“Reform Scotland education commission urges government to devolve funding decisions to schools”
chools should be given more freedom to set their own budgets outwith the constraints of local or national policymaking, a report commissioned by the right-leaning think tank Reform Scotland has found.
In a paper published to mark its 10th anniversary, the Commission on School Reform – a panel of education experts set up by Reform Scotland – said headteachers should be responsible for their school’s budget in the same way as university or college principals, with professional finance officers appointed to work with a cluster of schools.
As part of that schools would be required to “adhere to normal principles of probity and solvency” but headteachers would be given “full control over almost all aspects of revenue spending”.
“School budgets would be determined according to input formulae determined either by central or local government but schools would be free to move money between headings as they saw fit,” the report states.
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