Teaching union fears potential Dumfries and Galloway Council budget cuts would "decimate education"

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A union claims halving the numbers of teachers helping kids with additional support needs would “decimate education”.

It’s one of nearly 50 options which have gone out to the public as part of a consultation on next year’s budget.

Other options causing concern to the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) are cutting resources to teach English as a foreign language, removing inclusion bases and cutting teacher numbers.

Dumfries and Galloway EIS branch secretary, Andrew O’Halloran, said: “If imposed, these cruel cuts will decimate education.

“The budget proposals envisage a possible 50 per cent cut in ASN teachers, which would mean our most vulnerable children and young people will lose out massively. Teachers are already at the end of their tether.

“During the asymmetric week consultation, the council claimed it wanted to improve teacher recruitment and work-life balance, but these proposals clearly show disregard for teachers and pupils. There is a danger that Dumfries and Galloway will cease to be a viable place to raise children. This madness has to stop.”

The council is looking to cut £10 million from its budget for each of the next three years and is looking for public opinion on 48 options.

One is to reduce the number of additional support for learning teachers by 25 per cent, with another to cut the number by 50 per cent “with all remaining staff directly deployed to school clusters”.

This could generate more than £800,000 of savings by 2027/28.

Other options include getting rid of the central schools teams for English as an additional language and gypsy travellers “retaining reduced provision to maintain a critical focus on authority planning, professional learning and development and quality assurance”. This could generate a £619,000 saving by 2027/28.

It is claimed “a change of approach from the provision of inclusion bases to supported mainstream provision, retaining resource to create a new central response budget that will ensure that there are pathways for young people in extreme circumstances” could save more than £100,000.

And cutting teaching numbers due to falling rolls “to maintain the current pupil-teacher ratio” could save as much as £2 million.

A council spokesman said: “With increasing demand for services in our large rural area and reduced funding, we need to change, cut or even stop some services – and generate extra income from fees and charges. Visit www.dumgal.gov.uk/budget and we would urge everyone to fill in the survey and have their say.

“At this stage, no decisions have been made on any of the budget savings options.

“The consultation results will be reported at the next meeting of full council on December 12 and inform the decisions taken by councillors in setting spending plans at the council’s annual budget meeting in late February 2025.”

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