Almost half of local authorities cannot afford to deliver a flagship Scottish Government policy to provide free school meals to all pupils in the first three years of primary.
Andrew Denholm and Carolyn Churchill
Almost half of local authorities cannot afford to deliver a flagship Scottish Government policy to provide free school meals to all pupils in the first three years of primary.
A snapshot survey by The Herald revealed that 13 of Scotland's 32 councils say they either need additional funding to pay for the policy - or will have to cut money from other budgets.
The development is the most significant blow yet to the so-called concordat - the agreement between the Scottish Government and Cosla, which represents local authorities, signed after the SNP came to power.
The concordat gave more power to councils to take decisions about how they spend public money by ending the practice of ring-fencing, where money had to be used for a specific service such as education. However, there were fears some services could lose out because of changing priorities or a shortage of money.
Those fears crystallised yesterday when the extent of the revolt over the government's free school meals policy, announced on Thursday, became clear.
Following a pilot project, Fiona Hyslop, the Education Secretary, announced that all pupils in the first three years of primary school would be given free school meals.
The government said the cost of the initiative - estimated at between £30m and £50m - would come from the settlement already agreed.
However, yesterday, 13 councils said they would need to find additional money for the policy, while 11 said they were still calculating the cost. Only three councils - West Lothian, Perth & Kinross and South Ayrshire - said they could afford it.
Janet Cadenhead, leader of Clackmannanshire Council, said: "It is very dishonest to say we have the money to do this. What the SNP is doing is passing the black hole in their spending plans on to local government."
A spokesman for Western Isles Council said: "The severe pressures on budgets and rising food costs mean introducing free meals will have significant financial implications. This will mean cutting other budgets."
A spokesman for East Renfrewshire said: "We are being told the money is in the settlement, but we would regard it as a new burden."
Marilyn MacLaren, convener of education for Edinburgh Council, added: "We believe the implementation of such a policy will be very difficult if insufficient additional money is available to fund it."
Other councils which said they needed additional funding were North Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, Angus, Highland, East Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Stirling, Scottish Borders and West Dunbartonshire.
Rhona Brankin, education spokeswoman for Scottish Labour, said: "The Scottish Government is now facing an open revolt. I am demanding a guarantee from Fiona Hyslop that councils who are unable to provide free school meals will not be penalised.
"Scottish Labour believe free school meals are a good idea, but the SNP must accept they can't expect hard-pressed local councils to pay the bill."
Cosla reiterated a statement issued on Thurday which insisted that the policy was "clearly an agreed concordat agreement".
A Scottish Government spokesman added: "The concordat with local government has a joint commitment specifically to extend nutritious free school meals to all P1 to P3 pupils following positive evaluation of the trials.
"The timetable for implementation will give local authorities ample time to carefully plan for the introduction of free school meals, to learn lessons from the trial local authorities and to negotiate contracts with suppliers which offer the best value for money."
