Education - Achieving Excellence and Equity: National Improvement Framework and improvement plan 2023

Annex A: Summary of ongoing and completed activity from the 2022 Improvement Plan

Ongoing/completed activity from the 2022 National Improvement Plan

School and ELC Leadership

Action: SL79

Support for Into Headship will form part of our ongoing commitment to fund professional learning for teachers, including at school leadership level.

Current position:

Ongoing

Funding for the Into Headship programme is now in its seventh year, with Cohort 7 recently starting the 21/22 session. It continues to be developed through a partnership approach between Education Scotland, seven universities and local authorities and was recently positively evaluated and reaccredited by GTC Scotland. Into Headship awards the GTCS Standard for Headship, which became a mandatory requirement for new substantive head teachers on 1st August 2020. Funding has been confirmed for 22/23 and recruitment to the next programme cohort is due to commence shortly.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The principal route to achieving the Standard for Headship is the completion of the Into Headship programme which is managed by Education Scotland, accredited by the General Teaching Council for Scotland and is offered by seven universities. Programme evaluations remain positive with participants indicating that while quite time consuming, Into Headship, is preparing individuals well for the role of headteacher. In total 859 have now completed Into Headship.

The Into Headship programme was successfully re-accredited by the GTCS in March 2021. Education Scotland are now beginning a process of reviewing and refreshing the programme in line with the revised professional standards which the GTCS enacted in August 2021. An external evaluation of Into Headship, led by Professor Alma Harris, was published in September 2022. An Into Headship Strategic Oversight Group has recently been re-established to provide collaborative governance for this work.

Recruitment to the 2022/23 cohort of Into Headship is complete and the programme has launched with a series of welcome webinars for 230 participants.

Action: SL83

During 2020 the Headteachers' Charter and new national guidance on an empowered system will be finalised to support local areas in ensuring that decisions are made as close to the child or young person as possible.

Current position:

Resumed

All sections of the empowerment guidance were published as agreed drafts by October 2019, with a focused period of engagement in place from January to March 2020. COVID-19 resulted in a pause to this work. In February 2022, the School Empowerment Steering Group recommenced work with a view to a relaunch of school empowerment for the 22/23 school year. This included reviewing national guidance and wider resources with key groups and targeted engagement. Following their meeting in February, the School Empowerment Steering Group set out to the Cabinet Secretary and to Councillor McCabe of COSLA their plans to recommence work on school empowerment, and this has continued throughout the year. This included allocating responsibility to Group members for reviewing the empowerment materials with key stakeholder groups over the spring and early summer, for refreshing awareness of empowerment through a session at the Scottish Learning Festival and for reviewing key policy and linkages to ensure that empowerment activities and messaging are fit to the current, post-Covid reform, planning and improvement context. The Steering group has met regularly to review progress and maintain momentum.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Activity across autumn and winter 2022-23 is focused on targeted engagement with school staff to further raise awareness and support school empowerment, initially through a series of headteacher-led engagements. Further engagements and actions will be considered in light of feedback from those events.

Action: SL84

During 2020 we will continue to work with partners to raise awareness of the guidance, helping embed it in daily school/LA practices, and continuing to measure impact/progress so we can work together to address challenges where they arise.

Current position:

Closed – superseded by SL83

As per the update to SL83, this was paused in Spring 2020 due to COVID-19. At its meeting in February 2022, the School Empowerment Steering Group decided to recommence focussed engagement on the practical resources and approaches required to further progress and embed school empowerment, with a view to a refresh/relaunch for the 2022/23 school year. This is including work with stakeholders through the Steering Group, focus groups and wider engagement, in: reviewing and refining the support and resources for empowerment within the developing education reform context; further raising awareness of and embedding empowerment across the system; and in capturing, assessing and articulating progress. The Steering Group is meeting regularly to review progress. Please refer to action SL83 for further updates.

Action: SL86

We are in the process of establishing a Gender Equality Task Force in Education and Learning, as recommended by the First Minister's National Advisory Committee for Women & Girls. Throughout 2020, the Task Force, chaired by the Deputy First Minister, will consider where gaps exist in the provision of a gender neutral experience of education and learning in Scotland, and publish a set of recommendations which will address those gaps.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Gender Equality Taskforce, met for the first time in February 2020. Progress slowed during 2020 as a result of COVID-19, however, the Taskforce reconvened in December that year. In 2021, contracts were awarded to: the Collective, the Children's Parliament and the Scottish Youth Parliament to jointly take forward engagement with girls and young women as well as Taskforce members to develop a Theory of Change model, which will set the way forward for achieving the Taskforce's ambitions. As part of this work, The Collective held a series of workshops in November and December 2021 with Taskforce members. The concluding reports and theory of change model from The Collective, the Children's Parliament and the Scottish Youth Parliament were shared with Taskforce members in May. The Taskforce agreed its position in September 2022 on the reports and they were published in October 2022. The Taskforce has already implemented one of the recommendations in The Collective's report in that it has appointed the Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills to chair the group going forward.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The ultimate outcome from the Taskforce will be a strategy which embeds gender equality in education and learning, resulting in girls and young women having a gender equal experience in early years, school and community learning settings. It will tie in to the ambitions already set out in Equally Safe and the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan and will dovetail with strategic ambitions being taken forward by colleagues in Education Reform.

In terms of next steps, the Taskforce has identified 3 strategic themes under which the 20 recommendations made by The Collective will be taken forward. 3 working groups are in the process of being formed to drive progress, reporting to the core Taskforce and the Cabinet Secretary.

Action: SL89

Teaching in a Diverse Scotland identified that more needed to be done to encourage and support leadership opportunities for Black and Minority Ethnic educators and to provide current and future school leaders with professional learning focused on anti-racist practice. As a result, Education Scotland will:a) Include case studies on BME teachers who have participated in the professional learning and leadership programmes, in evaluation activity and promotional materials.

b) Revise online modules for Into Headship: Education Law and Employment Law.

c) Deliver EiH Learn sessions for headteachers focused on diversity in the teaching profession and the role of headteacher offered across the country.

d) Work with partners to offer a range of opportunities to explore anti-racist practice and education across a range of programmes.

e) Maintain an ongoing revision of programme materials (PPTS, handouts) to ensure that visuals/examples are more representative of the teaching profession.

f) Engage with BME educator networks to share messages about recruitment to programmes and the wider professional learning offer.

Current position:

Complete

Education Scotland completed Parts b) - f) in 2021.

With reference to Part a) Two case studies have now been developed. One was published in the 2022 NIF and the other was published on the Building Racial Literacy group on Slack (an online platform). This is a closed programme area for participants.

Outcomes and Next Steps

Next steps for this action: Education Scotland are now linking with the National Lead for Diversity at GTCS to consider how we utilise our networks to support their priorities. We will continue with equalities, diversity and inclusion (EDI) monitoring of engagement of our programmes. Sessions on culturally-responsive pedagogy are now a standard aspect of Excellence in Headship (EIH).

[Part a) was an outstanding part to this action last year; this action is now complete.]

Action: SL90

Throughout 2022, Education Scotland will continue to offer bespoke professional learning and leadership opportunities for Scotland's school and system leaders to explore system issues such as curriculum design. This will include design, delivery and evaluation of our offer, or working with partners to do this.

Current position:

Complete - business as usual

237 participants completed the Into Headship programme in 2022 as part of Cohort 7, with a further 240 joining Cohort 8 for the new academic session.

Since January 2022, 91 new Headteachers have joined the Excellence in Headship (EIH) programme, including the 2-day induction. The ongoing professional learning sessions for Headteachers continues to be shaped by the participants. New additional Learn sessions included Developing a Curriculum Rational and a focus on teacher leadership with an input from past participants of the Teacher Leadership Programme detailing how their work on enquiry in the programme shaped their practice. Popular sessions from previous years continued into this year, including Socially Just Leadership: Anti-Racism, Allyship and Action. The Professional Learning and Leadership (PLL) team delivered or worked with partners to deliver 43 EiH Learn sessions with Headteachers on topics including Leadership and Critical Self-awareness, Values-Based Learning and Organisational Effectiveness. Some of these learning opportunities were repeated throughout the year.

The second cohort of Excellence in Headship Stretch was launched in September 2022. 56 experienced Headteachers are engaging in collaborative enquiry to explore, analyse and suggest improvements to aspects of the education system in Scotland. The PLL team have provided some dedicated learning sessions around what collaborative enquiry is and how it might be enacted with Headteachers subsequently identifying areas of interest to explore together to improve.

The Agile School Leadership program is an intensive, 12-week online workshop designed by Dr Simon Breakspear for school leadership teams who want to level up and lead meaningful change. The professional learning centres around support to Headteachers and system level leaders in the process of school improvement planning and complements existing improvement methodologies by providing overarching tools and process. 50 Headteachers took part in the Agile School Leadership pilot as part of Excellence in Headship and Excellence in Headship Stretch. Since the pilot, 173 school and system leaders have engaged in this targeted professional learning offer, with a further 154 participants from school leadership teams engaging in the current cohort as part of the Excellence in Headship programme.

Outcomes and next steps

Professor Alma Harris's recent external evaluation of Into Headship highlighted it is a well-established and highly effective programme equipping participants to further develop as a strategic leader and meet the requirements of the GTCS Standard for Headship.

The intended impact of EIH work is to support and challenge school leaders towards improvements in their setting that impact on children and young people's experiences and outcomes. Three participants evaluations from 2022 reveal the impact on their curriculum planning and implementation after learning on the programme.

"I am motivated to start refreshing and revising our curriculum. I feel equipped to begin with the changes needed."

"After reflecting, I intend to create a school maths strategy in conjunction with pupils/staff/parents/community"

"This will definitely help me look at my practice and how I can work to develop our 3-18 Gaelic Plan. I felt very supported and motivated by our discussions."

The intended outcomes of Agile School Leadership were to build support for school and system leaders in their school improvement planning, complementing existing school improvement methodologies. The Agile School Leadership pilot is coming to an end. Forth Valley West Lothian regional improvement collaborative are going to implement tools, techniques and approaches from Agile School Leadership across the region.

The next steps are to co-construct, deliver, evaluate and update a pilot system leadership offer.

Action: SL91

Education Scotland will deliver professional learning to support learning, teaching and assessment, and moderation, to practitioners nationally and regionally, and across local authorities during the academic session 2021-22.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Quality Assessment and Moderation Support Officer (QAMSO) programme was delivered across all Regional Improvement Collaboratives in 2021/22. The programme was delivered as a train-the-trainer approach to help build further capacity within the system. Almost all local authorities were involved with 1048 practitioners participating. An evaluation was carried out by practitioners before and after the QAMSO programme.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The evaluation demonstrated that participating practitioners noted improvements in their levels of understanding of the learning, teaching and assessment cycle and, additionally, achievement of and progress through a level. Confidence levels also increased across the survey measures. Post evaluations showed that practitioners felt:

• more confident in their ability to create high quality assessments
• more confident in moderating evidence of progress towards a level
• more confident in using digital approaches to support moderation
• more confident in being able to support and facilitate learning, teaching and assessment approaches in their role as a QAMSO

Education Scotland will support online re-connector and drop-in sessions with existing local and regional QAMSO networks. Education Scotland will revert back to a National QAMSO Programme with spaces allocated to local authorities for practitioners to attend in order to supplement local and regional networks.

Action: SL92

The Scottish Government will work with partners from across the ELC sector to develop a new Childcare Workforce Strategy, which will explore key issues and challenges on workforce, including professional learning and leadership support for all those working across ELC and the wider childcare sector.

Current position:

Ongoing

Scottish Government officials met with leading stakeholders through preliminary one to one meetings throughout Spring 2022 to identify current and emerging priorities and issues surrounding ELC professionals, including the new Programme for Government commitments relating to school age childcare, and provision for 1 & 2 year olds. These stakeholders were invited to form a Workforce Strategy Steering Group, and a Framework document and supporting action plan was drafted for their consideration. This was then shared with wider policy officials and COSLA officials for initial comments during Summer 2022. The Steering group met together for the first time on 31 August 2022 to discuss and review the groups Terms of Reference, vision and the draft Framework document in more detail. Feedback from this discussion was captured to enable modifications to the documents, and we continue to work with the Improvement Service to finalise the drafts.

The draft Framework and action plan focuses on 5 key themes, all categorised as short, medium, or long-term priorities:

- Planning for the future

- Supporting effective recruitment of a diverse workforce

- Enhancing the attractiveness and fulfilment of careers in childcare

- Ensuring registerable qualifications meet the needs of all parts of the sector

- Ensuring professional learning resources are accessible and support career development.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

We will engage with ELC professionals to seek the views of the workforce in the coming weeks, before seeking clearance of the Steering group for the final Framework and supporting Action Plan. It is the intention to publish in Spring 2023.

Action: SL93

Education Scotland will develop an online professional learning community and support increased collaboration and the sharing of effective practice between Equity and Excellence Leads working in the early learning and childcare sector during the academic session 2021-22.

Current position:

Complete

Education Scotland established an online professional learning community to support increased collaboration and the sharing of effective practice between Equity and Excellence Leads working in the early learning and childcare sector during the academic session 2021-22. This is facilitated through an online chat facility, a file sharing space, and virtual meetings of members. One hundred and twenty colleagues from across Scotland have already participated in the community. A working party of members has been established ensuring representation from across all 6 Regional Improvement Collaboratives, as well as a local authority officer and a representative from the Children and Young People's Improvement Collaborative team. The working party will take a leading role facilitating support, based on the membership consultation.

Outcomes:

Increased practice sharing between Excellence and Equity Leads (EELs) and scaling up of successful improvement activity, to support the narrowing of the gap in children's outcomes between those living in the most and least disadvantaged communities. Excellence and Equity Leads will feel more supported in their roles and have increased confidence in implementing approaches which will improve children's outcomes and reduce inequity.

Next steps:

A working group of EELs has been established to lead the further development of the professional learning community. This includes establishing regular sessions for the group to come together to share practice and engage in professional dialogue to support improvements in learning and teaching, with a particular focus on approaches to close the gap in children's outcomes.

Teacher and practitioner professionalism

Action: TP01

The intention remains to fund professional learning for teachers in this area (Masters level Professional Learning) including at school leadership level

Current position:

Ongoing

The Scottish Government continues to support Masters-level learning for teachers through the Teacher Education Partnerships with £750,000 funded in 21/22. Funding for Masters-level learning for teachers has been confirmed for the 2022/23 session. Teacher Education Partnerships were notified of their allocation of the £750,000 in June 2022. This builds on earlier investment of around £8 million which has enabled over 7,400 teachers to engage with high quality professional learning opportunities.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The Scottish Government will review this funding as part of the 2023/24 process.

Action: TP32

Additional collaborative professional learning opportunities in STEM will become available through the activities of the college-led STEM Hubs, now known as STEM Partnerships.

Current position:

Ongoing

Colleges have continued to build up their work with schools and capacity to support STEM and to provide professional learning and increased engagement activity.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The STEM partnerships bring together key regional stake-holders to drive progress around STEM and actions are co-ordinated through a national steering group. Cover across Scotland has been variable and efforts will now be made to support those college partnerships that are most active in school-college links.

Action: TP34

A Young STEM Leaders awards programme. The programme aims to grow mentoring opportunities and encourage inspiration for STEM by young people. Following a succeswsful pilot in 2019, the programme is now available to all schools in Scotland.

Current position:

Ongoing

The programme is offered at Curriculum for Excellence Second, Third and Fourth Levels, underpinned by a framework that identifies the skills, knowledge and behaviours expected of a young STEM leader. The Scottish Schools Education Research Centre – SSERC – who operate the programme, have made the SCQF accredited awards available as a Scotland-wide initiative.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The Young STEM Leader Programme (YSLP) aims to inspire more young people to develop an interest in STEM and pursue the study of STEM subjects and relevant future pathways.

