A COUNCIL boss faced a grilling today for spending money aimed at cutting the attainment gap in Scottish schools on campus police officers.

Holyrood’s Education Committee heard that some schools in North Ayrshire Council had chosen to spend part of their allocation of pupil equity funding (PEF) on having officers in schools.

The government’s PEF scheme hands funding directly to schools and headteachers to spend on initiatives aimed at closing the poverty-related attainment gap, with £120 million distributed in 2017/18.