The council has issued a statement about the immediate resignation of the education director.

Glasgow City Council's Executive Director of Education Douglas Hutchison has resigned with immediate effect. Dr Douglas Hutchison, who had been in the role for three years, responded to text messages from a councillor about the 2024/2025 budget in the spring of last year. The messages were related to plans to cut £27.8 million from education spending in Glasgow over three years.

A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said that while it was “appropriate for council officers to offer advice to members from across the chamber”, the messages sent by Dr Hutchison “may have strayed into potentially undermining the council’s budget process and may have breached rules on political restriction”.

“In Spring 2024 Douglas responded to text messages from a member of Glasgow City Council about the Council's 2024/2025 budget. Whilst it is completely appropriate for council officers to offer advice to members from across the chamber those messages may have strayed into potentially undermining the council's budget process and may have breached rules on political restriction.

“Last week it became apparent to the Executive Director of Education that those messages may become public and on rereading them took the view that they should be brought to the attention of the Chief Executive. Accordingly, he immediately brought the matter to the attention of the Chief Executive and offered his resignation, which we have accepted.

“We understand that no further comment will be provided by Dr Hutchison at this time.”

In February 2024 it was revealed that Glasgow City Council was planning to cut £27.8 million over three years from education. The move was expected to result in around 450 teaching posts being cut from the city’s schools.

After industrial action from teachers and discussions with education unions, the council agreed to remove the cuts from the budget and use government funding to return teacher numbers to 2023 levels.