The aim is for at least 7,000 young people to be involved in the academic year 2022/23.

Action: TP95

We will continue to encourage more people into teaching, particularly those groups under-represented in the profession (men and minority ethnic communities) as well as in particular subjects (STEM) and geographical areas.

Current position:

Ongoing

We will continue to deliver the recruitment campaign "That's What Teaching Taught Me" for entrants into Initial Teacher Education.

We continue to offer STEM bursaries of £20,000, for career changers wishing to undertake a one year Postgraduate Diploma in Education into the hardest to fill STEM subjects.

Action: TP106

To promote the recruitment of Gaelic teachers, the Scottish Government is funding a Gaelic Teacher Recruitment Officer at Bòrd na Gàidhlig (BnG) to attract Gaelic speakers into the profession. A range of promotional materials have been prepared for this purpose and BnG and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) are promoting Gaelic teaching at school events. In addition courses are available at Glasgow University and Sabhal Mor Ostaig to assist teachers who would like to transfer from English to Gaelic teaching and also local authorities are providing support within their area for those who would like to teach through the medium of Gaelic.

Current position:

Ongoing

The GTC Scotland's survey of registered staff showed that around 700 individuals are interested in Gaelic Continued Professional Development. The Gaelic Division are now working with GTCS to establish messaging for local authorities around the benefits of expanding teachers' access to Gaelic Continued Professional Development.

The Scottish Government has set up a working group to examine support available specifically for Language Assistants, and a course around this is in development at the Gaelic College, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. The Scottish Government has established a group to develop Gaelic Headship and Leadership content and courses.

The Scottish Government continues to support SpeakGaelic, which widens access through a free multi-platform resource for anyone interested in learning the language.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

A new ATQ to allow teachers who have Gaelic but do not currently teach in Gaelic to transfer has been set up as a pilot at Strathclyde University, supported by Bord na Gàidhlig, and this will be evaluated. We have also funded the development of a course at SMO for language assistants and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) has advertised for language assistant candidates to form a pilot which will run in 2022-23.

The aim of the GTCS survey is open up dialogue with their employers on CPD and career opportunities in Gaelic teaching. We will be reminding LAs of the survey and the opportunities that exist to support staff in any journey they wish to undertake in to Gaelic medium or Gaelic Learner education.

SG, Education Scotland, and Bord na Gàidhlig are meeting with local authority representatives on a quarterly basis to ensure that Gaelic is included in courses and CPD developments for Headship and Leadership courses. This work will continue going forward.

Action: TP108

Education Scotland will deliver three professional learning sessions to support childminders delivering the early learning and childcare funded entitlement by October 2022

Current position:

Complete

Education Scotland and the Scottish Childminding Associations (SCMA) have collaborated to deliver three bespoke professional learning sessions for childminders who provide early learning and childcare (ELC), including but not limited to those providing funded ELC on behalf of local authorities.

The sessions, informed by childminder feedback were as follows:

Session 1 - Curriculum and Planning for Childminders

Session 2 - Pedagogical Leadership for Childminders

Session 3 - Transitions Matter in Childminding Settings.

Each session attracted 200 - 300 participants and received very positive evaluations.

Outcomes and next steps

Overall childminders report increased levels of confidence and knowledge of areas covered in the session. It is anticipated that as this learning becomes embedded in practice it will lead to improvements in the quality of provision offered by attendees.

Next steps:

Evaluative evidence will be used to inform further professional learning sessions for this group of ELC practitioners. Key messages will also be shared with the wider group of partners working on the delivery of the national childminding action plan. Partner organisations include the Scottish Government, which leads on the plan, the Scottish Childminding Agency, the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland.

Action: TP109

The Scottish Government will continue to work with key partners to deliver the ASL Action Plan to enhance professional learning and development for additional support for learning. The Scottish Government will also work with partners to ensure that there is appropriate career progression and pathways for teachers looking to specialise in additional support for learning.

Current position:

Ongoing

We published our updated Additional Support for Learning Action and a summary progress report in November 2022. This highlighted that we have successfully delivered 24 out of the 76 total actions.

We have engaged widely with stakeholders throughout 2022 to take stock of current provision and agree priorities. These are reflected in our updated action plan which is intended to help ensure that meaningful change is realised.

The Additional Support for Learning Project Board, jointly Chaired by the Scottish Government and COSLA, was established in June 2022 and has a key role to ensure that we deliver our action plan. The Project Board will produce a work plan in response to this report outlining how to ensure we deliver meaningful change through this work.

Delivery of the measures set out in our joint action plan, will require continuous review to ensure that we achieve the broad and deep change necessary to achieve our ambitions that all children and young people are valued, respected, included and supported to achieve and succeed.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

As part of their ongoing work, the Additional Support for Learning Project Board will agree and develop a work plan in early 2023, working closely with the Additional Support for Learning Network, to identify priority areas of work and how they can best support delivery of this work. In particular they will consider:

• How actions can be implemented to achieve the greatest positive impact on ASL delivery
• How this impact can be identified and measured across the range of work within the action plan
• The capacity of the education workforce and how best to enhance their capabilities to support delivery of this work

Action: TP110

By December 2022, Education Scotland will build on its existing professional learning and leadership suite of programmes supporting empowerment and agency including designing, delivering and evaluating professional learning or working with partners to do this. This will support capacity building across the system locally, regionally, and nationally with a particular focus on the key areas of education reform and curriculum.

Current position:

Complete- business as usual

Since January 2022, Education Scotland has built on its existing suite of professional learning and leadership programmes and engaged with over 10,000 practitioners during this period.

The extension of our PLL work continued and saw the introduction of the Building Racial Literacy (BRL) programme which was co-constructed with a wide range of partners, including education practitioners and stakeholders on the Scottish Government Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education Programme (REAREP).

The broadening of access to the work of the Directorate continued with programmes and activities made available to Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) practitioners and those working in Community Learning and Development (CLD), including the launch of a new Educator Leadership Programme in September 2022. This programme has practitioners from Early Learning and Childcare, teachers in schools and practitioners from Community Learning and Development (CLD) settings learning from and with each other, taking an enquiry approach to improve their practice and impacting positively on the learners they directly support. Participants on the Building Racial Literacy programme came from a wide range of education settings including Early Learning and Childcare settings, schools, local authorities CLD settings and Initial Teacher Education.

All these new additions to the suite of programmes has allowed us to broaden our reach and impact of learning across education.

This year 101 participants completed the Teacher Leadership Programme. Their practitioner enquiries ranged in focus from pedagogical approaches to curriculum, and from wellbeing to equality and inclusion. The programme was supported by subject specialists within Education Scotland including those from numeracy and mathematics and digital teams, who acted as critical friends to the teachers.

Growing from the success of the Teacher Leadership programme; the new Educator Leadership programme (ELP) launched in September 2022 and is designed to offer participants more flexibility and opportunities to collaborate and share practice across sectors, while keeping the learner experience at the centre through its focus on practitioner enquiry. ELP is open to Early Learning and Childcare practitioners, Community Learning and Development practitioners and classroom teachers. 174 participants joined this new offer in September 2022.

In September 2022, 658 practitioners signed up for the third cohort of Aspiring to Middle Leadership programme.

434 participants completed the Middle Leaders Leading Change programme in June 2022 and 406 new practitioners joined the new cohort in September 2022.

Leading CLD was a new professional learning programme launched in 2022. 20 participants completed the pilot programme and shared very positive experiences with evaluation data suggesting increased confidence of 15% on average with all measures combined, as a result of participating in the programme.

In 2022, the Professional Learning and Leadership team worked with 8 settings to deliver bespoke sessions on Collaborative Middle Leadership in 3 different local authorities.

Outcomes and next steps

Anticipated outcomes and next steps for the Educator Leadership Programme are the building of cross-sectoral networks and a large number of practitioners engaging in reflection and making improvement to their practice that improve outcomes for the children and young people with whom they work. Next steps are to deliver and evaluate the new Educator Leadership Programme.

The expected outcomes of the Building Racial Literacy programme are to make anti-racism a baseline value for participants and make educators less 'race evasive.' From the 2022 end of programme evaluations, 100% of programme participants now feel confident in dealing with a racist incident in their workplace (compared to 67%, n=45 pre-programme), along with 100% able to identify with confidence aspects of their anti-racist practice that need to improve (compared to 82%, n=55). Next steps are to deliver cohorts 2 and 3 in 2023 and continue to evaluate impact.

Expected outcomes and impact of the Aspiring to Middle Leadership programme are to see changes in practice and support teachers toward building their leadership capacity. In post programme evaluation, the majority of respondents indicated that they planned on implementing their learning in practice (96%, n=241), and 89% (n=224) stated that they would be likely or very likely to share their learning with colleagues. Participant testimony: "I will definitely use some of the tools I've learned and it's given me more ideas on how to get parents more engaged and the importance of this."

Next steps are for Education Scotland to continue to deliver and evolve the offer, including more online self-directed learning that participants can access anytime/anywhere.

Expected outcomes and impact of the Middle Leaders Leading Change programme are improved confidence, knowledge and skills or middle leaders to invoke change, across a range of area including curriculum.

Following the success of the Leading Community Learning and Development (CLD) pilot a further offer will be facilitated in early 2023 with the support of a design group made up of key CLD stakeholders across local authorities.

The Collaborative Middle Leadership offer is currently paused whilst programme material is being updated.

Action: TP111

Education Scotland will work with practitioners to update the Early Level Play Pedagogy Toolkit, extending and strengthening support for early level practitioners by July 2022.

Current position:

Complete

Version 2 of the Early Level Play Pedagogy Toolkit was published on 27/07/2022 with a soft launch during the school holiday period. The updated resource has a new more accessible format and contains new practice examples from across Scotland, links to local authority support and additional international information and evidence. In its first three months the toolkit has been viewed over 21,000 times.

A 'play pedagogy blether' to introduce the toolkit was held in August 2022 and was oversubscribed with over 300 registering to attend.

Outcomes and next steps

Early level practitioners who use the resource will have a deeper understanding of play pedagogy and have increased confidence in using it effectively to support children's learning and development. Practitioners will observe increased levels of engagement by children in their learning and greater motivation to learn.

Next steps:

Education Scotland will continue to provide professional learning on play pedagogy in collaboration with Regional Improvement Collaboratives, local authorities and other stakeholders. The toolkit will be enhanced and refreshed with additional examples of practice in an ongoing basis and practitioners will be invited to evaluate its effectiveness to inform future development.

Action: TP112

Scottish Government will work with the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) to agree how the commitment to reduce class contact time for teachers by 90 minutes per week will be delivered.

Current position:

Ongoing

Discussions are ongoing within the SNCT.

Action: TP113

Scottish Government will work with local government to deliver the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party's shared policy programme commitment to recruit 3,500 additional teachers and 500 classroom assistants over this parliamentary term.

Current position:

Ongoing

Work continues on the recruitment to ITE programmes, as we continue to work towards delivering this commitment.

Action: TP114

Following a successful pilot in 2018- 2020, Education Scotland in collaboration with Dyslexia Scotland will, by November 2022, develop, present and evaluate the GTCS Professional Recognition Programme for Dyslexia and Inclusive Practice in 2021/22.

Current position:

Ongoing

The pilot received very positive feedback from participants and also their Headteachers, with comments noted about the benefits gained from achieving the GTCS Professional Recognition in dyslexia and inclusive practice and the added value the programme brought to the wider school community. Seventeen participants have successfully gained the award for GTCS Professional Recognition in Dyslexia and Inclusive Practice. During the programme members of the programme board participated in three moderation and training sessions to further improve the submission and marking process.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Planning is in progress for an award ceremony for the successful 2021/22 programme participants in January 2023. Information and invites have been shared with Ministers and Senior leadership colleagues within Education Scotland, General Teaching Council for Scotland and Dyslexia Scotland.

The 2022/23 programme has begun with 30 participants. This programme will be delivered in-person and through virtual sessions. There is continued development of submissions and the marking process. The programme panel will invite new members from the 2021/22 alumni to join and the panel continues to participate in training and moderation sessions to support on-going improvements and to build capacity within the panel. Programme participants will be invited to share their experience and practitioner enquiry on the Scottish Government funded Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit and at Dyslexia Scotland annual Education Conference in 2023.

Action: TP115

Aligning with national policy, legislation and demand, the Pupil Support Staff Professional Learning Framework aims to support staff to make an even greater contribution to the learning, wellbeing and future opportunities of children and young people. Education Scotland will lead on the continued development of and dissemination of the Pupil Support Staff Professional Learning Framework in 2022.

Current position:

Ongoing

Since the launch in Sep 21, the Pupil Support Staff Professional Learning Framework has had 31,239 views. This framework is part of the national Pupil Support Staff Engagement Programme (PSSEP). Views and suggestions from the workforce through the PSSEP will support future development of the professional learning framework.

Participant feedback from the engagement programme events held in October 2022 about the framework was positive.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Education Scotland will refresh the framework when the new Education Scotland website is updated in Spring 2023 and the refresh will be informed by suggestions from those accessing the framework to make improvements and any changes. Some feedback received includes:

'More practical information and training for support staff that are not used to using technology.'

'I would like to see how to deal with non-educational items, if a pupil is struggling mentally, or at home.'

'Infographic to provide brief overview and on one page.'

The Pupil Support Staff Professional Learning Framework is part of the Pupil Support Staff Engagement Programme which is within the Scottish Government Empowerment agenda, the Bute House agreement 2021 and the Scottish Government Additional Support for Learning Action Plan (Morgan Review 2020). Working in collaboration with stakeholders the framework will continue to be maintained and updated The Information HUB page has had 1,413 views since the soft launch in September 2022.

Action: TP116

Education Scotland leads on the national Harmful Sexual Behaviours subgroup and will set up a national safeguarding in education network to determine professional learning requirements. Education Scotland will then plan, deliver and evaluate professional learning to support education staff in recognising and responding to safeguarding concerns by November 2022.

Current position:

Ongoing

The new national guidance for Child Protection was published in September 2021. National guidance for child protection in Scotland 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). This led to the development of a national safeguarding in education network, bringing together child protection / safeguarding in education strategic leads from across the 32 local authorities and the independent sector.

Terms of reference were agreed, dates set for quarterly meetings during 2022 and a questionnaire established the key themes / issues / priorities arising relating to this area. This included;

• consistent approaches to professional learning;
• chronologies;
• upskilling of staff & supervision of staff responding to child protection or safeguarding concerns.

The first national network was hosted in January 2022, and attendees provided feedback about the opportunities provided by the network to speak to and share experiences with colleagues, and to develop confidence in using the revised guidance for child protection.

The safeguarding in education national network meeting in November had a focus on supervision for education staff responding to child protection & safeguarding issues as these can often be complex, difficult and emotionally draining.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Currently police, social work and health all have supervision for staff as a mandatory part of their work. This is not the case for education.

The new Child Protection guidance outlines the importance of supervision for all staff responding to / dealing with CP concerns.

A short life working group has been established to gather intelligence of current offer across Scotland. This will then be synthesised into a report outlining the current picture of supervision across Scotland, with an overview of the offers for other organisations and recommendations for Education Scotland / SG to consider.

