The council’s education boss claims only a “small number of parents” have complained about proposed reallocations of school support staff.
And Dr Gillian Brydson insisted that the hours and staff allotted for the new school year will be more than ever before.
Parents and unions have been critical of council plans to re-allocate the hours of support given to schools.
They fear it creates the possibility that some schools may not have the necessary number of learning assistants for children and young people with additional needs.
Dr Brydson told Thursday’s education and learning committee that “every year some schools get more allocation and some get less” and that “the allocation for next term is more than we’ve had in this council before”.
She told members that there are 114 schools across the region, of which 14 had raised concerns over the new allocations. The matter had been resolved with two of them.
She stated that it was “a small number of parents” who were unhappy and added: “I recognise there has been some concern from parents but we have 21,000 parents across Dumfries and Galloway and it is a relatively small number although every parent’s view is important.”
An underspend in the education budget last year meant committee members could agree to boost the support staff budget by £88,000.
They were told a review was being carried out to look at the funding allocation for the next three years and it was agreed to also carry out a workforce review.
Both of those will be presented to the committee in September.
But Councillor Willie Scobie took issue with the claim that it was only a small number of parents who had issues.
He said: “It’s right across the board, in literally all the schools where they are struggling to deliver on additional support needs.
“I think a review is needed and it’s needed as quickly as possible before the start of the August term.
“Rather than saying there’s the budget and then going out to assess, I see it as the other way around.
“We should have been assessing before the break up of the schools and then it’s for this committee to look at if there is a shortfall in funding which I predict there will be.”
Dr Brydson pointed out that the council’s devolved school management (DSM) budget had underspent by more than £1 million in the last year.
“The first of port of call would be to the school’s DSM to manage these children who live in their catchment and meeting their needs. Our very valuable targeted specialist support is in addition to that.”
