£3m of key education pot used to cover admin costs and police 

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today said that the SNP are undermining measures to tackle child poverty as he revealed that £3m worth of education funding intended to support deprived pupils is being spent on council administration costs and police officers in schools.

Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) was introduced in 2017 after years of campaigning by Scottish Liberal Democrats. It provides additional funding to schools based on the number of pupils from deprived backgrounds.

Freedom of information requests submitted by the party to all of Scotland’s local authorities reveal that:

• Since 2022/23, 13 councils have clawed back a total of £3,768,790.55 of Pupil Equity Funding from school budgets to pay for administration costs.
• North Ayrshire said that from 2017-20/21, £588,502 was spent from PEF budgets on school-based police officers.
• Glasgow noted that some of their schools used their PEF money for school-based police officers, while East Renfrewshire confirmed that school-based police officers are funded centrally by the department.
• 17 councils said that they did not use PEF for either of these purposes.

Mr Rennie said:

“Pupil Equity Funding should be there to boost the opportunities and education of the most deprived children across the country. It is, therefore, worrying that big chunks of it are being used to cover admin costs or on measures which could effectively brand young people as criminals.

“The SNP can talk all they want about child poverty, but these findings expose their lack of leadership and direction in tackling the problem.

“The Scottish Government must deliver a proper, long-term funding settlement for local authorities so that councils aren’t forced to siphon off money from key funds like this one to pay for central costs.

“Ministers should also be working in partnership with councils to support teachers and schools so that they don't have to resort to police officers on campus. That means getting serious about cutting class sizes and providing more provision for those with additional support needs.”