Scotland's People Annual report: Results from 2009/2010 Scottish Household Survey

7 Education and Young People

Introduction and Context

Ensuring that everyone in Scotland has equal access to learning opportunities to achieve their full potential and increase skill levels across the population is a key part of achieving the Scottish Government's purpose: ^[48]To focus government and public services on creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth. This is captured through one of the five strategic objectives: ^[49]Expand opportunities for people in Scotland to succeed from nurture through to life long learning ensuring higher and more widely shared achievements.

Although the Scottish Household Survey ( SHS) is not the definitive source of information about education and qualifications in Scotland ^[50], it can contribute to the measurement of key education indicators. Education level is also an important factor that can be used in the wider analysis of the Survey's data, for example to explore differences in people's characteristics and attitudes by educational attainment.

New information was captured through the SHS in 2009/2010 relating to opportunities for children and young people to play in their neighbourhood and participate in a range of activities. The questions measure attitudes to a number of issues that are known to be either enablers or barriers to delivering such opportunities for young people. The SHS provides the only known information on this type of data.

This chapter starts with an overview of educational qualifications achieved across the population as a whole and across key sub groups. It then looks at levels of satisfaction with schooling, and how these vary with the type of area and age of the child. Analysis is then presented on the types of play areas available for children to play in, along with measures on perceptions of adults on how safe it is for children to play there. Finally, this chapter looks at the types of activities young people engage in within their local area.

Highest Qualification level

Table 7.1 and Table 7.2 present the proportions of people who attained qualifications by gender, age and, for those of working age, by household income. Respondents to the SHS are asked about a wide variety of qualifications and these have been condensed into the categories presented in the tables.

Table 7.1: Highest level of qualification held by gender and age
Column percentages, 2009/2010 data

Adults	Male	Female	16 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 59	60 to 74	75 plus	All
Degree, Professional qualification	26	27	14	38	33	29	22	16	26
HNC/ HND or equivalent	10	9	9	15	13	10	5	3	10
Higher, A level or equivalent	18	14	33	15	15	15	9	6	16
O Grade, Standard Grade or equivalent	20	19	35	21	23	20	11	4	20
Other qualification	5	7	1	1	1	4	14	17	6
No qualifications	21	23	8	9	13	22	38	51	22
Qualification unknown	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	2	1
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	10,926	14,056	2,060	3,358	4,183	6,098	6,003	3,280	24,982

Just under one-quarter (22%) of all adults had none of the qualifications presented. Of these, by far the highest proportion was in the 75 and over age group, with 6 times as many of those aged 75 and over reporting having no qualifications than those aged 16 to 24 (51% and 8% respectively). There was little difference between men and women on the highest level of qualifications they held, though slightly more females reported having no qualifications than males.

Established links between degree level qualifications and higher incomes can be seen among working adults interviewed as part of the SHS. Just under one-in-six (17%) of those in the lowest income bracket have a degree or professional qualification compared with half of the working age respondents with the highest incomes (50%). Additionally, those of working age in the highest income brackets were considerably less likely to have no qualifications. Around a third (31%) of adults with a household income of between £6,001 and £10,000 had no qualifications, compared with 4% of adults earning over £40,000.

Table 7.2: Highest level of qualifications held by adults of working age by net annual household income
Column percentages, 2009/2010 data

Adults of working age (Male 16-64 years, Female 16-59 years)	£0 - £6,000	£6,001 - £10,000	£10,001 - £15,000	£15,001 - £20,000	£20,001 - £25,000	£25,001 - £30,000	£30,001 - £40,000	£40,001+	All
Degree, Professional qualification	17	14	15	21	24	27	31	50	28
HNC/ HND or equivalent	9	8	11	11	10	13	13	12	11
Higher, A level or equivalent	25	15	13	17	18	18	21	18	18
O Grade, Standard Grade or equivalent	19	26	27	26	25	27	23	15	23
Other qualification	4	5	5	4	4	3	2	1	3
No qualifications	26	31	28	20	18	13	9	4	16
Qualification unknown	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	757	1,640	2,710	2,520	2,183	1,835	2,821	2,958	17,424

Household income in the SHS is that of the highest income householder and their partner only. Includes all adults for whom household income is known or has been imputed. Excludes refusals/don't know responses.

Satisfaction with Schooling

Parents of school aged children were asked about their satisfaction with the following three aspects of their child's schooling: ^[51]

• the education provided;
• the school's explanation of how parents can support children's learning outside school; and
• the amount of information provided about their child's progress.

