The numbers of teachers funded through the Scottish Government's £750m Attainment Scotland Fund has more than quadrupled in a year, according to a new report.

North and East Ayrshire were the areas with the most funded teachers along with Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire.

The fund aims to close the poverty-related attainment gap.

In 2017, it directly paid for 666 teachers across nearly all local authority areas, an increase of 316% compared to the year before.

It comes as the Scottish Government published additional analysis showing the scale of the poverty-related attainment gap in different parts of Scotland.

Deputy first minister and education secretary John Swinney said: "The Attainment Scotland Fund, including £120m Pupil Equity Funding, has been established to tackle the poverty related attainment gap.

"The funding is targeted to authorities and schools with high levels of deprivation, and to all schools with pupils living in families affected by poverty to help them fund additional activity to support all pupils in their area to reach their full potential.

"It's great to see so many more schools using this money to invest in extra teachers and other specialist staff to improve literacy, numeracy and health and well-being."