Dumfries and Galloway teaching union express concerns at support staff redistribution plan

Teaching unions have expressed concerns about plans to redistribute support staff at schools across Dumfries and Galloway.

The council is working on plans to re-allocate the hours of support given to schools, leaving some fearing they may not have the number of learning assistants needed to provide adequate help for children and young people with additional needs.

The proposal has drawn criticism from the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and Unison.

Local EIS association secretary for Dumfries and Galloway, Andrew O’Halloran, said: “Our members are concerned that these changes, in the wake of Covid-19, may have a negative impact on attainment.

“The local authority must release funding to ensure that all schools have access to a sufficient number of learning assistants.”

Unison hit out at the plans earlier this week.

Union official Karen Korus told Tuesday’s Standard: “Our members are angry, frustrated, and insulted. These proposed changes are affecting schools throughout Dumfries and Galloway causing added pressure to an already overworked staff cohort.

“They now fear for the safety on delivering adequate needs for the pupils they support.

“A high number of staff are suffering from stress due to the extra pressures put upon them with some even frequently missing out on their lunch break due to staff shortage for various reasons.”

But a council spokeswoman said: “Each year we work to a budget that gives us a weekly allocation of hours, which is then distributed across all our schools and learning environments by using school data and information from education plans about levels of need.

“We do not allocate hours to individual children. We allocate hours to our schools and the head teacher then uses the allocation as required. Some schools have seen their allocation reduce while others have seen their allocation increase.”