Council speaks with one voice against cuts to poorest children's education

Front page of the Courier 26 January 2022

On Monday night Dundee City Council's Children and Families Service Committee supported an amendment put forward by my colleague Councillor Georgia Cruickshank which described cuts proposed to the Scottish Attainment Challenge Fund in Dundee as 'devastating.'  The Committee also agreed to write to the Scottish Government calling for them to reverse this cut.  You can read more about the cuts and my colleagues Georgia Cruickshank and Charlie Malone's comments in the Courier.

I was concerned to read in papers for the December Scrutiny Committee that the performance of the poorest young people in Dundee has not met the target set by the council.  We need to recognise that these young people have had a very difficult start in life and that society should be doing all that it can to make sure that their social and economic position in their early years does not limit their ability to achieve their full potential in life.  Dundee City Council should be doing all that it can to improve this situation.  Therefore, I am appalled to hear of these are plans to cut funding for the Attainment Challenge Fund which will impact on Dundee.  At the Scrutiny Committee I asked officers of the council how on earth this could possibly help the situation.

At a recent Scottish Parliament Education Committee a council officer stated that 'there will be challenging decisions to made' as a result of this policy change.  In response to my question at the Scrutiny Committee the outgoing Executive Director of Children and Families said that there was 'no question it [the cut to Attainment Challenge Fund] will have an impact.'  He went on to say that 'I wouldn't minimise the challenge that the reduction in the Scottish Attainment Challenge fund will bring.'  I am extremely concerned to hear professionals tell me that Dundee's poorest children will face further problems because of this policy change.

 

It is appalling to think that money has been invested to try and improve the life chances of some of the poorest young people in our country will now be taken away.  As a councillor in Dundee letting every young person in Dundee achieve their full potential is a priority it is astonishing that funding previously available to help the poor in Dundee is being cut.  As officers have made clear there is no way to sugar-coat this bitter pill, the best they could say is that it will be 'challenging' or have 'an impact'

 

I was glad that the Children and Families Services Committee agreed to Labour's amendment especially because the committee’s remit is not to protect our political parties; rather Dundee councillors' focus should be doing all that we can to improve attainment in this city to give the young people whom we have a responsibility for the best start in life.  It would be appalling if we had voted in any other way.  We were right to condemn this callous cut to the life chances of the poorest young people in Dundee

A recent Courier editorial described this cut as 'a false economy' and that is absolutely what it is.  That false economy will cost society for decades into the future.  Let's hope that the Scottish Government see sense and reinstate funding to help the poorest pupils in Dundee.