Council Budget Proposals 23.02.23

The parent council have sent the message below to all councillors in the Inverleith and Forth Wards, regarding proposed cuts to the education budget which are due to be debated tomorrow, Thursday 23rd February.

We feel that these proposals would be detrimental to school budgets which are already extremely tight, as those of you who have attended PC meetings will know.

The proposals were circulated during the February school holiday, meaning that timescales for the public to respond are extremely tight. If you would like to contact your councillors, email addresses of the councillors for the school’s cluster are included at the bottom of the letter. You can also find your own councillors’ contact details through the CEC website: https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1 or the Write To Them website: writetothem.com.

                                                                                    Broughton High School Parent Council
                                                                                    intouch@broughtonhighpc.org

                                                                                    Wednesday 22 February 2023

Dear Councillors,

We are writing on behalf of the parent body at Broughton High School regarding the City of Edinburgh’s budget proposals due to be discussed by the council on Thursday this week.

The details of the budget proposals were announced just before the February school holidays and have given us an incredibly short time to respond. While we appreciate that budgeting is difficult, these proposals include over £4m cuts per year to Education and Children’s Services. Schools are already critically under-resourced. Teachers are striking, and parents are all too aware of the difficulties schools face every day to provide core educational services.

Our schools have been able to restore some pre-Covid aspects but many are not available, including overseas trips and some in-school activities; the disruption to learning and social aspects is still very obvious. The cost-of-living crisis means schools are supporting families to supply basic necessities for pupils.  For many years now, parent fundraising has been required to cover essential classroom equipment as well as additional “extras”.  Any reduction in funding now will have a major impact on an already parlous situation.

The proposals take back money from education through devolved school management allocations, including removing Pupil Support Assistants from classrooms – we need more PSAs, not fewer, to ensure inclusion – and removing the transition teachers who have only recently been introduced to the schools, roles created to narrow the attainment gap. This work is necessary and has only just begun.

Other proposed cuts to speech and language therapy services in schools and Education Welfare Officers which will each have their own impact on schools’ ability to deliver at Get it Right for Every Child.

We ask that the council do not vote through these cuts to education. While we all accept budgeting is difficult, we ask you to look elsewhere for cuts; to consult more widely with school management and staff, parents and experts. We also ask that you look at ways of funding schools beyond the statutory requirements and core pupil teacher ratios.

There are huge pressures on schools which are making it difficult for them to provide what children need. We ask that the Council finds a way to ensure that Edinburgh’s schools can support our children and young people.

Yours sincerely,

Broughton High School Parent Council

Inverleith Ward Councillors:

Jule Bandel, Cllr.Jule.Bandel@edinburgh.gov.uk

Max Mitchell, max.mitchell@edinburgh.gov.uk

Vicky Nicolson, Cllr.Vicky.Nicolson@edinburgh.gov.uk

Hal Osler, hal.osler@edinburgh.gov.uk

Forth Ward Councillors:

Cammy Day, cammy.day@edinburgh.gov.uk
Sanne Dijkstra-Downie, Cllr.Sanne.Dijkstra-Downie@edinburgh.gov.uk
Stuart Dobbin, Cllr.Stuart.Dobbin@edinburgh.gov.uk
Kayleigh O’Neill, Cllr.Kayleigh.ONeill@edinburgh.gov.uk