Regional Improvement Collaboratives - budget, staff, time spent: FOI release

Information requested

 

You asked for the following information:

1. What budget was given to each of the Regional Improvement Collaboratives for Financial Years 2017/18. 2018/19 and 2019/20 (as per the Scottish Government's draft budget)?
2. How many staff are employed directly by Regional Improvement Collaboratives, broekn down by each?
3. How many hours of local authority employed Officers time has been spent on Regional Improvment Collaborative work?

 

Response

 

1. In answer to your question on RIC budget support, 2018/19 is the first year that the Scottish Government has provided funding to all 6 of Scotland’s RICs to support delivery of their first full regional improvement plans of September 2018. The following Scottish Government funding offers were made in response to individual resourcing requests from each collaborative, to support dedicated regional capacity building and planned RIC activity over the 2018/19 school year:

• Forth Valley and West Lothian Improvement Collaborative - £899,270
• Northern Alliance - £1,086,067
• South East Improvement Collaborative - £1,205,029
• South West Improvement Collaborative - £471,072
• Tayside Collaborative - £592,550
• West Partnership - £828,488

The actual level/s and breakdown of funding that will be drawn down under these arrangements in this financial year is ongoing and is subject to each Collaborative's continued development. This funding is being managed under Scottish Government Grant Offer conditions, and is being provided from the Education Reform budget and from the Attainment Scotland Fund (for regional activity relating to attainment).

Each RIC is further supported in their work by dedicated staff from Education Scotland. Additional funding has also been provided to Education Scotland from the 2018/19 Education Reform budget for this purpose.

 

2. As the 2018/19 funding arrangements apply to RIC activity across the current school year, the Scottish Government is currently liaising with COSLA in setting out detailed RIC funding proposals for the 2019/20 school year.

 

3. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested on the number of staff employed by each RIC, or on the number and breakdown of hours that local authority employed staff have spent on Regional Improvement Collaborative work. The Scottish Government does not hold this information as we have agreed with local government that it is the responsibility of each RIC area to decide on their own model of staff deployment across their participating local authorities.

As local authorities are the Scottish public authorities most likely to hold the additional information you have requested, you may therefore wish to contact them directly. Contact details for Scottish Local Authorities are available on-line at http://www.cosla.gov.uk/councils.

 

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.