Action: TP117

Education staff require further support on forming a culture and ethos that prioritises relationships and support with upskilling and professional learning to understand, recognise and respond to dysregulated and distressed behaviour through a relationship-based, nurturing and trauma sensitive lens. Education Scotland will lead on developing publishable guidance and the online professional learning resource on Promoting Positive Relationships and Behaviour and Restorative Approaches in collaboration with SAGRABIS and local authorities by June 2022. Education Scotland will introduce the professional learning resource through engagement events in partnership with colleagues from SG/SAGRABIS for local authorities to further explore the resources themselves

Current position:

Ongoing

Education Scotland continues to provide professional learning designed to be delivered at whole school level but can also be used with partners such as Police, Social Work, Advocacy workers etc. to promote consistency of language and approach across all children's services. This professional learning has been piloted in a range of settings to approximately 570 participants in 4 local authorities across early learning and childcare settings, primary, secondary, and special school sectors and to campus Police Officers as a bespoke group. The resource has also been delivered to Restorative Approaches trainers in one local authority. The feedback from the pilot sessions has been very positive.

Participants comments: 'I think across the board the restorative approach should be looked at and considered outside of school as well as at school, more people need to be aware of it and how useful it is and the benefit it has to giving kids a chance in life' Campus Police Officer.

Pilot support is being provided for a local authority around guidance for schools on creating their relationships policy and how the developed guidance articulates with other policies such as anti-bullying, maximising attendance and minimising exclusions, equalities strategy.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Education Scotland will re-focus on school relationships policies and their implementation to include on-going staff professional learning activities. ES are supporting one local authority to work collaboratively with Head teachers to write central guidance to support schools write or refresh their own Relationships Policies in line with national guidance which prioritises relational practice before punitive processes.

Based on feedback from the pilot exercise and full publication of the resources. Education Scotland will run a series of engagement events in spring/summer terms next year.to properly launch the resources and professional learning.

Action: TP118

By July 2022, Education Scotland will co-create with partners a prototype of a Building Racial Literacy professional learning offer, reporting into the Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education Programme board. The prototype will be evaluated by Education Scotland in terms of process, content and initial impact of anti-racist practice and understanding.

Current position:

Complete - business as usual

The Building Racial Literacy programme is open to all educators in Scotland. The programme is for those interested in becoming anti-racist educators and leaders, those seeking to build their confidence in discussing and challenging racism and those who need help identifying and implementing anti-racist behaviours and processes in their everyday practice. Co-constructed with a wide range of partners, including education practitioners and stakeholders on the Scottish Government Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education Programme (REAREP), the Building Racial Literacy programme was co-created with a first cohort of 73 participants across 27 Scottish local authorities completing in March 2022. The end-of-programme evaluation shared the impact of the professional learning on participants and the early emerging impact on the learners they support. Three participants have written blog posts about their experiences of the programme:

- My experience of Building Racial Literacy: power, motivation, hope and positivity

- Building Racial Literacy

- Decolonising the Curriculum: Exploring Positive Narratives that Challenge Assumptions, Empower Learners and Inspire Unity

Following the interim evaluation by Education Scotland and ongoing collaboration with partners and past participants, delivery of the programme is planned for another two cohorts. The second cohort started in August and the third will start in December 2022, with a range of educators and system leaders. 248 applications for the two cohorts have been received and sifting is underway. This video tells the story of the programme so far is available: Story of the Building Racial Literacy Programme

Outcomes and next steps

73 participants across 27 Scottish local authorities completed the Building Racial Literacy (BRL). The end-of-programme evaluation shared the impact of the professional learning on participants and the early emerging impact on the learners they support.

As part of BRL participants were asked to develop an Anti-Racist Action Plan, which was then shared with others at Sharing the Learning session held at the end of the programme. The Anti-Racist Action Plans supported participants to identify actions, intended impact on their practice and the intended impact on learners. Some examples include developing an anti-racism support group for learners, which will allow for deeper understanding of racism taking place within the school, encouraging learners to develop their confidence regarding discourse around anti-racism.

Prior to beginning BRL participants were asked to complete a pre-programme evaluation regarding their levels of understanding and awareness of anti-racism and their role (78%, n=67). Participants were then asked to complete the same evaluation post-programme, to identify any impact or areas of change (n=50). 100% of programme participants now feel confident in dealing with a racist incident in their workplace (compared to 67%, n=45), along with 100% able to identify with confidence aspects of their anti-racist practice that need to improve (compared to 82%, n=55).

Next steps are the delivery of Cohorts 2 and 3 and the ongoing evaluation of the work which will be covered under TP110.

Action: TP119

Education Scotland will set up a National Response to Improving Literacy group to sit alongside the National Response to Improving Mathematics Partnership Board. Both groups will examine the existing landscape in Scotland and internationally and seek out the best opportunities to enhance the professional learning for teachers and the classroom experiences for young people.

Current position:

Ongoing

The work of both the National Response to Improving Mathematics (NRIM) and the National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) groups is ongoing, with the NRIM work at a more advanced stage.

NRIM:

National Response to Improving Mathematics board members have worked together to discuss and examine existing numeracy and mathematics data and intelligence. Recently, NRIM working groups collaborated and produced interim improvement recommendations which will be shared with the wider education system. Feedback from these national partners will be used to determine which priority recommendations will drive the direction of travel.

NRIL:

In preparation for the first meeting of the National Response to Improving Literacy partnership board, a draft Terms of Reference paper has been produced and invitations sent to stakeholder organisations, such as the Regional Improvement Collaboratives, requesting representatives with appropriate experience and expertise to join the partnership board. Co-chairs from Education Scotland, the Scottish Government and the Association of Directors of Education (ADES) have been identified.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

NRIM:

The six NRIM working groups have together produced 32 interim recommendations for improving Numeracy and Mathematics, detailed in a draft summary report. The report will be shared with local authorities in early 2023 and details 6 key themes, taken from the main recommendations. Local authorities will be asked to provide feedback on these key themes. In addition an NRIM sub-group was recently formed to help with next steps and prioritise the next steps for the NRIM Partnership Board.

NRIL:

Through the sharing of knowledge, data and research, the various stakeholders on the NRIL partnership board will work together to define the scope of the group's overall review of literacy across the 3-18 system.

Mirroring the approach taken by NRIM, short-life working groups will investigate key areas of literacy, as identified by the board, in order to contribute to the formulation of recommendations aimed at enhancing practitioners' professional learning in literacy and improving further the learning experiences of children and young people.

Action: TP120

In the light of the ACEL data, both groups will develop evidence based recommendations in spring 2022, with a view to implementing changes as soon as possible.

Current position:

Ongoing

National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL). In preparation for the first meeting of the NRIL partnership board, a draft Terms of Reference paper has been produced and invitations sent to stakeholder organisations such as Regional Improvement Collaboratives requesting representatives with appropriate experience and expertise to join the partnership board. Education Scotland and Scottish Government co-chairs have been identified and it is anticipated that a third chair will be nominated by the Association of Directors of Education (ADES).

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

NRIM Interim Recommendation Report and widening consultations with the system will provide evidence based recommendations moving forward. The draft report was completed in spring 2022, and work is still ongoing to complete the final report.

Anticipated outcomes: to examine the existing literacy landscape across Scotland and internationally to support the identification of areas of particular focus for improvement; emphasise and promote the importance of literacy skills development in underpinning learning across the entirety of the curriculum, allowing children and young people to access learning and, ultimately, to the range of opportunities for learning, life and work beyond school; oversee the improvement of literacy levels for all learners (3-18) with a particular focus on closing the poverty related attainment gap; support an inclusive and 'needs led' approach to improving the literacy skills of vulnerable learners; ensure the consistent provision of evidence-based high quality professional learning across the education system in identified aspects of literacy; to improve attainment across all literacy organisers and at all stages.

Next steps: To hold an initial meeting of the NRIL partnership board early in 2023 and begin the process of coordinating the formation of short-life working groups comprised of representatives from across the education system to focus on identified and agreed priorities in literacy.

Parent and Carer Involvement and Engagement

Action: PE04

Early Learning and Childcare Quality Action Plan includes a commitment to increase support for evidence-based family learning to embed this in the early learning offer for families facing disadvantage.

Current position:

Complete

Between 2019 and 2021 we funded Peeple to deliver the Family Learning Scotland Programme, offering training and support to 432 childcare professionals across all 32 local authorities. Childcare professionals were trained to deliver the Peep Learning Together Programme and the Peep Progression Pathway to help parents learn about early childhood development, how to support children's learning, and also to support parents' or carers' own capacity for learning to enable them to take up training and employment opportunities.

Many of those trained were Equity and Excellence leads, embedding capacity across Scotland for skilled professionals to develop close relationships with children and families together.

Outcomes and next steps

Building on evaluation of these programmes, feedback from the sector and the wider evidence base from the work of The Promise and on holistic whole family wellbeing, we are seeking to develop a programme of work to support local areas and services to embed family wellbeing within ELC services.

Action: PE36

The joint Scottish Government/COSLA "Learning Together" Action Plan was published on 21 August 2018. The plan contains a variety of national actions in relation to both involvement and engagement which will be implemented in 2019, including: review and strengthen statutory guidance in time for academic year 2019/20

Current position:

Ongoing

A working group was set up to develop fresh statutory guidance. The group met four times over the course of 2019, and developed draft amended guidance by the end of August 2019. This guidance was consulted on from January - June 2020 and responses to the consultation on the Parental Involvement Act statutory guidance were published, where permission was given, on 5th August 2020.

A sub group of the national steering group on parental engagement met in May 2022 to discuss and examine options with regards to whether there is stakeholder interest in finalising new statutory guidance on parental involvement. Some of the parental stakeholders have argued that it would in fact be more impactful to reform/update primary legislation, which would be a much larger exercise and would require Ministerial consideration. This discussion informed options set out to Ministers for decision in September 2022.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The Cabinet Secretary has agreed that work to update the statutory guidance, following the consultation in 2020, should now resume after being paused due to COVID-19. Officials will liaise with the working group to decide how best to progress this work.

By updating the guidance we aim to ensure that parental involvement and engagement – and the legal duties that underpin this important aspect in education – is given due prominence and recognition.

Action: PE38

The joint Scottish Government/COSLA "Learning Together" Action Plan was published on 21 August 2018. The plan contains a variety of national actions in relation to both involvement and engagement which will be implemented in 2019, including: raise awareness of participatory budgeting amongst parents

Current position:

Complete – business as usual

The Education Reform Directorate's Parental Involvement Team continue to liaise with SG colleagues who lead on Participatory Budgeting (PB) to ensure that steps are taken to further raise awareness amongst parent organisations and across local authorities and Parent Councils of the potential to use PB to deliver on their aims. The National Parent Forum of Scotland have highlighted the potential for participatory budgeting to Parent Councils via social media. A group of practitioners interested in participatory budgeting in schools was established and brought together by Education Scotland, with invites to the Parental Involvement Team. Resource pages to identify and share practice and learning have been developed and are available online and on the National Improvement Hub. In 2020 a National PB Strategic Group was established and developed a framework for PB, including ambitions, intentions and strategic areas to focus energy. The Framework for the future of Participatory Budgeting in Scotland was completed in Summer 2021 and education is one of five themes in the new Framework. The three key education priorities are:

• Supporting high quality PB processes in education;
• Encouraging a focus on developing PB further in secondary schools, and;
• Advocating for the ongoing development of PB as a tool to address challenges of poverty and inequality experienced by children by supporting the Pupil Equity Fund and Scottish Attainment Challenge.

The role of parent organisations and Parent Councils will be important to help support and drive the delivery of these priorities in collaboration with key stakeholders nationally and locally.

Information on participatory budgeting (PB) was updated in the Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) earlier in March 2022, which continues to support PB as an innovative and effective mechanism to engage with parents, carers, children and young people, in particular those who face barriers to participation within their learning community.

Education Reform colleagues have most recently supported Education Scotland in delivering one of their Attainment Advisors Sessions, providing awareness raising and information about SG's national drive and support for PB in Education.

Action: PE79

Scottish Government will work with partners to develop accompanying advice and support materials during the course of 2020. These will be provided alongside the final statutory guidance.

Current position:

Closed – taken forward as part of PE36

Officials are working with the Learning Together Steering group and the Statutory Guidance working group on the future progress of the refreshed statutory guidance. Officials will work with partners to look at what accompanying advice and support materials will be appropriate in relation to this. This work will be undertaken in the margins of PE36 and this action will be closed.

Action: PE89

Scottish Government will engage with the Learning Together National Steering Group in order to reflect on parental involvement and engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. This will include a reflection on the experience of virtual parent consultations and Parent Council meetings with a view to informing any future guidance and advice to schools. Practice examples will be shared with the national parental engagement network and via Education Scotland's regional improvement support.

Current position:

Closed – superseded by PE98

A workshop held with the Learning Together National Steering group provided outputs that will be used to inform a refreshed vision/plan on parental engagement for the post-pandemic period. Further sessions with a wider stakeholder group also took place in the first half of 2022. The outcomes of these sessions have been considered and work is ongoing to finalise a refreshed vision/plan on parental engagement and involvement , in collaboration with the steering group and the broader network on parental engagement. Practice examples will continue to be shared with the Learning Together National Network and via existing networks.

Outcomes and next steps

We are currently considering the future of the Learning Together plan and continue to work with Education Scotland and wider stakeholders to draft this. As part of this drafting we continue to consider and reflect on parental involvement and engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic and aim to reflect this throughout any new document. We will therefore cover future updates on this work under action PE98, which covers wider work around the refreshed vision/plan on parental engagement for the post-pandemic period. We continue to share information with the Learning Together National Network on a regular basis.

Action: PE90

The 2021/22 Parental Involvement and Engagement (PIE) Census data collection by LAs is complete. LAs are sharing their data with SG, to be complete in August 2022. SG will publish the statistics in December 2022.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Parental Involvement and Engagement (PIE) Census was undertaken by 22 local authorities in 2021/22 academic year, gathering data on their parent/carer community. Data collection completed in end June 2022, for local authority use. 20 local authorities have shared their data with SG for analysis at national level. SG have pre-announced publication of the headline findings in mid-December 2022.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Local authorities who undertook their own PIE census 2022 have their data for their use in developing their Parental Engagement Strategy. This involves each school identifying and responding to aspects of non-engagement within their own school communities, consideration of potential barriers, and exploration of new and creative ideas and solutions. The PIE census 2022 provides schools and local authorities evidence of the impact of their approach. The data is being shared with SG for publication in December 2022. The data will provide evidence for monitoring the Learning together: national action plan on parental involvement, engagement, family learning and learning at home.

Action: PE91

Scottish Government will monitor and share with partners, the quantitative and qualitative evidence from COVID-19 survey work by parental organisations during the course of 2020/21. This will include but may not be limited to:

- Survey work by National Parent Forum of Scotland in relation to learning at home during Covid-19, parent views on national qualifications during 2020/21 and other education themes.

- Survey work by Connect – example: Parent/Carer Back at School Survey Report (Nov 2020) The work to share this information will help to inform the ongoing development of policy and practice on parental engagement and decisions and considerations of the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group and wider forums.

Current position:

Complete – business as usual

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic regular surveys of parents and carers were undertaken by organisations including NPFS and Connect which helped to amplify the voice of parents and carers throughout this time. The Scottish Government policy team regularly monitored these surveys and shared with other internal teams and wider stakeholders where appropriate.

Parents continue to be engaged on the topics that matter most to Scottish Education. For example, most recently, the Scottish Government has worked with key partners to actively seek out and engage parents and carers in the National Discussion on Scottish Education. A key focus of this work was to encourage the participation of communities who face the greatest barriers to taking part in government consultations.

The Scottish Government will continue to conduct regular reviews and sharing of surveys and data from Connect, NPFS and other parents organisations – including Fathers Network Scotland and we will use these will help inform our approach to parental engagement.

Action: PE92

Scottish Government and Education Scotland will publicise relevant guidance and advice on parental involvement during COVID-19 to schools via key communication channels and via the national parental engagement network.

