Jordanhill School: FOI release

Information requested

"I can see form monthly spend reports that Jordanhill School is funded directly by Scottish Government and it appears that this relationship was set up as a demonstration school."

1. The comparative cost per pupil for Jordanhill compared to council run schools (including allocation of cost for the building/land).

2. The factors which determine the annual budget allocations.

3. The stated purposes of the and success criteria for the demonstration.

4. The term of the demonstration and expected outcomes from the demonstration (will it drive a change to direct provision, will it prove that direct control is a better model).

5. What framework/contract is in place for the continuation of the direct funding model.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. More explanation is provided below.

1. A direct cost per pupil comparison is not possible because Scottish Government does not hold various pieces of information.

Jordanhill School is a grant aided school operated by its Board of Managers who are responsible for the School’s administration. There is charitable foundation which contributes to some pupil costs. Consequently I am unable to provide you with a cost per pupil breakdown. N.B. the school lodges its accounts with Companies House.

I am however able to give you the information that in 2021-2022 Scottish Government provided Jordanhill School with £7,154,412 in revenue funding and £250,000 in capital funding grants. Jordanhill is not directly comparable to other state schools for a number of reasons including: unusually it is both a primary (462 pupils) and secondary (590 pupils); it carries overheads which LA schools do not; it does not benefit from central procurement of goods and services.

Unfortunately I also cannot provide you with exact comparative data as the Scottish Government does not collect disaggregated data on per pupil spend at individual state schools. As you may be aware the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 states that the statutory responsibility for the provision of education in Scotland rests with individual local authorities. However, it has been calculated (and made publicly available) by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that the average spend per pupil in Scotland in 2021-2022 was £7,600.

Scottish Government also does not hold information on costs of land/buildings.

2. The key factors which determined the core grants in 2021-2022 were the costs required to:

• deliver a minimum of 190 days of pupil education as required under the Schools General (Scotland) Regulations 1975;
• identify, provide and review support for pupils with additional support needs, in such a way as to meet the needs of all children in attendance at the school whose needs can be met in mainstream education, without any element of pre-selection;
• continue the payment of the Living Wage to the School’s employees;
• meet essential Covid-19 mitigations and Covid recovery costs which have arisen as a result of the impact of the pandemic.

Please note that staffing costs are the most significant factor in the Schools’ budget and are determined by national (e.g. SNCT for teachers’ pay) or local (e.g. Glasgow Living Wage) agreements. Officials also discuss other budget pressures with the school including essential maintenance and repair.

3. We understand ‘demonstration school’ to be an historic term. Jordanhill school was run by Jordanhill College of Education (now closed) as its demonstration school until 1988, and was known as Jordanhill College School until that date. Since the Jordanhill School Grant Regulations 1988 (see below), there have been no demonstration elements attached to the grant.” Further information about the history of the school is available on its website.

4. For the reasons explained in the previous paragraph, Scottish Government has no expected demonstration outcomes.

5. The framework for the continuation of the funding model is the Jordanhill School Grant Regulations 1988.

I hope the information above is somewhat helpful. If you have further queries relating to Jordanhill’s unique position please contact us on IndependentSchoolsMailbox@gov.scot and we may be able to assist.

About FOI

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