COVID Recovery Fund / Scottish Government Funding - Freedom of information requests
Title or Description
COVID Recovery Fund / Scottish Government Funding
FOI Number
136
Date Received
02/02/2022
Type of Request
FOI
Request or Question
On 18th August the Scottish Government announced that they would be continuing funding Scottish Local Authorities with permanent Covid Recovery funding of £80 million pounds per annum. This was in addition to the permanent £65.5 million for local authorities to recruit additional teachers and support staff. A principal purpose of these monies was to allow local authorities the opportunity not only to appoint additional staff but to endeavour to offer permanent contracts.I would request that you provide the following information as part of a request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
1. What was Scottish Border Council's share of the £145.5 million which has been provided by Scottish Government?
2. From this funding how many additional teaching posts have been filled in the secondary sector?
3. How many of these posts are full-time?
4. How many of these posts have been made permanent?
5. From this funding how many additional support staff have been employed?
Response
1. In 2022/23 when the £145.5M funding is provided by SG, SBC's share is £2.863M. Of the £50M permanent funding in 2021/22 SBC received £1.067M. Temporary COVID funding has been utilised to support maternity leave from 28 weeks, shielding, literacy, supply and additional support for Newly Qualified Teachers and Recently Qualified Teachers
2. A decision has not yet been made on how to allocate the £2.863M, this is being factored into the current DSM scheme review. The additional permanent funding in 2021/22 has been used to create 13 additional posts in the secondary sector of which 3 are promoted posts
3. 10 of the 13 posts are full time
4. All staff are permanent to Scottish Borders Council
5. A decision has not yet been made on how to allocate the £2.863M, this is being factored into the current DSM scheme review. The additional permanent funding in 2021/22 has been used to create 2.95 FTE additional support posts in the secondary sector.
