by Mary Fee MSP

The Scottish Parliament year ended two weeks ago with a bang – and a whimper.

The bang was a big reshuffle of government ministers, most notably the resignation of the health secretary who has had a difficult time recently as waiting times increase and staff morale plummets.

The whimper was the education secretary’s statement to parliament where he shelved his Education Bill.

I did not support the Bill because it was fundamentally an attempt to remove control of our local schools from our local council, and centralise that control in the hands of the Scottish Government. I believe decisions about schools in Clydebank and the wider areas should be taken by our representatives here. The idea that a government minister or civil servant in Edinburgh knows what our very different schools need is nonsense.

So, it is good that the Bill is gone. However, the government have wasted two years during which parents, teachers and even their own education advisers have told them not to do this. In the meantime, resources for schools have been squeezed, we have thousands fewer teachers, a shortage of new teachers, and class sizes now amongst the biggest in the developed world.

We must be watchful though, because John Swinney seems determined to try and introduce much of what he wanted anyway, by the back door. Mr Swinney has already forced through unwanted “reforms” like the testing of five year olds and bureaucratic “regional collaboratives”.

The Bill may be no more, but the struggle goes on to see our schools given the resources (and teachers) they need, and to keep our schools local.

It was revealed last month that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are expecting to make savings of nearly £90million in the next financial year.

We have already witnessed the downgrading and closure of the children’s ward at the RAH in Paisley and loss of services in West Dunbartonshire. We shouldn’t accept further downgrading or losses to NHS services in Clydebank and I will join my Labour colleagues in opposing any proposals that will do just that.

The NHS is our most treasured public service – it deserves better support than this.