East Ayrshire school staff face axe as council plot devastating £8m budget cuts

dailyrecord.co.uk:

East Ayrshire Council will have to find £8m in cuts and savings over the next year - with schools, health and social care bearing the brunt.The impact of covid, skyrocketing energy prices and the overall cost of living crisis has heaped pressure on all councils, something that East Ayrshire bosses have regularly acknowledged.The savings and increases to be presented to the Cabinet this week represent 4.2 per cent of the council's overall budget, but they are spread unevenly across services.East Ayrshire Integration Joint board will see the money it receives from the council reduced by £3.7m.

However, the specific impact this would have on health and social care services is not made clear.Education faces a cut of £1.8m, amounting to 1.5 per cent of its budget.

This includes £1.25m directly related to school staffing.Other services face cuts and savings of between 2.1 per cent and 4.2 percent.

However, these are lower than the cash saving proposed for education, and range from just £39k for Corporate Support to £632k for Housing and Communities.There is also a proposal to reduce funding to East Ayrshire Leisure Trust by £198k.At £2.7m, cuts involving council staff make up the majority of the overall savings.