Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning. It is a real pleasure to be here in the committee’s final evidence session. I have followed the committee’s inquiry closely to date. Quite rightly, given the prominence that we all place on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap, you have placed a great deal of importance on canvassing views and engaging with organisations and individuals from across the sector. I have been pleased to hear the views on what is working well and obviously what we can improve on, too.

Since being appointed to the role of Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, it has been a real privilege to work with the education workforce and to see the dedication of that workforce under the most difficult of circumstances. I recognise and appreciate the immense efforts that the workforce has made to ensure that our children and young people are given the best care, support and opportunities to achieve their full potential, regardless of their background.

I know that you, too, have been struck by the exceptional efforts and good practice taking place in our schools. There is a strong body of evidence that the programme is having a positive impact. The great majority—96 per cent—of headteachers who responded to the attainment Scotland fund headteacher survey felt that they had good awareness of the range of approaches that can help to close the poverty-related attainment gap, while 93 per cent felt confident about selecting the approach that is most effective for their school.

I think that we can all—I include myself in that—do more to celebrate what has been achieved. I know, too, however, that we all share a determination to intensify the efforts to close the poverty-related attainment gap and to tackle any variation in the outcomes that are achieved by children in different parts of the country. We expect and need to see results on that.

That is why I am committed to working with everyone in education and beyond, including of course the committee, to accelerate efforts to achieve excellence and equity for Scotland’s children and young people. As we seek to create a more cohesive, simplified and consistent education system to continue delivering excellence and equity for Scotland’s learners, we can build on the work that is already being undertaken, as well as the important principles that are set out in Professor Muir’s recent report.

My appearance here is timely, following the successful launch of the refreshed Scottish attainment challenge programme at the end of March. Like the committee’s wide engagement with this part of the inquiry, we have drawn on a wide range of evidence and valuable engagement with a range of stakeholders to help to refresh the programme. Reflecting on the evidence, some key considerations were drawn on in developing the refreshed programme. Progress in tackling the poverty-related attainment gap was made before the pandemic. That, alongside the learning through the programme to date, provides a solid foundation on which to accelerate recovery and process.

We recognise the need to make quicker progress, even on pre-pandemic gains, and to tackle variation in outcomes between and within local authority areas. There is a need to address the negative impact of Covid-19 on children’s health, wellbeing and learning. Improving leadership, learning and teaching and the quality of support for families and communities, as well as targeted support for those impacted by poverty, remain the key levers to improve outcomes for children and young people.

In refreshing the programme, there is an opportunity to reinforce our collective commitment to equity in education, mitigate the impact of poverty on children’s outcomes and tackle the attainment gap. That is evident in the mission of the refreshed challenge, which is

“to use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap.”

That mission gives greater focus on outcomes and everything that underpins positive outcomes for children and young people, including their health and wellbeing and their wider achievements and experiences, as well as their academic attainment.

The new framework for recovery and accelerating progress will underpin the ambition of the refreshed mission and has been developed to reinforce our collective commitment to equity in education and set high expectations, including ambitious locally identified stretch aims.

All of that is backed by a £1 billion additional investment, which is empowering local authorities and our headteachers, who know their children best. That includes the commitment of more than £520 million of pupil equity funding over four years, empowering our headteachers and allowing them to plan over short and longer terms. We know that schools cannot do this alone so, for the very first time, in recognising that poverty exists in all local authorities, funding will now go direct to each and every local authority, thereby supporting them to develop strategic approaches to working with schools, wider local authority services and national community partners.

Each local authority will develop stretch aims, so we will know how much progress is expected and by when, with an offer to provide tailored support and challenge through Education Scotland and the regional improvement collaboratives. That approach was developed and agreed with partners, including local government and headteachers. Multiyear allocations confirmed over a four-year period will also allow local authorities to plan for the longer term.

The refreshed programme will also provide continued additional support for care-experienced children and young people through the care-experienced children and young people fund. A number of national programmes, including a number of third sector organisations, will also be supported.

I close by stressing that nothing is more important than ensuring that every child and young person has the same opportunity to exceed in education, regardless of their background. I believe that the refreshed SAC will help to deliver that for them but, as the challenges of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis continue, and as our evidence to date shows, we know that there is more to do. I am pleased to be able to take part in the discussion and the debate with the committee on how we do just that.

Yes.

One important aspect that we have looked at as we have refreshed our Scottish attainment challenge is the stretch aims—they are an important development. I will not set an arbitrary date for when the attainment gap will be closed, particularly so close to the experiences that we are still having with the pandemic. We know that the pandemic has had an impact on attainment but, through the stretch aims and working with local authorities, we intend that they will be able to determine what can be done in their areas and what support is required from our national agencies.

When Audit Scotland reviews the process again, as I am sure it will, I hope that it will appreciate that we are working with local government in the area. We are collating the local aims, which will help us to provide a picture of what will happen nationally.

My expectation is that every single local authority will work with Education Scotland as they deliver their stretch aims, and that they will be as challenging as possible. Those will differ in the—

With the greatest respect, convener, it will be measurable once the local authorities have developed their stretch aims, and my understanding is that they will be developed by September, for the new academic year. They are very accountable, and they will be obvious and measurable—we will be able to measure progress. I think that, actually—

It is up to individual schools to determine the programmes that they have, and then Education Scotland works with schools to collate the information. I do not have to hand the information about how each individual school has spent its money. It is for Education Scotland to link with the schools to determine how they have spent the money and to work out what has worked and what has not worked. We are keen to have in the new, refreshed attainment challenge more of a link between the local authority and the school so that they are also collating information about how the money has been spent.

We would be happy to provide further information on the relationship between Education Scotland, local authorities and schools and on how the money is spent, but I do not have the detail of every school with me today.

They were happening in a different guise in different areas. We have tried to ensure that we have specific meetings to go over aspects of this, but they are not the only meetings that I have with Education Scotland.

As, I think, I have said already, the pandemic had an impact on the progress that was being made. However, when we look at the pre-pandemic figures—for example, the year-on-year achievement of curriculum for excellence levels data that was published—we see that the trend was positive.

In the two-year period between 2016-17 and 2018-19, the number of primary school pupils who were achieving the expected levels increased by 3.1 percentage points in literacy and by 2.7 percentage points in numeracy. The gaps in achieving expected levels of numeracy between the young people from the most and least deprived areas of Scotland reduced in both years. Although we saw that progress, and although we continue to see very good statistics for those who are leaving school and going on to positive destinations—indeed, they are now at a record level—we are obviously keen to see further, more accelerated progress.