North Ayrshire Council has admitted that it would lose more than £1million if it goes ahead with planned reductions to teacher numbers.

We asked the council to clarify the position on teacher numbers after a row developed between the Scottish Government and the organisation that represents Scotland’s councils, COSLA.

The Scottish Government had re-iterated that they would ‘claw back’ local government money from councils who fail to maintain teacher numbers in 2015/16.  The council told us that teacher numbers would be maintained for the coming financial year and would, therefore, not be affected by any penalty.

However, at a meeting of the council, it was confirmed that any penalty for failing to maintain teacher numbers would be £1.1million.

In December, the council agreed to the reduction of more than 100 teaching posts between 2016 and 2018.

It is expected that additional funding to North Ayrshire Council as part of the Scottish Government’s Attainment Scotland Fund will be used to stave off teacher cuts in the short term.

At the last full council meeting, Education spokesman Councillor John Bruce confirmed the potential implications following questions by Largs Councillor Tom Marshall and Labour group leader Peter McNamara.  Cllr Marshall referred to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s response to questions on class sizes last month, when she stated: “I want to prioritise raising attainment and closing the attainment gap.

“Let me make it very clear that I do not believe that reducing teacher numbers is the best way to achieve that.” He then asked: “Should North Ayrshire Council not now revisit their plan to remove more teachers from the classrooms?” Cllr Bruce responded that COSLA and the Scottish Government continued to discuss the situation.  Cllr McNamara also asked for a response on teacher numbers and the potential impact the ‘claw back’ would have on the council.

Cllr Bruce replied that that such a ‘failure’ would result in the claw back of the ‘council’s share of £41million’,  A council spokesperson later told us: “The council agreed a three-year budget for 2015/16 to 2017/18 in December 2014. This included a reduction to teacher numbers after 2015/16.  The budget is reviewed and updated annually.

“As there are no plans to reduce teacher numbers in 2015/16 there are no anticipated financial penalties.”