Teacher Employment

Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at 2:00 pm on 19 September 2024.

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Photo of Fulton MacGregor Fulton MacGregor Scottish National Party 2:00, 19 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that qualified teachers are able to find suitable employment through permanent teaching posts in Scottish schools. (S6O-03733)

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

Local councils are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of their staff. That includes providing a complement of teachers that best meets the needs of each of their schools and their pupils.

Although the employment of teachers is a matter for local authorities, the Scottish Government remains committed to protecting teacher numbers and ensuring that qualified teachers are able to find suitable employment through permanent teaching posts. In this year’s budget, we are providing local authorities with £145.5 million for that purpose.

Photo of Fulton MacGregor Fulton MacGregor Scottish National Party

Over the past couple of years and this year, in particular, an increasing number of constituents who are teachers have come to me on the issue. They have advised me that they cannot get permanent posts in North Lanarkshire Council or other councils and that they are having to rely on supply teaching. What more can be done to ensure that those people who are trained to teach our children to the high standards that we can be proud to have here in Scotland are able to do so? What further discussions will the cabinet secretary have with councils, including North Lanarkshire Council, to further realise that potential?

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

It is worth noting that the teacher induction scheme provides a one-year probationary placement to allow teachers to meet the standard for full registration. Although that does not provide a guarantee of future employment with a particular council, the scheme is fully funded by the Scottish Government.

Teaching posts require to be advertised and filled in a fair and transparent manner. It is also worth reflecting on the fact that, over the past 10 years, since 2014, the percentage of teachers who are in permanent posts has remained relatively stable at about 80 per cent. Although we cannot direct teachers with regard to where they should work—nor would I want us to—we will continue to do everything that we can to maximise the number of jobs that are available for teachers, including permanent posts.

To that end, I have had substantive discussions with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. I have also asked the strategic board for teacher education to provide me with advice on how we can better understand and tackle the challenge at local authority level. I will meet the board next week to talk about the progress that it has made, and I expect to receive an initial report from it by the end of this year. I am also happy to discuss the issue directly with North Lanarkshire Council, as I have done with other councils. It is worth saying that councils have responsibility for the employment of teachers.

Photo of Annabelle Ewing Annabelle Ewing Scottish National Party

A number of members wish to ask supplementary questions. We will try to get through as many as we can in the time available.

Photo of Karen Adam Karen Adam Scottish National Party

In my constituency, we are seriously struggling to attract and retain teachers. The Scottish Government’s incentives to encourage newly qualified staff to take up posts in rural areas are having limited success there. Parent councils in Aberdeenshire are calling for a summit to address the issue. Will the cabinet secretary please meet me and the parents who are concerned about the situation to discuss it further?

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

I met parent council representatives from Aberdeenshire earlier this year. I have also met the local authority directly. This year, we have looked at the way in which we make allocations through the preference waiver scheme. This year, by doing that manually, we have sought to increase the number of probationers who are going to Aberdeenshire.

It is also worth saying that fewer teachers are engaging with that scheme post-pandemic. I have asked officials for advice on how we might be able to reflect on, review and update the scheme, because it is not working as I think it was intended to work. There are local challenges in Aberdeenshire, but, as Ms Adam will know, schools such as Banff academy are using pragmatic approaches to filling vacancies. I will be more than happy to meet the member and her constituents.

Photo of Liam Kerr Liam Kerr Conservative

In Angus, it has been reported that newly qualified primary teachers have next to no hope of getting permanent jobs. Only 10.5 per cent of them have a permanent job after a year. They are stuck in a limbo of supply work, in which they are unable to buy a house. Some report being unable to have a family, and some have been offered a refuse collection job as an alternative to a teaching post.

Local figures suggest that Angus Council cannot afford to employ the number of teachers that it needs. Does the cabinet secretary recognise that the Government urgently needs to rethink how it resources education departments in Angus and take practical action of the sort that was absent from her previous answers, to avoid further letting teachers and pupils down?

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

I thank the member for his interest. I actually did outline practical action that I have taken in the past year, which is that, where teachers have ticked the box to go anywhere, they have been sent to authorities such as Karen Adam’s constituency, where there are vacancies. Therefore, that is a practical measure that we have taken this year, which has sent more probationers to that part of the country.

I am more than happy to engage with the member on the issues in Angus. Every local authority in Scotland is responsible for its own employment of teachers, and they all have different practices. I see the member gesticulating at me about money, and I again remind him that, in this year’s budget, which his party voted against, we are providing an extra £145.5 million, ring fenced, to protect teacher numbers. If he wants me to put additional funding into that, I am sure that he will engage with me and members across the Government throughout the budget process on where that additionality might come from.

Photo of Pam Duncan-Glancy Pam Duncan-Glancy Labour

The fact that teaching has become a precarious job is not something that most of us in Scotland ever thought would be the case, and yet, in 2016, half of post-induction teachers got jobs and, in 2022-23, that had fallen to under a quarter. Pupils and teachers need stability, so I ask the cabinet secretary: how did it get to this, and what will she do to ensure that those who train as teachers get jobs?

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

I go back to the point that I made in response to a previous question. The number of teachers in permanent posts today is roughly the same as it was in 2014. I recognise some of the challenges in this regard, and it is important that we work with local authorities such as Angus, which has specific challenges, and Aberdeenshire, which has challenges with regard to subject areas.

I have previously provided an update to the chamber on some of the work that we have done on supporting bursaries for certain subject areas, and I think that we will have to consider that again. I also intimated in my response to a previous question that I am meeting with the strategic board for teacher education next week to hear advice from it on how we can try to change some of the mood music around here.

However, I would again reflect on the additionality that the Scottish Government is putting in to protect teacher numbers, which is helping to sustain permanence in many parts of the country. Without that, we would see a much more challenging picture. I am more than happy to work with members of the Opposition on that and to hear any ideas that they might have.

Photo of Willie Rennie Willie Rennie Liberal Democrat

I genuinely cannot understand the Government’s policy. It says that it wants to recruit 3,500 teachers, even though local councils just cannot afford that, but it then floats the idea that it could reduce teacher contact time without the 3,500 extra teachers. The result is unemployed and underemployed teachers right across the country, so what is the Government’s policy? Does it want 3,500 teachers or not?

Photo of Jenny Gilruth Jenny Gilruth Scottish National Party

As Mr Rennie knows, we invest in Scotland’s teachers. I am sure that he welcomed the acceptance from the teaching trade unions only last week of the pay offer that will put an extra £29 million into the pockets of teachers across the country. We invest in Scotland’s teachers. The national numbers show that, since 2018, we have seen thousands more teachers in Scotland’s schools—there were more than 2,000 more teachers in 2018 alone. I also responded to a previous question about the additionality that we are ring fencing. However, I recognise the challenges. They are local and often vary in relation to subject areas. For example, we need to look at the probationer scheme, which is directly funded by this Government. I look forward to working with the strategic board for teacher education, which I will meet next week.