Question reference: S6W-00348
- Asked by: Stuart McMillan, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 2 June 2021
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Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 11 June 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with (a) COSLA and (b) teaching unions regarding temporary teaching positions.
Answer
The recruitment and deployment of teachers in local authority schools are matters for individual local authorities.
Whilst local authorities are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of their staff, we are firmly of the view that we will need all possible teaching resources at our disposal to compensate for any loss of learning suffered since the start of the pandemic. It is for that reason that we have provided over £200 million of additional funding to support the recruitment of additional staff to aid education recovery.
In the first 100 days of this Parliamentary term, we will fund councils to increase teacher numbers by 1,000 and classroom assistants by 500. This as part of our commitment to support the recruitment of 3,500 additional teachers and classroom assistants over the parliamentary term.
We are working closely with COSLA regarding recruitment practices and the employment of teachers for next academic year, and Local Authorities are currently undertaking an assessment of staff requirements to support education recovery. This issue has also been discussed with the teaching unions at the Scottish Negotiation Committee for Teachers.