2017 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan

Foreword

I have set out my intention to deliver clarity of purpose for all who are involved in Scottish education. Currently, we have a number of plans setting out key activity across the system.

In publishing this 2017 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan, I am bringing information together in a single, definitive document that explains for everyone how we will secure educational improvement.

The vision, the priorities and the drivers of improvement we identified last year have stakeholder support, and remain as true and as important now as they did when the first National Improvement Framework was published 11 months ago. It is likely that the sources of evidence to inform our knowledge will continue to develop over the coming year, so these will be updated on the Scottish Government website as they emerge.

This Improvement Plan brings together the improvement activities from the Delivery Plan published in June, and the Curriculum for Excellence Implementation Plan published in September, and sets out our high-level strategic plans for improvement and identifies specific improvement activity. I am also publishing today the 2016 National Improvement Framework Evidence Report.

The primary purpose of the National Improvement Framework is to drive improvement for children and young people. To make that happen, we need a clear flow of information and clear actions on delivering improvement in all parts of the education system. Education Scotland is writing to all schools today to share with them clear and succinct guidance on what they need to consider to make the priorities of the National Improvement Framework a reality in their school.

There is, for all of us, a moral imperative to realise the key priorities of this Framework and Plan:- raising attainment; closing the poverty-related attainment gap; improving health and wellbeing, improving positive school-leaver destinations and achieving our ambition of excellence and equity in Scottish education.

The OECD and our International Council of Education Advisers have endorsed our approach to education in Scotland, and have provided advice about where we need to improve. We are on course to deliver these improvements through the actions we have in place. We will continue to build on these in 2017 as we consider the recommendations of the governance review and the National Parent Forum's review of the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006.

I will focus relentlessly on the pace and intensity of implementation. We must come together to drive forward the improvements that our children and young people so richly deserve.

John Swinney MSP
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills
13 December 2016