Current position:

Complete – business as usual

Guidance setting out principles and expectations around reporting to parents, parents' evenings and the operation of Parent Councils during COVID-19 was published in November 2020. This included further practical examples in Education Scotland COVID-19 Education Recovery Group guidance

All restrictions that have been in place in terms of access to schools for parents and carers have been lifted and the expectation is that "in person" parent evenings and schools events can now take place.

Outcomes and next steps

A discussion was held on the need for any further guidance to schools and local authorities on access to schools for parents and carers now that restrictions on this have been lifted. This took place at the Learning Together Steering Group in April 2022 and this has since been discussed further with ADES and COSLA. Following on from these discussions, we are considering options to ensure that parents and carers are involved and engaged in their child's school as we move in to a further period of education recovery.

Action: PE93

The Scottish Government will continue to collaborate with partners, including parents and carers to deliver the actions from the ASL Action Plan to enhance parental empowerment and engagement. We will continue to ensure that the key role of parents, as partners in their children's learning, is realised. We will identify additional avenues for engagement to develop and deliver ways of working together that support and promote positive relationships, communication and co-operation.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Scottish Government and COSLA recognise that parents and carers are key partners in policy development. To ensure their voice is heard, parents and carers are represented in all of our stakeholder groups, including the Additional Support for Learning Project Board and Network, the Code of Practice Working Group, the Physical Intervention Working Group and the Doran National Strategic Commissioning Group. COSLA engages with parent and carer organisations at a national level.

We have continued with our commitment to increase the funding to Enquire, which offers confidential advice and support to parents and carers on Additional Support for Learning. Since November 2021 Enquire have responded to over 1,000 enquiries and distributed over 2,000 parents' guides. They have also launched their updated website providing parents, carers and professionals with accessible information on children's rights to additional support for learning as well as practical advice to help schools and families work together. Between April and July 2022 the website had over 60,000 views.

Anticipated outcomes and impacts

We will continue to monitor the impact and effectiveness of the increased funding for the ASL statutory services alongside continued delivery of wider (local government led) actions to improve the relationships between families, schools, education psychology and wider local authority ASL services.

We will continue to engage with partners, including close engagement with local government colleagues as part of ongoing to work to support delivery of the Additional Support for Learning Action Plan.

Action: PE94

By December 2022, Education Scotland and Scottish Government will work with the Initial Teacher Education Knowledge Exchange Group which includes representatives from Universities across Scotland to share knowledge and expertise in order to improve how parental involvement / engagement, family learning and learning at home are reflected in relevant courses and Career Long Professional Learning (CLPL) opportunities.

Current position:

Complete

Education Scotland undertook two comprehensive mapping exercises with local authorities and Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers. This provided a robust data set which was used to inform next steps culminating in publication of a Strategic Framework for Parental Involvement, Parental Engagement, Family Learning and Learning at Home.

Outcomes and next steps:

Education Scotland will work with local authorities and ITE providers to raise awareness and support implementation of the framework. This Framework is for anyone who supports the qualification and professional learning of early years practitioners, childminders and teachers on: parental involvement, parental engagement, family learning and learning at home. It is aimed to inform those who work with parents and families in settings and schools across Scotland and provide the foundation upon which everything else is built. The framework also aims to provide a common language and understanding of all the component parts of parental involvement, parental engagement, family learning and learning at home. The Strategic Framework can be used in a number of ways including the development, review and delivery of local and national strategies and policies as well as with approaches to and content of professional learning opportunities.

Action: PE95

Education Scotland will publish parent information on 'Realising the Ambition: Being Me, National Practice Guidance for the Early Years' to support parental engagement in children's learning from birth to the end of the early level by October 2022.

Current position:

Ongoing

Education Scotland's 'Parentzone Scotland - Learning in the Early Years' webpage has been substantially updated in line with Realising the Ambition: Being Me. Following consultation with parents, new content is aligned with key sections of the national guidance. This provides parents with information about how learning in the early years is effectively supported through child-centred play pedagogy and the reasons which this approach is taken.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Parents will feel better informed, and have increased confidence about the pedagogical approaches being used in early childhood education, and in particular about the role of play in the early years of primary school. Early years practitioners, including primary school teachers will be able to use the new information to support their communication with parents at local level.

Education Scotland will implement a communication plan to increase awareness of the newly updated content with parents and practitioners.

Action: PE96

By 31 December 2022, Education Scotland will work across and within local authorities, Regional Improvement Teams and Collaboratives to share advice and guidance on ways to engage with families to support COVID-19 recovery.

Current position:

Complete – Business as usual

Education Scotland has engaged and worked with all local authorities and Regional Improvement Collaboratives. Specific support has been provided to lead and deliver bespoke sessions, based on identified need, to practitioners on Parental Involvement, Parental Engagement, Family Learning, Learning at Home, Partnerships and Self-Evaluation.

Outcomes and next steps

Education Scotland will continue to work with local authorities and Regional Improvement Collaboratives to support parental involvement, parental engagement, family learning and learning at home through providing professional dialogue, professional learning, sharing the latest research and signposting to good practice. Work will be determined by future policy direction and be based on local and regional needs to ensure a bespoke approach.

Next Steps

Work is underway to plan a series of themed webinars during 2022-23 that will be disseminated across and within local authorities, Regional Improvement Teams and Collaboratives to build the capacity of practitioners and share good practice.

Bespoke sessions are already planned and will be delivered from December 2022 onwards based on the needs of individual local authorities and Regional Improvement Collaboratives.

Action: PE97

By 31 December 2022, Education Scotland will create a briefing on how the national occupational standards (NOS) have been used since 2013 and will work with Skills Development Scotland (SDS) on updating the NOS for future use.

Current position:

Complete

Briefing on how the national occupational standards (NOS) have been used since 2013 has been created and shared with Skills Development Scotland (SDS).

Outcomes and next steps

CLD Standards Council will take forward this work after successfully bidding for the tender. Education Scotland will work in partnership with CLD Standards Council and the other three nations as lead representatives for Scotland.Education Scotland will work in partnership with CLD Standards Council and the other three nations as lead representatives for Scotland.

It is anticipated that a refreshed Family Learning NOS will provide an up to date set of National Occupational Standards for the workforce. This will provide guidance to those employing family learning workers and a consistency of skills, knowledge and experiences.

Action: PE98

The "Learning Together" action plan on parental engagement will come to a close at the end of 2021. In early 2022, the Scottish Government will work in partnership with parent organisations national education agencies to review that plan, and to publish a refreshed policy framework on parent and carer involvement and engagement.

Current position:

Ongoing

A workshop held with the Learning Together National Steering group provided outputs that will be used to inform a refreshed vision/plan on parental engagement for the post-pandemic period. Further sessions with a wider stakeholder group took place in the first half of 2022 and the outcomes of these sessions have been considered and a refreshed vision/plan on parental engagement has been drafted. This was considered by the Learning Together Steering Group in April 2022.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The refreshed Learning Together National Action plan as drafted received feedback from both stakeholders and colleagues in Education Scotland. Given the range of feedback and different views on the content and use of the document, Scottish Government officials had been working to revise and re-draft this

The National Discussion paused this project as we worked to deliver an opportunity for everyone, but particularly children, young people and those who support them, including parents and carers, to shape a vision for Scottish Education.

A meeting of the Learning Together Steering group took place on 30^th November 2022 where the future progress of this plan was discussed and we will work in partnership with our Learning Together Steering group to draft and launch a succinct and focused strategic action plan.

We are also keen to ensure that this document is fully reflective of the changing education landscape and education reform agenda so anticipate that this will not be ready to be published until early 2023.

When finalised, it is anticipated that this will further strengthen parental involvement, engagement, family learning and learning at home.

Curriculum and Assessment

Action: CA02

From 2020, we will also draw upon two additional health visitor assessments at 13 months and at around 54 months.

Current position:

Ongoing

The third annual release from the 13-15 month and 4-5 year review was published in April 2022. Coverage of these reviews has increased again over the last year, with the implementation of the Universal Health Visiting Pathway across Scotland. In 2020/21, coverage of the 13-15 month and 4-5 year review was 90% and 81% respectively. These additional data sets have provided a more holistic picture of child development among the under 5s.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

We will continue to monitor the national coverage of these reviews as health boards continue their roll-out and delivery. The next national coverage statistics will be released in February 2023.

The earlier review point at 13-15 months will provide information to enable early intervention to support parents where this is required. The inclusion of a measure of developmental concerns captured at 13-15 month and 4-5 year review in the NIF is currently under consideration, alongside the existing key measure at 27-30 months.

Action: CA03

From 2021, we anticipate a revised ELC census that will provide additional data on some of the drivers of children's outcomes.

Current position:

Ongoing

Work to enable data on the number of hours spent in funded ELC to be available as part of the ELC Census was delayed due to a delay in the roll-out of the SEEMiS Early Years management information system. The new census process is dependent on an extract of data from this SEEMiS system. It will now be 2024 before we have individual level data on children accessing funded ELC.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

There is strong evidence that attending high quality ELC has important benefits for children. The individual level ELC Census data will enable us to better understand take up of the expanded entitlement to 1140 hours of funded ELC, and will allow us to analyse number of hours spent in funded ELC as a driver of child outcomes by child characteristics (e.g. sex, deprivation).

Action: CA11

Two significant areas of development of data on school leaver destinations are under way. The first is to improve the data set by including employment data. Scottish Government and SDS are working with HMRC to develop solutions that will allow individual level employment data to be shared to support service delivery and service reform. The aim is to have these arrangements in place by Autumn 2018.

Current position:

Closed

Since the successful Proof of Concept test data transfer between HMRC and SDS in 2019, Scottish Government has sought to agree sharing of employment data from HMRC to SDS. The Scottish Government resubmitted a data sharing application to HMRC in order to progress accessing this individual level tax information on a regular basis as the previous application was rejected. The application for the data for statistical purposes has been reviewed by an HMRC delivery team and the Scottish Government are now discussing details of the data share with HMRC IT and Analyst Teams. The Scottish Government has been unable to commit to a deadline due to long standing discussions with HMRC, therefore work in this area will superseded by two new actions under the Performance Information driver.

Action: CA22

We will implement the Getting it Right for Looked After Children Strategy in full. We will take a tailored approach to young people who most need support, increasing positive destinations from school for looked after children by 4 percentage points per annum, resulting in parity by 2021.

Current position:

Closed - superseded by CA116

The support we provide to looked after children and young people in education settings continues to be viewed through the lens of the Independent Care Review's findings as set out in "The Promise" which published in February 2020 and supersedes the Getting It Right For Looked After Children Strategy. The Promise has set the challenge to us all to determine how we will work together in partnership, across national and local Government and beyond, to ensure we deliver for care experienced children and young people – and in a way which minimises the need for children, young people and families to require the support of a formal care system. The Promise Scotland was set up in 2021 to oversee and ensure The Promise is kept by 2030. The Plan 21-24 was published by The Promise Scotland in March 2021 and sets out a number of actions necessary to deliver The Promise and those related to education settings will continue to be monitored and reported on through the NIF in action CA116.

In 2020/21, 86% of looked after leavers went on to a positive initial destination, up from 80% in 19/20 and compared to 95% of all leavers. A lower proportion of looked after children enter positive destinations than all school leavers, but this gap has narrowed considerably since 2009/10 and we will continue to work collaboratively to build on this progress.

Action: CA33

We will continue to provide, through the Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) programme, more opportunities for young people to experience high quality, work-related learning, and to gain vocational qualifications. We will increase the percentage of school leavers attaining vocational qualifications at SCQF level 5 and above year-on-year to 2020/21.

Current position:

Complete

Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) is now an integral part of the curriculum. In terms of the senior phase the OECD report "Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence into the Future" recognised DYW as one of the three pillars of the Scottish education system alongside Curriculum for Excellence and Getting it Right for Every Child.

Outcomes and next steps

We delivered on our DYW performance indicator to increase the percentage of school leavers attaining professional and technical qualifications at SCQF level 5 and above by 2021. Data published in February 2022 showed 26.1% of 2020/21 school leavers attained 1+ award at SCQF 5 or better, this is an increase of 18.8 percentage points since the baseline of 7.3% in 2013/14.

We will continue to track the success of senior phase pupils attaining professional and technical qualifications.

Action: CA43

We will ensure that by 2030, students from the 20 per cent most deprived areas make up 20 per cent of higher education entrants

Current position:

Ongoing

Implementation of the recommendations of the Commission on Widening Access is overseen by the Access Delivery Group, which is chaired by the Minister for Higher Education and Further Education, Youth Employment and Training. The Group last met on 7 September 2022. The latest HESA stats show 16.7% of Scottish domiciled full time first degree entrants to Scottish HEIs are from the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland in 2020/21. The statistics show we have achieved the key CoWA target to have 16% of students from the most deprived areas of Scotland by 2021 ahead of time.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

We will promote widening access by continuing to work with colleges, universities, and others to implement the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Widening Access, ensuring that, by 2030, admissions to university reflects our population with at least 20 per cent of university entrants coming from our 20 per cent most deprived communities. We will build on successful work to scale up outreach activities and reforming admissions to reflect the potential a young person may have, not just their prior attainment. We are nearing the end of a recruitment process for a new Commissioner and we hope to have someone in post by early 2023. We will work with the new Commissioner to ensure they have a good induction. We will also be undertaking work on the issues related to data and widening access plus consideration of the impact widening access policies are having by developing an evaluation plan by end March 2023.

Action: CA48

We will be working collaboratively with partners across the education sector to actively explore what more we can do to encourage uptake of ELC /Further Education/Higher Education for the Gypsy/Traveller community

Current position:

Ongoing

ELC: As part of our action outlined in the Improving the Lives of Scotland's Gypsy/Travellers 2019-2021 (which is now running until October 2022) to explore barriers to Gypsy/Traveller uptake of early learning and childcare, with a view to increasing uptake of the enhanced funded entitlement of 1140 hours, grant funding was issued to support a programme of work STEP undertook, to develop and distribute Home Starter Kits to Gypsy/Traveller families in Scotland with a child under 8. The kits contain the kinds of materials used in ELC settings to support creative and child-centred play. Content included culturally-relevant books and images, puppets and masks for role play, a range of art and craft materials and loose parts. A central aim is that children will supplement the contents with objects of interest from the natural world. Each kit also contains Starter Cards with QR codes linking to a section of the STEP website offering dedicated activity starter suggestions. Through a range of visual and video formats parents and carers can find ideas for setting up, organising and supporting their children's play. A key aim of the programme is to increase Gypsy/Traveller engagement with ELC by raising awareness of the benefits of play as well as making connections between families and practitioners.

Further Education/Higher Education: The Scottish Government, through the Scottish Funding Council, continues to ensure that the university and college sectors meet their public sector equalities duties as evidenced in Outcome Agreements with individual institutions. Further, the SFC is engaged with the EHRC on where individual institutions need to focus on persistent inequalities and act to address them.

Action: CA53

We have also committed to recruiting an additional 250 school nurses by 2022

Current position:

Ongoing

The Scottish Government has been working with Scotland's Health Boards to ensure progress towards our target of 250 additional school nurses in training or in post by year end 2022. We anticipate that 216 additional whole time equivalent (wte) school nurses will have been recruited between 2018 and 2022 as a result of extra Scottish Government investment.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

This increased workforce will help school aged children across Scotland by focusing on areas which can influence poor health in later life. This includes supporting emotional health and wellbeing needs and tackling risk taking behaviours.

Action: CA57

Following the publication of the national strategy for school libraries in September 2018, an implementation group was established to oversee implementation and progress in relation to the 20 action points in the strategy which are designed to support the improvement in literacy and numeracy, boost attainment across the curriculum, support health and wellbeing, foster inclusion, and enable opportunities for family learning.

