THE Scottish Government plan to give £120 million directly to schools is facing fresh criticism over fears the policy will be based on “out of date” information.
Ministers intend to allocate the cash according to the number of pupils eligible for free school meals, but current data is not believed to exist for children in primaries one to three.
In practice, schools will receive around £1200 for every pupil in P1-S3 who is “known” to be eligible for free school meals, which the Government believes is a reliable indicator of poverty.
However, from January 2015, the means-testing of free lunches was scrapped for children in primaries one to three and replaced with a universal entitlement. The Government is relying on 2014 free school meal registration data for primary one to three, information that is nearly three years old.
The information gap is the latest problem to beset a Scottish Government policy that was a flagship SNP manifesto commitment. Ministers originally planned to give the money raised from council tax increases, but this was ditched amid claims central government was appropriating money from local authorities. In a last minute u-turn, it was decided to use central funds.
Labour councillor Stephen McCabe, the leader of Inverclyde council, said: “I don’t agree with the principle of what is being proposed – money being allocated to schools themselves. But if the Government is to go down this route, they must use information that is up-to-date and accurate. Using out of date information could undermine the credibility of the policy.”
Tory MSP Liz Smith said: "The free school meal criteria are currently the most accepted means of establishing who those pupils are - certainly much better than the SIMD index which is proven to have serious flaws.
"However, given recent changes to free school meals in P1-3 which has made provision universal that clearly would also have flaws.
"It is therefore imperative that the Scottish Government uses updated data to identify which children would be entitled to free school meals on the previous means tested basis.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are determined to ensure that schools get the funding they need to invest in closing the attainment gap. We are continuing to work with local authorities to improve the data we have on free school meal registrations.”
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