions of pounds short in this way was unacceptable.
03:41They described it as part of a deeply troubling trend.
03:45They're also unhappy about a lack of announcement in terms of support to deal with, you know, rack concrete and things like that.
03:54So, you know, they're pretty worried, I think.
03:58Universities, the situation was slightly more complicated.
04:01Shona Robison, in her statement, made a big point of saying that she was increasing their funding by 3.5%.
04:09But it sort of later emerged in the small print that, you know, more than half of that money wasn't new money that's coming.
04:16It's redirected spending that universities were already getting.
04:21So, I mean, universities did get some of what they want, but at the same time, they're still saying that they're facing a real terms cut.
04:30And are in a precarious state.
04:34You can read that story as we speak at Scotsman.com.
04:38If you can't find it all on the homepage, just go to the education tab in the navigation bar on the site.
04:44Callum, there was some other nuggets around education in there, and I know you've been doing some digging around it.
04:51I'm interested in what you found out to date, Rhi, teacher numbers.
04:55And there was also some money for school breakfast, but it was pretty limited.
05:00That's right, Dale. I mean, Shona Robison said in her statement that spending on education overall was going up by 3% above inflation, an uplift of £158 million.
05:13These numbers, you always need to look at kind of behind these numbers a bit to see exactly what they're basing those calculations on.
05:19But yes, you're right, there was £3 million she highlighted in her statement for more breakfast clubs and primary school.
05:27But interesting, no actual money for extending free breakfast for P6s and 7s, which was a previous commitment.
05:35There's also £29 million to help support pupils with additional support needs.
05:42It's been a big issue with growing numbers in schools.
05:47There's a sort of suggestion that teachers, that money will be used to help retrain teachers to become sort of ASN specialists.
05:55It's interesting, there was no mention of increasing teacher numbers.
06:00You know, the SNP is committed from its last manifesto to recruiting an additional 3,500 staff, but we've not made any progress on that.
06:12There's no chance of them doing that by 2026.
06:16And in the budget statement, Fiona Robertson is now just saying that the budget can help maintain teacher numbers at 2023 level.
06:25So that's quite an interesting change of tone.
06:30Although, as we said, the Educational Institute of Scotland, biggest teaching union, it was kind of taking some hope from the budget statement.
06:38I think particularly there was a line about investing in Scotland's teachers and funding initiatives to address the challenges facing the education workforce.
06:49I mean, we don't really have any detail of what that will involve, but we may need to watch that space to see if there is some money going into initiatives like that.
07:00Callum, it's often that the real surprises or the consequences from the budget come out in the days that follow.
07:09So please tune into Scotsman.com.
07:12We'll be covering the impact on different sectors out the back of the budget.
07:16As that becomes clear, we've got our specialists and correspondents digging through the papers to bring you the stories that matter out the back of the budget.
07:27Callum, thank you for joining us.
07:29To everyone else, follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram.
07:32We're on Blue Sky. And go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow.
07:36You'll have all the latest analysis out the back end of the budget, including some lighter coverage as well as part of the mix.
07:44Thanks to you, Callum, and thanks, everyone, for joining us.