Type of area

Table 7.3 and Table 7.4 look at satisfaction with schooling according to the type of area in which parents live, based on the level of deprivation and urban rural classification. Overall levels of satisfaction with schooling are high. Over nine in ten (91%) of all parents with school-aged children are satisfied with the education provided by their child's school, slightly fewer (88%) are satisfied with the amount of information about their child's progress, and 79% are satisfied with the school's explanation of what support children need outside school (the tables present the items in order of the level of satisfaction, rather than the order presented in the questionnaire).

Table 7.3: Satisfaction with schooling by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Parents of school aged children, % strongly agreed/tend to agree	15% Most Deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
I am satisfied with the education provided by the school	90	92	91
The school keeps me well informed about {child}'s progress	87	88	88
The school explains how I can support {child}'s learning outside school	79	80	79
Base	837	4,718	5,555

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Table 7.3 shows that for all three aspects noted above, satisfaction levels are similar for parents in the 15% most deprived areas and in the rest of Scotland. Table 7.4 demonstrates that levels of satisfaction with all aspects of schooling are similarly high across all urban and rural areas, though slightly less satisfaction within remote rural areas particularly when considering whether the school explains how it can support the childs learning outside of the school.

Table 7.4: Satisfaction with schooling by Urban Rural Classification
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Parents of school aged children, % strongly agreed/tend to agree	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
I am satisfied with the education provided by my school	92	91	92	89	92	88	91
The school keeps me well informed about {child}'s progress	89	86	88	86	89	87	88
The school explains how I can support {child}'s learning outside school	81	79	81	81	79	76	79
Base	1,846	1,698	534	287	694	497	5,556

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Age of child

Parents' satisfaction with schooling can differ depending on the age of their child, this could reflect different levels of satisfaction with primary schools compared to secondary schools, or it could be the result of changing expectations for their children as they get older. As Table 7.5 demonstrates, satisfaction with the different elements of schooling does decrease as the age of the child increases. There is a more pronounced effect when considering the statement that their child's school explains how they can support their learning outside school: satisfaction is lower among parents of children aged 13 and over (74%) than it is for parents of the youngest school children (88%).

Table 7.5: Satisfaction with schooling by age of random school child
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Parents of school aged children, % strongly agreed/tend to agree	4 to 6	7 to 9	10 to 12	13 and above	All
I am satisfied with the education provided by my school	96	93	92	88	91
The school keeps me well informed about {child}'s progress	91	90	87	85	88
The school explains how I can support {child}'s learning outside school	88	83	80	74	80
Base	927	1,247	1,314	2,069	5,557

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Opportunities for children to play

At the start of 2009, a series of questions on the opportunities for children to play in their neighbourhood was added to the SHS to measure progress on the Early Years Framework. ^[52] A key element of this framework is in improving the physical and social environment for children, with an emphasis on play. The set of questions is asked in one of two ways. If there is a child aged between 6 and 12 years, the questions will be set in the context of one of the children in the household. Otherwise, when there are no children in the household the questions will be asked in more general terms.

Table 7.6 shows that at least two-fifths of households have access to play areas within their neighbourhood. Over half (51%) have access to a park, whilst 38% can access a school playground. There are some differences based on the level of deprivation. In particular, of those households within the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland only 23% say there is a natural environment or wooded area in their neighbourhood, as compared to 45% in the rest of Scotland.

There is evidence of greater variation in access to play areas for children when considering the level of rurality. As expected, much higher proportion of households in rural areas have access to either fields (around 65%) and natural environment or wooded areas (70% or less) than urban areas. Those from the large urban areas generally have the lowest proportion of households being able to access children play areas, other than parks (51%).

Table 7.6: Types of children play areas available in the neighbourhood by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Households	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	40	48	54	54	52	41	46
Park	51	53	58	46	49	32	51
Football or other games pitch	34	43	51	40	45	39	40
Field or other open space	35	48	57	42	64	65	46
School playground	33	41	44	32	41	37	38
Natural environment/wooded area	28	41	55	42	65	70	41
Base	5,032	4,177	1,225	779	1,656	1,302	14,171

Households	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	42	46	46
Park	46	51	51
Football or other games pitch	38	40	40
Field or other open space	36	48	46
School playground	33	38	38
Natural environment/wooded area	23	45	41
Base	2,026	12,144	14,170

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

This question is only asked of half the sample.