Current position:

Ongoing

Progress continues against the objectives of the school library strategy. As in 21/22, the School Library Improvement Fund for 2022/23 will focus on race equality and anti-racism, aligning with wider Learning Directorate and SG priorities. Training on race equality for school librarians was carried out in June 21 with a view to increasing engagement with the 21/22 application process, a similar session was carried out in 22/23 following discussion with SLIC. The school library strategy stakeholder group reconvened mid-2022 to take forward remaining actions relating to the strategy and following a meeting in November, discussions are ongoing regarding next steps.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The group anticipates producing a piece of work to recognise the developments since the commencement of the strategy. A further action plan may be required to take account of the pause which occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Action: CA71

The latest BISSR project is currently out to tender. It is anticipated that it will report towards the end of 2020 / early 2021.

Current position:

Ongoing

Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) fieldwork could not take place as planned in March 2021 due to COVID restrictions in place in schools and their impact on survey reference periods. The Scottish Government has recently awarded the contract for the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research and it is intended that the fieldwork will be completed in Spring 2023 with the first phase of the research completed by Autumn 2023.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

This will inform the future policy development and actions taken by the Scottish Government and partners to continue to support positive relationships and behaviour policy in schools.

Action: CA72

Improve communications and engagement on national standardised assessment in Scotland and clarify key messages.

Current position:

Ongoing

Published in August 2019, and widely shared with local authorities and key stakeholders, the National standardised assessments: purpose and use document provides clear guidance on the intended use by local authorities, headteachers and practitioners of national standardised assessments. Work with stakeholders on the development of a communications strategy on national standardised assessments was put on hold in March 2020 as a result of COVID-19 and has largely been superseded by the launch pf the phase two NSA system, comprising the SNSA and its Gaelic equivalent, the MCNG. Two user assurance groups - one for educational content and the other for additional support needs and accessibility issues - were established in January 2022, and we have recommenced regular NIF meetings with the professional associations.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

We will continue our communications approach for 2023 and work with key stakeholders to:

- Establish a wide and shared understanding of the approach to assessment through the broad general education in Scotland.

- Clarify the key messages relating to national standardised assessment, and its place within the wider approach to assessment, and establish whether a phase two communications strategy requires to be developed in consultation with stakeholders.

- Increase awareness of key policy documents, guidance and support materials available relating to national standardised assessment, including:

- Purpose and Use document

- Case studies exemplifying good practice – available on Education Scotland National Improvement Hub

- Identify opportunities for tailoring of key documents and messages to particular audiences.

- Widen knowledge of availability and means of accessing training and support materials for SNSA and MCNG

- Provide clear channels for inward communication/gathering of views and feedback from practitioners, parents and other stakeholders to ensure a shared understanding of communication priorities and inform the continuous improvement cycle for the systems of national standardised assessment.

Action: CA77

Continue to work with partners to enhance the Gaelic medium standardised assessments.

Current position:

Ongoing

Phase two of the Gaelic medium education standardised assessments, the MCNG, was launched under a public beta banner in May 2022. The outcomes data derived from the public beta phase was then used to calibrate assessment items and standardise the assessments, for the first time in the history of the MCNG. The National Standardised Assessments for Scotland (NSA) - comprising both the MCNG and the SNSA - were formally launched on 10th October 2022. By housing the two assessment sets within the one system - while retaining distinct assessment content - the phase two NSA secures a shared approach to assessment adaptation, standardisation, reporting and training - as well as providing just one system with which GME learners and practitioners must become familiar. The SG has also brought the creation of MCNG content in house for phase two; recruiting a panel of GME practitioners to produce content which is relevant to and cognisant of Curriculum for Excellence and the approach to GME and immersion learning.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Reports, training, and content will continue to be developed in the medium of Gaelic, and our user research and ongoing stakeholder consultation will seek to obtain feedback to inform proposals for continuous improvement.

Action: CA78

Revisit the 2014 review of the SSLN to assess the comparative burden and costs of conducting the SSLN and the Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels data collection.

Current position:

Ongoing

This work was delayed in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consideration of the most effective way to gather data (e.g. via census or sample based approaches, or both) is being taken forward as part of our work in response to the 2022 consultation on enhanced data collection for improvement and wider work related to the National Discussion on Scottish Education and the implementation of the recommendations from the OECD report.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

We will consider the most effective approach to collecting data following the conclusions of the work streams outlined above.

Action: CA79

Work with key partners to assess and enhance the value of the national standardised assessments.

Current position:

Ongoing

Our regular plans for user consultation on the assessments were necessarily curtailed by COVID-19 and associated pressures placed on schools and practitioners. Two user assurance groups – one for educational matters and the other for accessibility matters – have now been re-established.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

These groups will support the continuous improvement of the phase two national standardised assessments platform, comprising a combined online platform for the SNSA and the MCNG, which launched in October 2022. Schools and practitioners have also participated in wider user trialling and consultation on aspects of the developing phase two services in March 2022 with further user research to be conducted in late 2022 and early 2023. Learner feedback continues to be gathered at the point of assessment whilst practitioners provided feedback in the 2021/22 staff survey.

Action: CA80

The government has commissioned an independent review of our Senior

Phase. The purpose of the review will be to explore further how Curriculum for Excellence is being implemented for young people in S4-S6 across the country, and to identify any improvements that might be made.

Current position:

Complete

The OECD Independent Review of Curriculum for Excellence looked at the Senior Phase curriculum and the Broad General Education (BGE) and the articulation between the two. In August 2020 the Deputy First Minister asked the OECD to extend the remit of the Review to have a deeper focus on the future of student assessment and qualifications approaches in the Senior Phase curriculum in Scotland, based on best practice globally. The OECD published their review of CfE on 21 June 2021 and the Cabinet Secretary announced that the SG accepted all of its recommendations and published its response. An initial action outlined by the Cabinet Secretary on the 21 June 2021 was the reform of national agencies (led by Professor Ken Muir).

The OECD's comparative working paper on qualifications and assessment was published at the end of August 2021.

The Scottish Government published an implementation framework on 27 October 2021 setting out how the OECD recommendations will be taken forward.

Recommendations in relation to qualifications and assessment are being taken forward by the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment being led by Professor Hayward which will report in Spring 2023. Recommendations in relation to curriculum improvement are being taken forward by Education Scotland in partnership with Scottish Government in some areas. Following the Muir report, the establishment of three new national bodies is being overseen by the Education Reform Programme Board.

Action: CA85

Developing resources and support for schools to address gender based violence and sexual harassment.

Current position:

Ongoing

Linked to action CA89. The Gender Based Violence in Schools Working Group has resumed during this year. There has been significant progress in the development of the national framework to address gender based violence and sexual harassment in schools.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

It is anticipated that the framework document will be published in the new academic term 2023.

Action: CA88

The Learning for Sustainability (LfS) self-assessment tool provided by the SCQF supports credit rating bodies (CRBs) to identify their awards and qualifications as LfS-relevant. The Scottish Government will work with the SCQF to monitor the number of LfS relevant awards as more credit rating bodies periodically review their offerings. This information will allow the Scottish Government to monitor associated enrolment and attainment and ultimately the prevalence of LfS in the senior phase of the curriculum.

Current position:

Ongoing

Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) completed the Scottish Government-funded Work Package 1 in early 2020. This centred around further development of the SCQF database to highlight Learning for Sustainability (LfS) programmes and ensure that learners and providers understood the full range of LfS programmes that are recognised on the SCQF. It allows Credit Rating Bodies (CRBs) and Programme Owners to identify, through tagging, where qualifications/programmes on the SCQF have a focus on, or include, sustainability content/themes and for the SCQF Partnership to produce reports from the SCQF database for interested parties. Work Package 2, which sought to identify other learning programmes delivered to young people that fall under the sustainability theme but that are not currently recognised on the SCQF was completed in spring 2022.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Work Package 3 is currently underway to develop awards and qualifications on LfS. The SCQF Partnership is administering a pot of funding on behalf of Scottish Government to support a number of Programme Providers that have been doing work in the area of Learning for Sustainability to develop new LfS qualifications, link existing programmes to LfS, and develop LfS themed resources. This will ensure that all learning programmes that have an LfS related theme will be now recognised and credited onto the SCQF.

Action: CA89

The Scottish Government has formed a Gender Based Violence in Schools working group to take forward specific actions to support children and young people in light of the reports. The working group will produce guidance for schools by January 2022.

Current position:

Ongoing

Linked to Action CA85. The work of the Gender Based Violence in Schools Group was paused as a result of COVID-19. However, work has been undertaken to consider the workplan of the group in light of the Everyone's Invited publication. It has been agreed that the work of the group should continue as planned, and that links to wider work being undertaken to address Harmful Sexual Behaviour and the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning will be made in order to ensure a comprehensive approach to tackling this issue.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The group has made significant progress in the development of the national framework to address gender based violence and sexual harassment in schools. It is anticipated that the framework document will be published in the new academic term 2023.

Action: CA93

The review of the implementation of additional support for learning (ASL) made recommendations about how to enhance the educational experiences of children and young people with additional support needs. This includes ensuring that the achievements and successes of children and young people are fully recognised and celebrated. A national measurement framework for additional support for learning (ASL) will be developed by 31 October 2021.

Current position:

Ongoing

Linked to CA102 and P124. Following delays to this work due to COVID-19, significant progress has been made by the working group to develop the framework. A draft framework has been developed and considered by the newly established Additional Support for Learning Project Board. The draft National Measurement Framework has been informed by the Young Ambassadors' for Inclusion vision statement for success which set out their vision of what is required in order to achieve success.

This progress has also been reflected within the updated ASL Action Plan and the associated updated report on progress.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Implementation of this work will continue to be considered and monitored through the Additional Support for Learning Project Board, during 2022 and 2023 and next steps will include will include engagement with local authorities and consideration of options to test this new approach within a sample of authorities.

Action: CA94

The Scottish Government will monitor progress made against the actions from the ASL Review by 31 October 2021. The Scottish Government continue to monitor this progress. An updated action plan will be published by Spring 2022.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Scottish Government published the updated Additional Support for Learning Action Plan and a summary progress report in November 2022. This highlighted that we have successfully delivered 24 out of the 76 total actions.

We have engaged widely with stakeholders throughout 2022 to take stock of current provision and agree priorities. These are reflected in our updated action plan which is intended to help ensure that meaningful change is realised.

The Additional Support for Learning Project Board, jointly Chaired by the Scottish Government and COSLA, was established in June 2022 and has a key role to ensure that we deliver our action plan. The Project Board will produce a work plan in response to this report outlining how to ensure we deliver meaningful change through this work.

Delivery of the measures set out in our joint action plan, will require continuous review to ensure that we achieve the broad and deep change necessary to achieve our ambitions that all children and young people are valued, respected, included and supported to achieve and succeed.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

As part of their ongoing work, the Additional Support for Learning Project Board will agree and develop a work plan in early 2023, working closely with the Additional Support for Learning Network, to identify priority areas of work and how they can best support delivery of this work. In particular they will consider:

• How actions can be implemented to achieve the greatest positive impact on ASL delivery
• How this impact can be identified and measured across the range of work within the action plan
• The capacity of the education workforce and how best to enhance their capabilities to support delivery of this work

Action: CA95

The Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland's 2018 No Safe Place report, and evidence gathered during the Scottish Government's engagement with local authorities in 2019, highlighted inconsistencies in the definitions of restraint and seclusion used in local policy and practice and the lack of a standard dataset for recording incidents. In 2020, a Physical Intervention Working Group was established to take forward improvements in this area by:

a) Developing new national human-rights based guidance on physical intervention, which includes national definitions, by 2021.

b) Developing and implementing a new national dataset for the recording and monitoring of incidents.

c) Reviewing the restraint and seclusion data collected by local authorities as part of a one year review following publication of the guidance, to assess the guidance's success.

Current position:

Ongoing

A public consultation on draft guidance ran between June and October 2022. Responses are being carefully considered and an analysis will be published early in 2023. We will work closely with partners on the Physical Intervention Working Group to update the draft guidance in response to feedback ahead of publication of the final guidance.

The draft national dataset was also subject to consultation and will be updated in response to feedback.

The Recording and Monitoring sub group will provide advice on appropriate measures to support a review of the guidance one year after publication.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Our next steps with this work are:

• Publish an analysis report of consultation responses.
• Complete publication of final guidance and national dataset.
• Update physical intervention guidance within included, engaged and involved part 2.
• Work with partners on implementation.
• The Recording and Monitoring sub group will provide advice on appropriate measures to support a review of the guidance one year after publication.
• Exploring options to strengthen the legal framework in this area, including placing the guidance on a statutory basis.

The aims of this work are to support the reduction of restraint in all schools, the upholding of children and young people's rights and help ensure children and young people are supported to reach their full potential.

Action: CA98

SQA is developing a Learner Engagement Strategy with a focus on strengthening existing links with young people and organisations representing their interests, including the Scottish Youth Parliament and Young Scot.

Current position:

Complete – business as usual

SQA continues to provide support and resources on their dedicated learner web pages. They are engaging with national bodies, such as Young Scot, the Scottish Youth Parliament, and the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland to share information on what is happening and when, as well as seeking inputs to ongoing developments through their recently created learner panel. In addition, two young people have joined and participate in SQA's Qualifications Committee, which gives technical, strategic and policy advice regarding SQA qualifications to their Board. They are continuing to keep the effectiveness of communications and engagement under close review.

Action: CA101

SQA to consider the recommendation on the operational processes for gathering candidate evidence for appeals as part of their digital strategy.

Current position:

Complete

In 2021, SQA implemented a facility to allow centres to upload digital evidence for the National Quality Assurance exercise. This was used by centres to upload evidence digitally for over 40% of all the QA selections. A similar approach is being adopted for the 2022 appeals and will be promoted to try to increase the use of the digital facility over the transfer of physical evidence.

Outcomes and next steps

SQA have indicated that system wide investment and a national transformation programme is required to meaningfully progress this agenda. This will be considered as part of the qualifications reform work and the National Digital Strategy.

Action: CA103

In response to the ASL Review, significant progress has been made to develop a new national measurement framework. This seeks to capture the wider set of data which will be used to measure and support improvement. It is anticipated that the framework will be published by spring 2022. The framework will allow us to capture and celebrate outcomes and achievements of all children and young people nationally through the development of an annual report. This report will be co-created with children and young people and their families and will align with other initiatives around exam results time to provide further opportunities to celebrate and promote the successes and achievements of children and young people in equivalence to exams and attainment.

Current position:

Ongoing

Linked to CA93 and P124. Following delays to this work due to COVID-19, significant progress has been made by the working group to develop the framework. A draft framework has been developed and considered by the newly established Additional Support for Learning Project Board. The draft National Measurement Framework has been informed by the Young Ambassadors' for Inclusion vision statement for success which set out their vision of what is required in order to achieve success.

This progress has also been reflected within the updated ASL Action Plan and the associated updated report on progress.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Implementation of this work will continue to be considered and monitored through the Additional Support for Learning Project Board, during 2022 and 2023 and next steps will include will include engagement with local authorities and consideration of options to test this new approach within a sample of authorities.

Action: CA104

Scottish Government and Education Scotland will work with a range of education agencies, children and young people organisations, and wider stakeholders to review the curriculum framework in relation to children's rights and in relation to race equality and anti-racism, reporting to the Curriculum and Assessment Board and Scottish Ministers in 2022.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Curriculum and Assessment Board sub group on children's rights completed its initial examination of this issue during autumn/winter 2021 and provided general recommendations to the CAB in Spring 2022. The sub group concluded that the curriculum framework would require a range of important updates in order to be fully "UNCRC compliant". The Race Equality and Antiracism – Curriculum Reform sub group have developed a series of recommendations and created draft principles for an antiracism curriculum.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The next stage in this work will be to bring together the respective approaches and proposals for children's rights, race equality and antiracism and a further strand on LGBT education into an integrated, coherent package of curriculum reform which can be taken forward in the context of education reform. Recommendations on next steps are likely to go to the next meeting of the Curriculum and Assessment Board in early 2023.

