Swinney urged to ditch threats of legislation

Mr Swinney put the flagship Education Bill – with its headteachers’ charter – on hold in the summer because of a lack of support in Parliament. The law was meant to give school leaders the remit to set the curriculum, hire staff and control their own budgets. He has since stated he can achieve the same goals by collaborating with councils.

However, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and councils group Cosla told the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee last week that it was unhelpful of Mr Swinney to keep referring to the “option” of legislation.

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS, said it was unrealistic to expect sweeping change to be finalised within a year: “Frankly, if we’re talking about changing the culture, the idea that we’re going to do that in a year is fanciful. We need to get rid of the idea that there are threats sitting behind the offer of friendship around collaboration. I think it would be good if we had an early signal that the collaborative approach is working and that the legislation isn’t going to be required.”