Generally, those households within rural areas are more likely to say children would be very safe or fairly safe when walking or cycling to play areas on their own (Table 7.7). For example, 58% of householders in large urban areas think it would be safe to travel to a playground, compared to 79% in remote rural areas.

It should be noted that when considering traveling to play on the streets around the respondent's home, those from accessible small towns have the highest proportion saying it would be safe (53%).

There are also marked differences in feeling of safety when looking at deprivation. Those in the least deprived areas of Scotland are more likely to say it is safer for children to travel on their own to such play areas than those in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland.

Table 7.7: How safe it would be for children to walk or cycle to play areas on their own by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Households	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	58	67	72	74	73	79	66
Park	51	63	70	71	71	78	60
Football or other games pitch	58	61	66	75	68	76	63
Field or other open space	55	61	65	76	71	77	63
School playground	64	67	70	75	71	76	68
Natural environment/wooded area	40	41	47	59	60	72	49
Street/Road	37	49	53	46	47	47	44
Base (minimum)	1,431	1,696	544	259	680	346	5,357

Households	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	52	69	66
Park	49	62	60
Football or other games pitch	55	64	63
Field or other open space	50	65	63
School playground	61	69	68
Natural environment/wooded area	33	50	49
Street/Road	37	45	44
Base (minimum)	473	4,665	5,357

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

This question is only asked of half the sample.

Table 7.8 shows similar patterns of variation when considering how safe it would be for children to go to play areas with two or three friends to play. Again, those in rural areas are generally more likely to say they think children would be safer than those living in urban areas. Intuitively, the overall feeling of safety for each type of play area are higher when going with two or three friends than they are when children travel alone. Seventy three percent of householders think it would be safe for children to travel to a some kind of playground, as compared to 66% for children traveling alone. There is little difference in feelings of safety when considering the streets around the respondent's home.

Table 7.8: How safe it would be for children to go to play areas with 2 or 3 friends by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Households	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	66	75	77	77	78	81	73
Park	60	72	77	76	76	85	69
Football or other games pitch	66	70	74	79	73	79	70
Field or other open space	62	69	71	81	74	80	69
School playground	70	71	75	80	74	78	72
Natural environment/wooded area	46	49	55	65	66	73	55
Street/Road	39	51	56	47	49	47	46
Base (minimum)	1,431	1,696	544	259	680	346	5,357

Households	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	60	75	73
Park	59	70	69
Football or other games pitch	63	72	70
Field or other open space	56	71	69
School playground	67	73	72
Natural environment/wooded area	40	56	55
Street/Road	39	47	46
Base (minimum)	473	4,665	5,357

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.
This question is only asked of half the sample.

Householders concerns of children being bullied or harmed by other children while playing in play areas show little variation across the different types of play areas (Table 7.9). The lowest proportion of those with a concern over bullying by other children are for those playing within the streets around the respondent's home (30%). The next lowest is within school playgrounds, which may be associated with a greater likelihood of supervision by adults.

As before, there are marked differences when looking at impacts or rurality and deprivation. Those from rural areas are less concerned about bullying by other children (less than one third across all play areas) as compared to those from urban areas (up to a half of householders are concerned across all play areas).

Table 7.9: Concern of bullying by children in play areas by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Households	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	46	44	40	36	31	21	41
Park	46	44	40	38	30	24	42
Football or other games pitch	43	45	38	37	31	22	40
Field or other open space	43	43	38	32	25	17	37
School playground	36	40	34	31	27	19	35
Natural environment/wooded area	45	51	41	35	26	15	39
Street/Road	35	32	24	25	22	15	30
Base (minimum)	1,431	1,696	544	259	680	346	5,357

Households	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	55	38	41
Park	54	40	42
Football or other games pitch	51	38	40
Field or other open space	53	35	37
School playground	46	33	35
Natural environment/wooded area	58	38	39
Street/Road	45	27	30
Base (minimum)	473	4,665	5,357

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.
This question is only asked of half the sample.

There is less concern amongst householders of children being harmed by adults whilst playing in play areas (Table 7.10), though those saying they are very or fairly concerned are still high at around one third or higher within each play area. The greatest concern of safety is related to those playing within a natural environment or wooded area (45 per cent). In particular, those from the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland are much more likely to be concerned about the safety of children in coming to harm by adults in wooded areas (59%) than in other areas of Scotland (43%).

