Call to use £7m for classroom support
TWO Caithness councillors have backed a call for some of the £7 million underspend in the 2010/11 local authority budget to be used to target classroom support.
Wick representative Bill Fernie and Landward Caithness member Robert Coghill, along with other members of the Highland Council’s Independent Group, would like to see part of the money go to widen the current review into classroom assistants. They want adequate time for “a thorough, in-depth examination of all the issues along with no redundancies”.
Mr Coghill yesterday said he “backed the move to the hilt”. “It is important that this review is not seen as a budget-cutting exercise but something which identifies the need for classroom assistants and, more importantly, learning support auxiliaries for children who need learning support,” he told the Caithness Courier.
Mr Coghill said classroom assistants do a multitude of jobs and pointed out some are already learning support auxiliaries.
Mr Fernie, who chairs the council’s education, culture and sport committee, said: “This proposal is about continuing with the much-needed review but we need to take away the uncertainty that classroom assistants are feeling about their future.
“It will ensure time to modernise this essential role to achieve fair and equitable staffing for all our schools.”
As revealed online at www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk, prudent financial management by budget holders is set to result in the council coming in under budget in 2010
A report to the resources committee today will give members a near-final position on the revenue budget and state work on closing the final accounts is ongoing, with the final position for 2010
Landward Caithness councillor David Flear has said the underspend could be used to help ease some of the pain of council cuts. But he stressed the saving would be a one-off and would not affect the cuts of £58m which have to be made by the local authority over a three-year period.