Action: CA105

Scottish Government will continue to support improvement activity across the CfE subject areas. This will include joint work with local authorities to develop a model for a long-term sustainable instrumental music tuition service as well as the work to implement the recommendations from the Logan Review of Scotland's Tech Ecosystem.

Current position:

Ongoing

We have convened the Computing Science (CS) in Schools Working Group which met during first half of the year and it recommended work be taken forward on teacher upskilling and recruitment. The group agreed an approach to upskilling activity responsive to attainment data/assessor feedback that would be taken forward by Scottish Teachers Advancing Computer Science (STACS) and supported by SQA.

On Music, the Future of Instrumental Musical Instruction in Schools group will reconvene at the end of April to establish actions to agree a long term, financially sustainable, policy position on music in schools.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

STACS is piloting the proposed upskilling plan – with decisions on future activity pending. Proposals on teacher recruitment will be considered.

Action: CA106

Professor Ken Muir, University of West of Scotland, has been appointed to act as an independent advisor to the Scottish Government. Professor Muir will consider and advise on the implementation of the reform that will consider all functions currently delivered by both SQA and Education Scotland. Professor Muir's work will clarify roles and responsibilities in relation to the functions of Education Scotland and SQA, and their relationship to the education system as a whole. The findings will be available in early 2022.

Current position:

Complete

Professor Ken Muir published his report Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education in March 2022. The report made a number of key recommendations including a renewed vision for Scottish education, a new qualifications body and a new national agency for Scottish education.

Outcomes and next steps

The Scottish Government published its response to Professor Muir's report on the 9 March 2022 which set out next steps and timescales for a programme of education reform. This programme includes:

• a national discussion on education
• an independent review of qualifications and assessments
• reforming education bodies the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and Education Scotland: merging the curriculum and assessment function and removing inspection from Education Scotland
• post-school education and training

Action: CA107

The Scottish Government will convene and facilitate dialogue to re-visit and assess the 2019 refreshed narrative for Scotland's curriculum. This will be informed by user feedback, Professor Muir's consultation, and learning from the pandemic.

Current position:

Complete

The Muir report recommended that the Scottish Government initiate a national discussion on establishing a compelling and consensual vision for the future of Scottish education. The 'National Discussion' was held between September and December 2022, and was co-convened by the Scottish Government and local government partners COSLA and was independently facilitated by Professor Carol Campbell and Professor Alma Harris.

The National Discussion was an unprecedented opportunity for children and young people and those who support them to shape the future of Education, based on their experiences, perspectives and aspirations. We worked hard to ensure that everyone with an interest in the future of Scotland's education system had an opportunity to have their voices heard. The next steps are set out as a new action.

Action: CA108

Scottish Government will co-create a new communications strategy for Curriculum for Excellence with teachers, practitioners, children and young people, and parents/carers.

Current position:

Ongoing

Communications and stakeholder engagement planning is being taken forward across the respective areas of education reform, including Curriculum for Excellence / curriculum improvement, new national education bodies, independent review of qualifications and assessment, early learning and childcare activity including the current consultation on the inspection of early learning and childcare and school age childcare services and the forthcoming Strategic Childcare Plan, and Purposes and Principles for the post-school research, education and skills system.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Alignment of communications and stakeholder engagement activity across all areas of the education reform programme is important and necessary to provide clarity and consistency of messaging for stakeholders. It is also part of the critical path to establish and manage appropriate timing and sequencing of both communications activity and stakeholder engagement around the different areas of reform. Specific activity to articulate the change, benefits and improvements that will be delivered by the education reform programme in each area and as a whole will be rolled out over the coming months.

Action: CA109

The Scottish Government has confidence in the current approach to assessment and qualifications, but to ensure that it remains effective and fair as society changes we are undertaking a process of reform. This will involve agreeing a consensus for the purposes and principles of assessment, and then considering how these may be used to design a reformed process.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills has appointed Professor Louise Hayward to lead an independent review into the future of qualifications and assessment. This reform process will seek to ensure that all learners' achievements are fairly recognised to afford every learner an enhanced and fair opportunity to demonstrate the breadth, depth and relevance of their learning.

The review is being led by Professor Hayward supported by an Independent Review Group (IRG) comprising:

• those for whom qualifications matter most (learners and parents/carers)
• designers, developers and those who offer qualifications (extended profession and policy) and
• those who use qualifications (colleges, employers, universities, voluntary sectors)

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The review will progress through three phases of consultation.

Phase one: Engagement on Vision and Principles. (Closed September 2022)

Phase Two: This phase seeks to consult on proposals for potential options/models for the future of qualifications and assessment. (Closes January 2023)

Phase Three: In this phase the focus will be concerned with practical implications.

Following completion of the three phases Professor Hayward and her Independent Review Group will produce a final report and recommendations which will be submitted to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills in March 2023.

Action: CA110

A short-life sub-group of the Curriculum and Assessment Board will be established to explore options for a sample-survey based approach to assessing progress across the four CfE capacities, and better support for teacher professional judgement and provide recommendations. The outcome of this work will be reflected in next year's NIF.

Current position:

Complete

The Curriculum and Assessment Board (CAB) had an initial discussion on 3 March and a follow up meeting for the specific CAB sub-group took place on 28 March 2022. Consensus in that discussion was that consultation on assessment of the full range of CfE should not be included in the May 2022 consultation on NIF key measures (although that did ask some general questions on the assessment of CfE).

Next steps

Proposals for assessing the wider capacities of CfE will be taken forward following the outcome of the National Discussion.

Action: CA111

Work will also be undertaken to review the current role of measures and indicators associated with Curriculum for Excellence, and revised measures of progress and proposals for supporting teacher professional judgement and system evaluation will be included in the National Improvement Framework from December 2022 onwards.

Current position:

Ongoing

This work is linked to action CA109 regarding the consideration of measures that look across CfE and system evaluation which is being taken forward as part of the National Discussion. Work is also underway, led by Education Scotland NIF officers, to consider proposals to enhance support for teacher professional judgement.

Next steps

The outcome of this work will be reflected in the 2024 NIF in December 2023.

Action: CA112

Take in to account the forthcoming Regional Improvement Collaboratives' review and consider their current activities around enhancing curricular design capability.

Current position:

Ongoing

The RIC Strategic Group (co-chaired by SG/ES/COSLA and the RICs) has established a Next Steps Sub-Group to consider and make recommendations for the further development and sustainability of the RICs, taking account of recent reports and recommendations, including the most recent RIC Review.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

This work is being taken forward within the context of the wider education reforms, including in relation to the future relationship between the RICs and the new national bodies.

Action: CA113

Scottish Government will develop a review cycle for the curriculum (including the four capacities and the eight curricular areas) as recommended by the OECD review. These reviews will take account of the OECD commentary on areas such as the role of knowledge and skills.

Current position:

Ongoing

SG is working with Education Scotland and partners to co-design a process to systematically review the curriculum based on evidence of international best practice with a view to it being delivered by ES/its successor. A more systematic approach will allow us to proactively consider issues, innovations and developments to ensure the curriculum remains relevant, rich and accessible.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The OECD have been commissioned to draft an exploratory report on international examples of systematic curriculum review approaches by December 2022. This combined with planned stakeholder engagement will inform options to be tested with stakeholders, with a firm proposal going to Cabinet Secretary Feb/March 2023 for a decision.

Action: CA112

2022 will mark ten years since Scotland first introduced the cross curricular concept of Learning for Sustainability (LfS). The COP 26 Summit has challenged all education systems to improve the way that they support climate education and education for sustainability. In 2022, the Scottish Government will work with key partners to publish a strengthened action plan on LfS. This work will take account of the COP 26 summit, the Climate Assembly recommendations and the activism of pupil campaigners across Scotland.

Current position:

Ongoing

SG is running an engagement process to work on the refresh of the Action Plan. This exercise has been done in a collaborative way to ensure the learners are at the centre of change and to encourage educators, children and young people to take an active role in shaping the refreshed action plan. SG has funded the Children's Parliament and the University of Dundee to conduct two research exercises to work with children, young people and educators to gather their views on LfS. The outputs from both these exercises will then be used by SG officials to work with stakeholders on the refresh of the Action Plan. The Children's Parliament final report and outputs were published on the 19th October and the University of Dundee research will be finalised by December 2022. SG is running a series of workshops with LfS Stakeholders to analyse the outputs of both these exercises and will use these to gather views on solutions and actions to take to shape the new version of the Action Plan. A Leadership Group has been established which will provide strategic advice and will take ownership of key actions as well as working on the update of the plan and on developing KPI for the monitoring of outcomes of the refreshed action plan.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

A new version of the action plan will be produced using the feedback from children, young people and educators. This will ensure that the learners are at the centre of change.

Action: CA115

Education Scotland will lead and package the publication of a range of resources and professional learning opportunities to support the mental wellbeing of staff and children and young people, which will support practitioners to understand the links and synergies across them all, communicating these to regions, local authorities and schools, providing bespoke support where required

Current position:

Ongoing

The Cycle of Wellbeing draws together a range of recently published resources to support staff wellbeing and the wellbeing of children and young people.

Most of the national work stemmed from the recommendations within the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 which led to the recommendations within the Schools: personal and social education review. In addition, working alongside colleagues at NHS Education for Scotland who were developing the wider National Trauma Training Strategy.

The Mental Health in Schools Working Group along with the wider focus of Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports and Services Framework have led to the development of much of the guidance and resources included within the Cycle of Wellbeing.

As they were all published at the same time, the Cycle of Wellbeing was developed to demonstrate the synergies of the resources and how they can be used strategically to forward plan support for staff and learner mental wellbeing based on evidence gathered within a school community.

After a pilot session of a Cycle of Wellbeing professional learning offer was delivered to 10 West Partnership Health and Wellbeing leads in September 2021, further professional learning webinars were delivered nationally in 2022.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The January Cycle of Wellbeing webinars were attended by 202 people from across the system. The resource was also shared with local authority strategic leads, national CLD leads (42 attendees) and the school counsellor national network (31 attendees). It was also internally shared with HMI colleagues prior to their forthcoming support visits.

Feedback provided by attendees following the sessions included an increased understanding and awareness of the key resources available for resilience and wellbeing.

Action: CA116

Education Scotland will provide ongoing support during the academic session 2021/22 for the quality assurance of educational content for national standardised assessments and continue to contribute to the development of reporting and training advice (including GME by the GME Team).

Current position:

Ongoing

During the academic session 2021-22, Education Scotland provided ongoing support for phase two of the National Standardised Assessment programme. Educational advice and guidance was provided for the development of phase 2 of the NSA project. Education Scotland coordinated and supported the quality assurance of the educational content for SNSA and MCNG (Gaelic) assessments.

Next Steps

Education Scotland will provide continued support for the quality assurance of educational content for the National Standardised Assessment programme.

Action: CA117

Scottish Government will work towards the implementation of the actions within the Promise 21-24 Action Plan. Specific actions during 2022:

- Scottish Government will consider, with key partners including SAGRABIS (Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools) how we can further support schools use of relational approaches, ensuring that exclusion from school is a measure of last resort for all pupils, but particularly those who are care experienced.

- Scottish Government will consider the further actions required, with key partners, to implement the Promise within schools in Scotland.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Keeping the Promise Implementation Plan was published in March 22 and included a range of actions which the Scottish Government will undertake to implement the actions of The Promise 21-24 Action Plan. This includes a range of actions, which will be undertaken in partnership between Scottish Government, Education Scotland and partners to deliver the aims of the Action Plan relating to education.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

During 2023 the Scottish Government will continue to engage with partners to further refine these actions. This includes engaging with key stakeholder groups such as SAGRABIS (Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools) on how we can further support schools use of relational approaches, ensuring that exclusion from school is a measure of last resort for all pupils, but particularly those who are care experienced.

Action: CA118

Scottish Government will continue to promote and support NHS Education for Scotland's (NES) National Trauma Training Programme (NTTP); developing a trauma informed workforce and services, including ELC, through the prevention of adverse childhood experiences and trauma across the life-course, and trauma-informed responses. We will also promote further training resources and examples of effective practice hosted on Education Scotland's National Improvement webpage.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Education Scotland Keeping Trauma in Mind (KTiM) professional learning programme was developed as a direct result of need from local authorities and practitioners supporting learners post COVID-19 pandemic.

The original education based PL programme, The Compassionate Connected Community (CCC) was originally developed by Education Scotland to compliment the NTTP programme, but with an education focus with an enquiry based approach for practitioners.

CCC was delivered to Educational Psychologists as a train the trainer model during 2018 & early 2019, with many LA's planning to implement locally during 2020 / 21 as a two day face to face professional learning offer. The pandemic impacted on implementation & as such, Education Scotland adapted the programme to allow for virtual delivery as well as update the programme to include impact of Covid research and data along with amending the focus of the enquiry based approach to a more 'small steps of change' approach so as not to overwhelm practitioners.

The KTiM programme also included a more practical approach – providing practitioners with examples of what a trauma informed / responsive approach looks like in practice.

The programme was first delivered by Education Scotland in West Partnership as twilight sessions in March 2022. Within a week of opening the sign up for this, over 500 practitioners from the West Partnership had signed up for the sessions, demonstrating the current climate / need for an understanding of the impact of trauma on children and young people along with supporting practitioners with practical advice, knowledge and skills as to how to respond and support children and young people impacted by trauma, exacerbated by the collective trauma of the pandemic. The following sessions were delivered:

Session 1 : What is Trauma? (408 attendees)

Session 2 : Responding to trauma (379 attendees)

Session 3 : Self regulation (325 attendees)

Session 4 : Traumatic bereavement (284 attendees)

This led to national delivery of the sessions across in May and June 2022.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Keeping Trauma in Mind will be delivered by Education Scotland nationally in March 2023 and bespoke interest for delivery has been initiated with East Renfrewshire, East Lothian, East Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh, South Ayrshire & Tayside region.

Action: CA119

Scottish Government is working with Education Scotland to develop two new professional learning courses: 'Developing an understanding of curriculum rational' and 'Tracking and monitoring of children's learning to ensure continuity and progression, including during key transition stages'

Current position:

Ongoing

Modules of 'curriculum rationale' and 'monitoring and tracking children's progress' developed to support the professional learning of ELC practitioners, will be published on Education Scotland's website by the end of December 2022.

School and ELC Improvement

Action: SI11

We are also exploring options through UK legislation to enable the sharing of data by DWP and HMRC to allow local authorities to identify eligible families. This should assist with increasing registrations of ELC for 2 year olds.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Scottish Government is continuing to work with the UK Government to establish a data sharing gateway that will provide local authorities with access to information on eligible households in their area. This is subject to UK Government and UK Parliament timescales. A consultation on necessary regulations closed on 7 March. Regulations that provide the legal gateway for data sharing came in to force in October 2022 and we anticipate having the necessary data sharing agreements in place by end of the financial year.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Having access to this data is expected to support local authorities to maximise uptake of funded hours of ELC by eligible 2 year olds. Early access to high quality ELC is a key contribution to closing the poverty related attainment gap.

Action: SI28

Developing an approach to funding that truly empowers schools, and provides the framework of support which schools need, based on the outcome of the consultation.

Current position:

Ongoing

New revised Devolved School Management guidance, co-produced with local government, was published in June 2019. Local authorities worked to implement this guidance, requiring them to prepare revised Devolved School Management Schemes for their own authority. These new Schemes were then due to be in place by April 2021.