Table 7.11 shows the median age at which households believe the youngest age should be when it would be safe for a child to play in each of the different play areas without supervision. As can be seen, most would feel comfortable with children being aged around 9 or 10 years old to play without supervision at such play areas. This increases to closer to 11 years old when playing within a natural environment or wooded area.

Table 7.10: Concern of children being harmed by adults in play areas by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Households	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	37	37	29	30	26	14	33
Park	43	40	31	32	29	18	38
Football or other games pitch	38	41	30	31	28	16	35
Field or other open space	40	45	37	26	27	16	36
School playground	30	34	28	23	23	13	29
Natural environment/wooded area	51	57	45	36	32	17	45
Street/Road	34	32	21	24	23	16	30
Base (minimum)	1,431	1,696	544	259	680	346	5,357

Households	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	42	32	33
Park	48	36	38
Football or other games pitch	43	34	35
Field or other open space	47	35	36
School playground	40	27	29
Natural environment/wooded area	59	43	45
Street/Road	41	27	30
Base (minimum)	473	4,665	5,357

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.
This question is only asked of half the sample.

Table 7.11: Youngest age at which it would be safe for a child to play without supervision by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation and Urban Rural Classification
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Households	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	9.6	9.1	9.6	9.2	9.3	8.7	8.8	8.0	9.2
Park	10.2	9.7	10.3	9.7	9.4	8.9	9.0	8.3	9.7
Football or other games pitch	10.2	9.7	10.2	9.9	9.5	9.1	9.3	8.5	9.7
Field or other open space	10.2	9.6	10.1	9.9	9.7	8.9	9.1	8.2	9.6
School playground	9.6	9.2	9.5	9.4	9.2	8.9	8.9	8.4	9.2
Natural environment/wooded area	11.2	10.4	10.9	11.0	10.6	9.9	9.9	8.8	10.4
Street/Road	9.7	9.4	9.8	9.1	8.9	9.4	9.1	8.9	9.4
Base	714	5,178	1,793	1,794	632	393	794	486	5,892

Median age presented
Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.
This question is only asked of half the sample.

Those living in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland believe children should be slightly older before being allowed to play unsupervised. Similarly, those living in rural areas believe children can be slightly younger before being allowed to play unsupervised (aged just over 8 in playgrounds for example).

Participation in activities

The Scottish Government is interested in the extent to which young adults and children are involved in a range of activities. Those households for which there is someone aged between 8 and 21 are asked a series of questions within the SHS on whether they take part in a series of activities regularly. A fuller description of the activities are provided in the Glossary in Annex 2.

Table 7.12 shows that the majority of young people (52%) take part in sports or sporting activity whether played competitively or not. One quarter (25%) take part in music or drama activities (such playing in a band or a theatre group). Three per cent of young people are involved representing young people's views or involvement in youth politics while four per cent are involved in mentoring or peer education.

Table 7.12: Activities young people aged 8 to 21 take part in by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
Percentages, 2009/2010 data

Households	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Music or drama activities	25	23	22	29	29	24	25
Other arts activities	6	5	5	6	6	8	6
Sports or sporting activity	50	51	56	56	58	59	52
Other outdoor activities	17	17	20	28	28	35	20
Other groups or clubs	21	22	22	25	27	32	23
Representing young people's views	3	2	3	0	3	4	3
Mentoring or peer education	4	3	5	2	5	3	4
None	28	27	25	21	19	17	26
Base	1,718	1,487	424	237	557	366	4,789

Households	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Music or drama activities	17	26	25
Other arts activities	4	6	6
Sports or sporting activity	43	54	52
Other outdoor activities	15	21	20
Other groups or clubs	20	23	23
Representing young people's views	1	3	3
Mentoring or peer education	2	4	4
None	36	24	26
Base	776	4,013	4,789

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.
This question is only asked of half the sample.

There are clear patterns in those not taking part in any of the activities within deprivation (36% in the 15% most deprived compared to 24% in the least deprived areas) and through the Urban Rural Classification (decreasing from 28% in large urban areas down to 17% in remote rural areas).

Those living in rural areas are more likely to have participated in some form of sporting activity (around 60%) as compared to those from towns and urban areas (50% in large urban areas). Participation in any of the activities is lower for those living in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland: most notably, 43% regularly take part in sporting activities compared to 54% in the least deprived areas, with similar differences in those undertaking music or drama activities (17% and 26% respectively).