PUBLIC services have been hammered in recent years.

Pay restraint, job losses and reduced resources have all increased the pressure faced by those delivering front-line services.

In our schools, the increased levels of poverty within society have magnified the challenge, faced by too many of our young people, of overcoming disadvantage.

Shamefully in 21st-century Scotland the educational aspirations of more than one in five children are still shackled by the impact of deprivation.

A common theme that emerged during the referendum debate was the desire for a more socially just Scotland.

Irrespective of constitutional arrangement, a shared platform around tackling the scourge of childhood poverty shouldn’t be an impossible aim.

The Scottish government’s recent announcement of a £100 million-funded attainment challenge is welcome, therefore, as it brings some much needed resource to an agenda which should unite all political voices.

There is a simple truth at play here and that is that tackling the impact of poverty on education cannot be done on the cheap.

Threats to reduce the hours that primary pupils attend school or to cut teacher numbers at a time of rising school rolls only serve to undermine the service being aspired to. The agreement to at least maintain teacher numbers for the next school session was a victory for a sense of common purpose, as much as for the EIS.

Building shared platforms, alliances and unity should be the stock in trade of unions, and nowhere is this more needed than in the fight to end public-sector pay restraint and to ensure increased living standards for our members.

A sense of common purpose would lay the groundwork for common action. While the outcome of the general election remains uncertain, it is difficult to anticipate a scenario where unions will simply have to ask for the pay increases our members deserve. Co-ordinated campaigning builds our collective strength.

With education in Scotland being almost entirely devolved to the Scottish Parliament, it hasn’t featured strongly in general election campaigning. The EIS’s further education section has organised a lobby of Holyrood on April 30 to protest at the relentless cuts which have been imposed on the sector — nearly £60m in the past few years.

The effects of these cuts has been to narrow further education provision to focus on full-time students aged between 16-19 at the cost of older students; reduce the range of courses on offer, as well as part-time access to colleges; cut student support and slash the number of staff by around 25 per cent, resulting in larger classes and fewer contact hours.

While the return of further education to the public sector has been welcome and the moves towards a return to national collective bargaining are equally so, there can be little doubt that further education has suffered disproportionately in recent times from financial cutbacks.

Indeed, there is a real danger that the political progress made in moving away from the incorporation model may be fatally undermined if Scottish government fails to respond to demands for increased funding, a curb of poor management practice and strong leadership on completing the public sector profiling of colleges.

Much play is made about implementing the report of the Wood Commission on developing Scotland’s young workforce, but without properly funded further education, the opportunity may be missed.

Support for the lobby would be most welcome.

• Larry Flanagan is EIS general secretary