Seòmar agus comataidhean

Ideally, the report should be published by the end of this week.

Is the committee minded to recommend in its report that the Parliament agree to a legislative consent motion in the terms outlined in the LCM?

Members indicated agreement.

Good morning, and welcome to the 11th meeting of the Education, Children and Young People Committee in 2022. I give a very warm welcome to Ruth Maguire, who is joining us this morning for the first time as a member of the committee. I also welcome Graeme Dey, who has become a member of the committee after previously participating as a substitute member. Ruth and Graeme are replacing Fergus Ewing and James Dornan. On behalf of all committee members, I thank James and Fergus for their contribution to the work of the committee this session.

As Ruth Maguire is joining us for the first time today, our first item of business is an invitation for her to declare any relevant interests.

The second item on our agenda is an evidence session for our Scottish attainment challenge inquiry, in which we will take evidence from representatives of the trade unions. I welcome Greg Dempster, general secretary of the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland; Andrea Bradley, assistant secretary, education and equality, at the Educational Institute of Scotland; and Mike Corbett, national official for Scotland at the NASUWT. They are all joining us remotely, so I have one eye on a monitor here. I will keep an eye on the chat function, and I will try to bring you in when you wish to contribute. I also welcome Jim Thewliss, the general secretary of school leavers Scotland, who is with us in the committee room. You are very welcome, Jim.

Did I? I stand corrected. It is School Leaders Scotland. Apologies.

I will come back to something that you just said and get the response of the other panellists to it, but first I will give Jim Thewliss the opportunity to answer my original question: is it working?

Okay. Lastly, before I turn to Kaukab Stewart, Greg Dempster, what is your response to the question that I asked and also to Lindsay Paterson’s statement?

The public part of today’s meeting is now at an end.

Good morning to you all, and thank you for your time. Let me begin the questioning with a very simple question on the Scottish attainment challenge and the associated funds that flow with it. Has it worked?

You raise a lot of good points that I am sure we will pursue during the next hour and a half or so.

In 2019, the EIS commissioned a survey of teachers, and apparently only 26 per cent of teachers thought that the attainment challenge funding and PEF were making any difference to the most deprived children and young people. Thirty-one per cent said that they had seen no difference, and 43 per cent said they did not know. Three years later, does that still reflect the views of EIS members?

Mike Corbett, I go back to my original question: is it working? Has the attainment challenge worked?