Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Auditor General for Scotland’s blog reports that many colleges

“continue to face significant financial challenges.”

We have a strong sense from the committee papers as to what those are, but I ask the participants to share their experiences of the challenges on the ground.

No, that is fine.

I am an MSP for South Scotland.

The Scottish attainment challenge, supported by the attainment Scotland fund, is designed to reduce inequality in education. However, in paragraph 74 of the report, on page 31, Audit Scotland notes that

“the SAC does not fully reflect broader demographic issues”,

and specifically mentions rural communities. What improvements could be made to the ASF to reflect the inequalities mentioned in paragraph 74?

Would that affect your ability to judge attainment within schools? Would it have a large impact or a small impact?

Picking up on something that Ms Meldrum said earlier, do you think we have a robust enough system for following those who choose to leave school at 16, to ensure that they have positive outcomes and do not fall through the cracks? What more could we do?

Good morning, Mr Boyle. In its key audit themes report, the session 5 committee expressed its concern that a number of the audit reports had revealed that data and outcomes in relation to key service provision were incomplete or absent. Can you tell us the extent to which having less consistent and robust data in the national improvement framework and wider outcomes has impacted your ability to measure the impact of the national improvement framework and whether it is delivering value for money?

Your report states that the Scottish Government, councils and their partners need to build on the work that is already being undertaken to agree clear priorities for education recovery and improved outcomes after Covid-19. Are you aware of any action that is being taken in relation to how those who are responsible will ensure that the national improvement framework outcomes will be measured, reported and acted on?

A lot of kids are starting to see that there are benefits to doing things other than higher education—going on to other destinations, apprenticeships and so on. I think that that message is getting through. I am more concerned about whether there is enough data to make sure that, if somebody leaves school when they are 16, we follow them to make sure that they have gone to a positive outcome and have not fallen through the cracks, that they have a job or that their apprenticeship has not fallen through. Is somebody following where children are going to make sure that they do not fall through the cracks?

There is still some more work to be done to make sure that the money follows the child rather than the postcode.