MOVES by local authorities to reduce the number of teachers in management posts are having a "disastrous" impact on leadership in Scottish schools, senior staff warned yesterday.

Headteachers said that a shrinking number of personnel with management experience is impacting on the recruitment of heads and deputy heads.

The concerns were raised after some councils decided to streamline school management by reducing the number of principal teachers.

Traditionally, secondary schools would have one principal teacher for each subject, but in the wake of the McCrone settlement on teachers' pay and conditions local authorities are replacing these posts with one faculty head, who could be in charge of several subjects. The practice has been criticised because it means promoted teachers can be in charge of subjects they have never taught.

However, the latest attack centres on the reduced pool of experienced teachers with management responsibility who want to become deputy headteachers or headteachers.

The Headteachers' Association of Scotland (HAS) also warned that reducing the number of principal teachers was placing too great a burden on those that remained, particularly when school discipline is an increasing issue.

Bill McGregor, general secretary of the HAS, said: "We are seeing a reduction in the number of applicants for promoted posts and we are seeing a variable quality of applicants when they do come forward.

"For dubious reasons, many authorities have decided that McCrone intended a reduction in the number of promoted posts. They have therefore reduced significantly the number of depute head and principal teacher posts.

"That has had at least two disastrous side-effects. There is an increasingly reduced pool from which to draw new headteachers and it is increasing the burdens placed upon remaining senior staff, headteachers and deputes at a time when we still have not resolved the behavioural issues in school."

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the EIS, said: "A lot of what is being done will adversely affect teaching."

However, Ewan Aitken, education spokesman for Cosla, the local council umbrella group, said: "There is money going into education so it is a conspiracy theory par excellence to suggest that this is about cost-cutting."

He added that as part of the McCrone agreement, schools were free to design management structures for their individual needs. He said: "Headteachers are involved in all the discussions about how their schools are managed and there is a collective responsibility here. Even if in some places there seems to be one or two problems that does not mean the policy is wrong."

Aspokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said: "It is down to local authorities to decide how best to manage their schools."

There has been rising criticism of the McCrone deal, with concern that it is failing to deliver results despite a huge injection of public funds.

The agreement gave teachers an average 23-per cent pay rise over three years and a contractual working week of 35 hours, limiting classroom contact hours to 22-and-a-half hours.