Although all local authorities had made good progress, with some publishing new schemes, some experienced COVID-19 related challenges in progressing reviews. In partnership with ADES Resources and COSLA, updated information was gathered from local authorities to assess whether an extension to the April 2021 deadline could be considered. In November 2020, Ministers pushed back the deadline allowing time for the local authorities to carry out partnership processes effectively and within an achievable timeframe.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Almost all local authorities had new schemes in place by August 2022, with work underway in the remaining local authorities.

The overarching outcomes are improved consistency, transparency and equity in decisions on school funding, ensuring local authorities and headteachers work together so that decisions are taken at the most appropriate level.

Action: SI29

Around a quarter of 2 year olds are now eligible for funded ELC through the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and through subsequent secondary legislation which commenced in August 2015. There is now a dedicated national project on the 2 year old offer within the Scottish Government expansion programme to provide support to local authorities and make links across the programme. The programme will last up to, and beyond, August 2020. We aim to improve uptake by ensuring the 2 year old offer is appropriate and appealing for eligible children and their families.

Current position:

Ongoing

Scottish Government is working with Improvement Service and local authorities to maximise uptake of the 2 year old offer. This includes providing flexibility in the overall funding in 2022/23 to all local authorities to maximise uptake; work on UK level data sharing and work to: collect, analyse and report on data regarding uptake amongst eligible 2-year-old.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

This work will allow us to understand the stakeholders and processes involved in maximising 2-year-old uptake to meet the needs of children and families; identify and understand good practice; give individual support to authorities in implementing good practice; provide support on use of data to support improved business processes.

Action: SI63

Working in partnership with local government, Regional Improvement Collaboratives and Education Scotland, ensure that our education empowerment reforms strengthen and support collaborative working across the system. This includes extending the reach, accessibility and impact of collaborative working across school, local, regional and national levels. These reforms are vital to strengthening Scotland's Curriculum through teachers and headteachers being empowered and supported to collaborate and share innovation and best practise in implementing the curriculum for their learners.

Current position:

Ongoing

Regional Improvement Collaboratives re-prioritised their work programme to directly support schools and staff dealing with the impacts of COVID-19. This included enhanced support for virtual learning platforms and professional learning networks, and redeploying staff to support front-line remote learning activities. Regional C-19 recovery plans were also reviewed with ES in Spring 2021. SG, ES, COSLA and RICs are undertaking joint work on proposals for the further development, planning and sustainability of RICs, taking account of the recommendations of Audit Scotland, the OECD and the RIC review, which was published in December 2021. Timeline for this work has been revised to spring/summer 2023 to align with the wider reform of the national bodies, as the RIC relationship with Education Scotland (and their future relationship with the new education agency and with an independent Inspectorate) is a critical element of RIC futures and governance.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The RIC Strategic Group (comprising Scottish Government, Education Scotland, COSLA, ADES and RIC Leads) is exploring and will consider RIC development and resourcing issues for 2023-24, including links with the ongoing reform of the national bodies, when it next meets). The issues and questions raised will also inform thinking around the new agencies. This work will inform a more coherent and consistent approach to the future operation and resourcing of the RICs, taking account of the findings of recent reviews, providing greater clarity on RIC roles, and ensuring that RIC issues are considered within the detail of national agencies reform.

Action: SI64

Alongside COSLA we are currently in the process of commissioning external research into the establishment, reach and impact of Regional Improvement Collaboratives. This follows an interim review of RICs published in February 2019 and is scheduled to report by June 2020. Findings will be used to take steps to further embed regional collaboration and the support available to schools

Current position:

Complete

The second RIC Review undertaken by ReseachScotland was published on 16th December 2021. Its findings are being used to support consideration on the next phase of RIC Development, taking account also of the recent OECD review and the recommendations from Professor Ken Muir on reform of the SQA and Education Scotland.

Outcomes and next steps

Please refer to action SI63 above.

Action: SI67

Scottish Government will work with partners to implement the 16 recommendations from the Review of Personal and Social Education (published Jan 2019) during the course of 2019. This will include the establishment of a senior phase Personal and Social Education Mentoring Programme to coach and enable pupils to design and deliver aspects of health and wellbeing / personal and social education whilst working towards an award.

Current position:

Ongoing

The PSE Delivery and Implementation Group agreed on a Sub Group structure to take forward the remaining recommendations of the PSE Review. The Sub Groups, consisting of Initial Teacher Education and Career Long Professional Learning; Pupil and Parental Engagement; and, Raising the Profile, will join the existing PSE Lead Officer Network in taking forward specific recommendations of the review. Work to take these recommendations forward was delayed by COVID-19.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The Sub Groups have set out their plans, and the timeframe for delivery of these has been agreed as September 2023.

Action: SI69

A review will be undertaken of Foundation Apprenticeships, with an evaluation of the Developing the Young Workforce programme as a whole reporting after the conclusion of the programme in 2021.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Scottish Government and its agencies are fully committed to provide ongoing support to achieve the system change necessary to embed Foundation Apprenticeships (FA) in the senior phase curriculum and commissioned Education Scotland to undertake a review of the programme. The FA Review was published on the 29th March 2022 and work to develop improvement actions led by the Foundation Apprenticeship Enhancement Group is underway. Development will have short, medium and long-term phases with design issues taken forward following the outputs from the Independent Review of Qualifications & Assessment in 2023.

The current DYW Evaluations, one with education practitioners and one looking at how well the system has engaged employers are in progress.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The Foundation Apprenticeship Enhancement Group have committed to producing a short-term plan for ministerial approval by December 2022.

Action: SI81

The incorporation of the UNCRC and the experience of children and young people during COVID-19 reinforces the importance of gathering and sharing children and young people's views with decision-makers at every level – school, local and national – and following up to ensure that those views are taken into account. We will take forward a range of further actions to ensure that this is done during 2021.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Scottish Government funded the Education Recovery Youth Panel which met up to July 2021, and had a primary focus on COVID-19 education recovery. The Education Recovery Youth Panel held its final meeting in July 2021 and a final report was published in March 2022. A Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament joined the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group in October 2020, and continues to attend CERG as the young person representative on the group. In October 2021, an MSYP rep joined as a formal member of the reconstituted Scottish Education Council. Also in 2021, two experts on children's rights from the Children's Parliament and Together joined the Scottish Education Council. Scottish Government liaised with these organisations and the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) as part of their work to develop toolkits and an online survey in relation to Professor Muir's consultation on education reform.

Scottish Government is currently working with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive and strategic approach to ensure that children and young people's voice is taken fully into account in education policy development and decision-making as per the action under SI106.

On 20 May 2022, the Scottish Government announced funding for UNICEF UK to offer their Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) programme to all 2,400 state primary and secondary schools in Scotland, removing financial barriers. The goal was to get all 32 local authorities to sign up and raise awareness of UNCRC, bringing about whole-school change – creating a systems approach with everyone heading in the same direction. Since the 24th May funding announcement there have been 307 new registrations – taking us up to 1609 primary and secondary schools engaged in RRSA. Which equals 67% of schools in Scotland engaged with RRSA.

Since 1^st January 2022 165 schools have achieved Bronze, 98 have achieved Silver and 51 have achieved Gold RRSA

We also now have active RRSA partnerships with 27 LA's (still working on: Stirling, Clackmannanshire, Scottish Borders, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire)

There are RRSA schools in every LA.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Scottish Government is currently working with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive and strategic approach to ensure that children and young people's voice is taken fully into account in education policy development and decision-making.

External Mapping activity as part of the project to develop a new engagement pathway with children and young people ( action SI106) has highlighted the various ways children and young people have engaged with education policy since 2019. The subsequent report identified a number of key principles which would allow for a meaningful mechanism for children and young people's participation, these will be incorporated into the co-design process with children and young people (Autumn/Winter 2022/23). The findings of this report will also be embedded into the work of the National Discussion, ensuring what we've already been told by learners is incorporated into the development of the "vision" for Scottish Education.

The policy team will review the findings of the completed Mapping Exercise to develop our approach to the co-design process with children and young people, facilitated by Young Scot (which commenced in November 2022) The Co-design process will take place over Autumn/Winter 2022/23 – taking a rights based approach to developing a sustainable mechanism for learner participation, ensuring young people are front and centre of policy development across Education.

Action: SI83

The key findings from survey evidence on the experiences of young people during COVID-19 will be monitored closely and shared with decision-makers, including the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group (CERG)

Current position:

Complete

Findings from a variety of surveys were noted by Scottish Government during the course of 2021, alongside the discussions and reflections of the Education Recovery Youth Panel (ERYP). Findings from Lockdown Lowdown were included in the 2022 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan.

Reports were shared with the CERG after every ERYP panel meeting. The reports gave insight into how learners were feeling/experiences at different points of the project. As the project was coming to an end some group members were invited to present their final report and full findings/experiences to CERG in July 2021.

SQA invited two panel members to talk further about their experience of assessments during Covid so they could understand how SQA decisions around assessments impacted learners.

Key survey findings were cited in the Scottish Government's October 2021 publication "Coronavirus (COVID-19) education recovery: key actions and next steps".

The findings stated that around three quarters of respondents in primary school were happy to be back to in-person learning, and around three quarters of respondents in secondary school had returned to school in person (76%). When asked if they were happy with the way they were being taught, the majority of respondents who were attending in person selected 'Yes' (85%).

Respondents who were undertaking blended learning were also mostly happy (60%), whereas only 38% of those who were doing distance learning stated that they were happy with this method.

Respondents were asked if they felt prepared for the assessments towards their qualifications. More respondents disagreed than agreed that they felt prepared, with 44% selecting 'Strongly disagree' or 'Disagree'. Around a fifth (22%) selected 'Strongly agree' or 'Agree'.

When asked if there was anything that they would like changed about their educational arrangements, most respondents described difficulties with the assessment programme that had been put in place. Other key themes included a preference for learning in school as much as possible and difficulties learning in their home environment.

Action: SI85

Education Scotland has begun to establish a database of where curriculum design expertise lies nationally, and will set up regular check-in meetings with these networks over the year. Evaluations of the programmes and engagements will help to identify next steps at all levels.

Current position:

Complete

Education Scotland has gathered information for a database to include regional and local authority links, SCQF Ambassador schools and information from engagements at national, regional, local authority and setting level. This database is now in the Client Reference Management (CRM) system and is used to establish or support regional curriculum design networks and aid discussion on curriculum-making following reform.

Action: SI96

Scottish Government will develop an overarching programme of race equality and anti-racism in education to encompass 4 separate, but interlinked, workstreams:

• Education leadership & professional learning
• Diversity in the teaching profession and education workforce
• Curriculum reform
• Racism and racist incidents

These workstreams will be underpinned by a whole-system approach,

Current position:

Ongoing

Initial stakeholder engagement sessions with officials and Ministers were undertaken between October 2020 and January 2021. This was followed by the establishment of the Race Equality & Anti Racism in Education Programme. Originally it comprised of a Programme Board (SG, ES, SQA & ADES) and a larger stakeholder network group with representation from a number of education and race equality stakeholders. 4 subgroups were established under the Stakeholder Network Group (SNG) to take forward the development of actions in collaboration with stakeholders. The overarching programme containing all 4 sub groups' actions was signed off in principle by the Cabinet Secretary in April.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

COSLA and ADES also agreed the programme in principle in September, noting that it was supportive of the actions already underway and committed to working to deliver those which are not yet in train. CALABAR consultants (Hakim Din) have been appointed to develop an evaluation framework for the programme in its entirety. This piece of work is underway with CALABAR having held 2 rounds of workshops with REAREP stakeholders. They will submit their final report in January 2023.

Action: SI97

The Scottish Government will publish its response to the recommendations in the ICEA's second formal report in early 2021. The recommendations will be used to inform future improvement action.

Current position:

Complete

The Scottish Government's response to the ICEA's second formal report was overtaken by work to respond to the recommendations of other key recent reports in education. The 2022 NIF reflects planning and activity in response to the recommendations of the ICEA report, alongside those of other key recent reports in education (Audit Scotland, Equity Audit, OECD and the Scottish Attainment Challenge progress report). As such, we have not published an individual response to the ICEA report and will instead report on progress with our response to the ICEA's recommendations as part of our annual review of the NIF.

Outcomes and next steps

Creating specific actions in response to the ICEA's second formal report within the NIF has allowed us to track progress with the SG's response via the regular review cycle of the NIF. There are 23 actions associated with the response to the ICEA report within the NIF, some of which link to improvement activity in response to other key education reports. This has allowed us to demonstrate a co-ordinated approach to improvement activity in direct response to the ICEA's recommendations as well as other commitments arising from the OECD report and other key reports for Scottish education.

Action: SI98

Scottish Government will commence work to expand funded early learning and childcare for children aged 1 and 2, starting with low-income households within this Parliament. In the coming year we will start engagement with families, the early learning sector and academics to design how the new offer will work.

Current position:

Ongoing

For 22/23 we have identified key work streams that will support us to build the evidence base for this new policy commitment. In the 2022 Programme for Government we made a public commitment to engage with families and to map current provision for 1 and 2 year olds across Scotland.

Work streams for 22/23 include:

1. Delivering improvement work with local authorities to improve up-take of the existing two year old offer (see also SI11 for more information on this strand);

2. Mapping current ELC provision for 1 and 2 year olds in Scotland;

3. Building an evidence base and supporting areas to trial and evaluate innovative approaches (including through applications to tranche 3 of the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund);

4. Engaging with families to understand their needs to inform the design of the new offer.

5. We will also start work towards an eligibility review of all of our childcare offers this year as stated in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan and we will start by mapping our current approaches to eligibility and developing a set of principles in order to support the creation of a simple, joined up system for families.

We have commenced work on the mapping and engagement strands of our work streams by engaging with procurement colleagues and drafting relevant ITTs. In addition we have begun to engage with the ELC sector to gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities of the new offer and to seek their advice on the engagement and mapping work streams.

We have also begun the evidence building process by engaging with analytical and SG Library colleagues on the international evidence and we are in the process of commissioning a literature review to look at ELC systems in comparator countries.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

We will also work with Analytical and SG Library colleagues to build a picture of international evidence on ELC for 1 and 2 year olds. This will enable us to understand ELC systems in comparator countries and where there is practice/models that could be replicated in Scotland.

Evidence and outputs from this planned work is required to help us shape the next phase of this project.

Action: SI99

Scottish Government will design a wraparound childcare system providing care before and after school, all year round, where the least well-off families will pay nothing. The design will be driven by the needs of families, build on existing provision and will, where possible, be integrated with the design of an offer of free breakfasts and food provision.

Current position:

Ongoing

We will publish a School Age Childcare Delivery Framework which will set out the approach and principles that we will apply to designing and building a new system of school age childcare. In developing our future system of School Age Childcare, we are taking a person centred approach to designing services, working collaboratively with families, childcare providers and the wider public sector to build a system that meets their needs. We are also taking a place-based approach, recognising that there is no one size fits all solution to providing childcare solutions within communities.

Co-design work with parents, carers children and young people is under way and we have been working collaboratively through a People Panel with families, childcare provider and the wider public sector. We received findings of the first phase of the People Panel engagement work with parents and carers in October 2022.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The next phase of this work, due by March 2023, will be to test an approach to co-designing local childcare solutions. Work is also underway to involve children and young people in co-design through plans to develop a Children's Charter for School Age Childcare. To date we have visited children in four primary schools across Scotland to co-design local Children's Charters for SACC with them, and once school visits are complete, we'll bring the children involved together to draft a National Charter. This is due in January 2023.

Our Community Tests of Change project , which will incorporate the four funded Early Adopter Communities, will move into a delivery phase in 2023. This year we have invested £1 million in 4 communities across Scotland - Clackmannanshire (Alloa), Dundee (Linlathen), Glasgow (Drumchapel and Carntyne) and Inverclyde (Port Glasgow) - targeted to support families most at risk of poverty. In these areas, work has already begun to understand to understand childcare needs and we will aim to maximise the benefit for families of a funded school age childcare offer by ensuring it is closely linked to wider supports. As part of this year's Programme for Government we have committed to invest £20 million in the next financial year (2023/24) to continue to build a system of school age childcare, before and after school and in the holidays, which will be provided free to those on lowest incomes. This funding will continue to support our Early Adopting Communities, and identify additional communities where investment in a school age childcare offer could support targeted families.

This year we invested £10 million into a targeted Summer 2022 offer for children and families in low-income households, to provide coordinated access to food, childcare and activities during the holidays.

A Delivery Mechanism project is underway (due to complete end of Dec 22), exploring possible delivery routes for a future targeted school age childcare offer. We will be looking closely at the benefits of different delivery models and how they fit with what families have told us will work best for them. The next phase of this project will begin in 2023.

Programme benefits are defined as:

• Targeted groups of children are healthier and have increased wellbeing.
• Reduced household living costs for families
• Parents' opportunities to take up work, training or study increase
• The adverse effects of living in poverty are reduced for targeted groups of children

Key milestones for 2022/2023 include:

• Publish our Delivery Framework (Dec 22)
• Publish our Children's Charter (Jan 23)
• Publish evaluation report for Summer 22 Holiday Childcare, Activities and Food programme (Feb 23)
• Started to deliver funded SACC in four targeted early adopter communities (March 23)
• Completed phase 2 of people panel (March 23)
• High level evaluation approach and framework (March 23)

Action: SI100

Scottish Government will begin the early phasing-in of community level systems of school age childcare (in 2022-23), targeted to support the six priority groups in the Tackling Child Poverty Plan. This early phasing will build on learning from our Access to Childcare Fund projects and input from our Public Panel to help us test and understand how we can build a system of school age childcare to support a community. They will also consider and develop the role that organised children's activities can play in a school age childcare system alongside the regulated childcare sector to support families, provide choice and improve access to these activities for children from low income households. We will ensure that these systems meet the childcare needs of families before and after school.

Current position:

Ongoing

Grant funding of £1 million is being provided to Clackmannanshire Council, Dundee City Council, Glasgow City Council and Inverclyde Council to begin the early phasing-in of a system of school age childcare until March 2023. The funding will provide subsidised and free school age childcare to small communities which have high deprivation, and will also link into other family supports such as employability services to provide an opportunity for families to improve their financial circumstances.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The funding will allow us to test a system of school age childcare for families who need it most at a community level.

We are also considering how to administer our future £20 million investment to test and co-design local systems of school age childcare, as committed to in the 2022/23 PfG. This will begin from April 2023, and we will work to ensure it reaches a diverse range of communities across Scotland, while maintaining a focus on supporting the priority family groups as set out in Best Start, Bright Futures.

Action: SI101

Scottish Government will build on Get Into Summer 2021 to deliver a summer 2022 offer for children and families in low income households which provides coordinated access to food, childcare and activities during the holidays. By summer 2023 we will build on this work to make holiday childcare provision available for all children from low income families.

Current position:

Ongoing

High level principles on delivery/approach were agreed by Ministers in early February. A guidance subgroup of partners established to inform the supporting guidance drafting - first meeting was on 10 March 2022. A detailed paper on funding distribution methodologies presented to and agreed by Ministers and Strategic Directorate Group. Funding and guidance issued in early April. The team developed a Monitoring and Evaluation approach for the programme and held engagement events for the period April/May. Several Q&A events were held to promote the programme at end of April, together with four themed workshops in May. Attendance by Local Authority leads was high, and the team has been in regular communication, issuing newsletters bi-weekly and more recently, monthly. The Monitoring and Evaluation approach to Summer 2022 was agreed, and an external agency has been recruited to undertake qualitative and quantitative analysis by engaging with beneficiaries by end of the summer. An Evaluation report is due to be published in February/March 2023. Project documentation for the delivery phase of Summer 2022 has been wrapped up, and Monitoring and Evaluation work is continuing until February/March 2023.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Monitoring and Evaluation for the programme has begun, with the final report due in early 2023. However, early indications are that the summer programme has had a positive impact on many families. The programme has enabled Local Authorities and partners to offer day trips and events for families who would have otherwise been unable to afford these sorts of activities, or have been unable to go on holidays due to the increased costs of living. Many of the service providers have also been able to signpost families to other sources of support, and have offered consistent access to food throughout the holidays.

Next Steps:

Considering format and scope of delivery of summer programme in future years, against context of discussions about direction of broader school age childcare programme.

Action: SI102

We are committed to ensuring every school-aged child has access to an appropriate device to support their learning by the end of this Parliament. During 2022/23 we will undertake preparatory work across the system to prepare the school estate, and the people in it, for a deeper investment in technology from 2023/24 onwards.

Current position:

Ongoing

Discovery work is underway to understand current digital provision across schools and local authorities and is due to be completed by December 2022. The findings of this work will help to inform wider rollout plans. Work is also ongoing in relation to procurement and routes to market. The Governance Board met in November 2022 and will meet again in January 2023 to discuss the outputs of the discovery work.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

• Gathering additional data will help us to understand what existing digital provision looks like in schools across the country, which will help to inform our plans moving forward.
• The discovery work will help us to maximise our investment in infrastructure and will support the school estate to prepare for an influx of devices. Improvements to schools' digital infrastructure is vital in ensuring that learners are able to use devices effectively in the classroom.
• -Successful delivery of the commitment is anticipated to lead to a fully digitally-enabled school estate. It is anticipated that impacts will be wide ranging with potential impacts in many areas across the education system, e.g. qualifications and assessment, additional support needs, subject choice and access to education. Overall, it will have a positive impact on learning and teaching in Scottish schools.

Action: SI103

By April 2022, Education Scotland has planned discursive sessions for practitioners who have some knowledge of UNCRC to discuss and collaborate on next steps. Collaboration is ongoing with colleagues who have taken part in the 'Train the Trainers' sessions, and are delivering professional learning across the regions. Learner Participation sessions are planned to support the implementation of the UNCRC, and ensure that there are opportunities for children and young people to be actively involved in decisions that affect them.

Current position:

Ongoing

Training and support for practitioners is ongoing across a number of local authorities. Feedback from professional learning sessions and from local authorities suggests that there is a requirement for continuing professional learning, including for elected members, to ensure local authorities are prepared to implement the UNCRC once it is incorporated.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Next steps include a continued professional learning offer at all levels, including to elected members. There will also be continued collaborative work with local authorities, Regional Improvement Collaboratives, third sector and Scottish Government to support the embedding of rights based approaches. It is anticipated that understanding of the UNCRC and learner participation in aspects of their education will continue to grow and align with expectations in the GTCS standards.

Action: SI104

Education Scotland will provide up to date advice and guidance to local authorities and Regional Improvement Collaboratives in relation to high quality learning, teaching and assessment through appropriate fora during the academic session 2021-22.

Current position:

Complete

During academic session 2021-22 Education Scotland organised four national meetings with local authority assessment leads / Assessment Coordinators and used these meetings to communicate relevant information to local authority contacts to inform the system. For example, Education Scotland provided an overview of the updated changes to the National Improvement Framework, key themes which emerged from the OECD review and trends presented in the annual ACEL publication.

Over the course of the academic year, meetings for local authority assessment leads/ Assessment Coordinator were well attended, with representation from almost all local authorities. An evaluation of the Assessment Coordinators meetings was carried out in May 2022 to review the format of the sessions. From feedback to Education Scotland, local authority contacts indicated that the scheduled meetings were a useful forum for keeping abreast of up to date advice, guidance and policy developments related to learning, teaching and assessment. Additionally, some Assessment Coordinators stated that the meetings provided a valuable opportunity to share practice, collaborate and learn from one another.

Next steps

Following the feedback captured through the recent evaluation, Assessment Coordinators meetings will be scheduled for academic year 2022-23. Four online meetings will be planned. Education Scotland continue to work closely with respective RIC/local authority colleagues

Action: SI105

By summer 2022, Education Scotland and ADES will complete 'collaborative improvement' reviews with a further 6-8 local authorities. This will result in reports to local education committees, clear action plans, monitoring and ongoing support.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Collaborative Improvement programme started in June 2021 and 13 local authorities have led the collaborative self-evaluation process, 9 of which were undertaken online. Various colleagues from across the education system have contributed as team members of the Collaborative Improvement reviews and effective governance arrangements are in place to oversee the process. To inform the process, guidance on Collaborative Improvement has been developed and communicated by Education Scotland and ADES.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

All 13 local authorities who have engaged in the collaborative self-evaluation process are included in a three-year plan for all 32 LAs to engage in the programme over the period 2021- 2024.

High levels of mutual trust, confidence, cooperation and collaboration have been created, resulting in effective joint activity to support improvement across local authorities, Education Scotland and ADES.

Informal networks established during each Collaborative Improvement Review have often continued beyond the Review itself, allowing an opportunity for peer support for improvement in other areas.

Engagement in the process has acted as a catalyst for further improvement; this includes replication of the model in other aspects of improvement work as a result of positive internal feedback from host local authority stakeholders.

The 2018-2020 report of the International Council of Advisers (2020), recommended that Scotland should move still further beyond what has become known as a self-improving system to become a Networked Learning System (NLS). Collaborative Improvement can contribute significantly to delivering this important objective.

Action: SI106

Scottish Government will engage in collaborative work with children and young people organisations to understand the various ways that learners currently engage with national decision-making, and to co-design a new format and approach for all future engagement.

Current position:

Ongoing

Scottish Government is currently working with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive and strategic approach to ensure that children and young people's voice is taken fully into account in education policy development and decision-making.

External Mapping activity has highlighted the various ways children and young people have engaged with education policy since 2019. The subsequent report identified a number of key principles which would allow for a meaningful mechanism for children and young people's participation, these will be incorporated into the co-design process with children and young people (Autumn/Winter 2022/23). The findings of this report will also be embedded into the work of the National Discussion, ensuring what we've already been told by learners is incorporated into the development of the "vision" for Scottish Education.

Anticipated outcomes and impacts

A rights based approach to developing a sustainable mechanism for learner participation.

Ensuring young people are front and centre of policy development across Education.

Next steps

Scottish Government will review the findings of the completed Mapping Exercise in Autumn 2022 to develop our approach to the co-design process with children and young people, facilitated by Young Scot (commencing in November 2022)

The Co-design process will take place over Autumn/Winter 2022/23 – taking a rights based approach to developing a sustainable mechanism for learner participation. Ensuring young people are front and centre of policy development across Education.

Action: SI107

The Scottish Government and Education Scotland will work with all 32 local authorities included in the Scottish Attainment Challenge to:

• support system-wide delivery of the refreshed mission for the Scottish Attainment Challenge, whilst recognising the specific contribution of education to reduce the impact of poverty.
• ensure a system-wide focus on improving outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, in light of the cross-cutting impact poverty has and the need to collaborate across services to improve outcomes for children and young people.
• ensure that governance and reporting arrangements, including stretch aims agreed and measured both nationally and locally, enable the system to recognise, respond to and tell the story of progress being made, locally and nationally, to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty.
• demonstrate that people are as important as processes: our joint work on governance and reporting should clarify the respective roles of key actors in the system, including Scottish Government, Education Scotland and local authorities.
• In 2022 we will publish a clear framework to support recovery and accelerate progress.

Current position:

Complete

The Framework was published on 30 March 2022 alongside a suite of guidance materials and a logic model (visual theory of change).

The Framework addresses roles and responsibilities of actors in the system and will be a key baseline for setting governance and reporting arrangements against.

Supported by the investment in the Scottish Attainment Challenge, the enhanced support from Education Scotland and stretch aims as part of the Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress, the pace of progress in closing the poverty related attainment gap is expected to accelerate.

Outcomes and next steps

• A national aggregation of all 32 local authority ambitious stretch aims for progress closing the gap has been published
• Collectively, the core stretch aims set by local authorities show a great deal of ambition for both recovery and accelerating progress. Aggregated, they represent local ambitions for improvement both on 2020/21 – the last year of published data when this requirement was introduced – and 2018/19 – the last year of pre-pandemic data.
• Through the refreshed mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge and the introduction of local stretch aims, we have shifted our focus towards outcomes for our children and young people impacted by poverty – and key to improving those outcomes is the work done in local systems with schools, third sector organisations and other local services.
• Now the focus is on the implementation of the plans – supported through Strategic Equity Funding – that underpin the stretch aims to ensure progress is made locally throughout the academic year, with ongoing support and challenge from Education Scotland as LAs progress their plans to close the poverty related attainment gap.

Action: SI108

Education Scotland will engage directly with authorities who have experienced the biggest falls in attainment, to support them in planning interventions with the greatest opportunity for success.

Current position:

Ongoing

Education Scotland have provided bespoke support to all 6 RICs. Education Scotland officials engage with 12 local authorities to provide an enhanced level of support.

Education Scotland officials have built up strong relationships nationwide which assist in this identification of need. They have also collaborated with national partner organisations and agencies to deliver professional learning on identified areas of priority through the National Numeracy & Mathematics Faculty Head /Principal Teacher Network. Our Early Career Teacher (ECT) has been further developed and is available to all local authorities and other organisations i.e. ITE. Finally, direct engagement with individual local/authorities/establishments has included working collaboratively on maths recovery, data analysis, pedagogical approaches and Additional Support Needs.

Education Scotland has provided support on literacy and English to individual local authorities. This includes working with national partners such as the Scottish Book Trust, the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Speech Therapists to deliver professional learning on identified areas of priority through the National Literacy Network (NLN), which is comprised of local authority literacy leads. Professional learning has also been delivered to local authority nominated practitioners as part of the Literacy and English Curriculum Network (LECN) and through online webinars on identified areas of priority such as effective pedagogical approaches to listening and talking, reading comprehension and writing. Participant evaluations indicate increased knowledge and understanding of these literacy pedagogies. Bespoke support on the implementation of local authority improvements in literacy have also been delivered. Some examples include career-long professional learning (CLPL) on the assessment of literacy; literacy across learning; differentiation strategies; the assessment and moderation of listening and talking; reading comprehension and writing workshops; literacy within the context of play pedagogy and disciplinary literacy.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Education Scotland will continue to provide universal support to all establishments, practitioners and wider system, in a variety of ways, to co-create improvement strategies, increase confidence and develop more positive attitudes towards numeracy and mathematics. Education Scotland will also ensure authorities have access to high quality professional learning. Education Scotland will provide targeted and intense support and interventions, where necessary. This will be carried out in collaboration with Education Scotland colleagues and individual local authorities. Interim recommendations captured through the National Response to Improving Mathematics (NRIM) will form a significant part of Education Scotland's next steps.

Literacy: Anticipated outcomes

Local authorities are able to access high quality professional learning opportunities, resources and support from Education Scotland literacy officers; improved awareness, knowledge and understanding of effective literacy pedagogies at all levels of the system to improve learner outcomes.

Next steps

Education Scotland literacy officers will continue to work with local authorities, their schools and practitioners in a variety of ways to ensure increased confidence in the knowledge, expertise and shared understanding of key literacy issues.

Action: SI109

Education Scotland will work with partners to design and deliver universal, intensive and targeted improvement support to the early learning and childcare sector at regional, local and setting level during academic session 2021-22.

Current position:

Complete

Education Scotland, in partnership with Regional Improvement Collaboratives, local authorities and other Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) stakeholders has delivered a wide range support, in person and virtually, to support improvement in early childhood education. This has been provided across all six regional improvement collaborative areas and involved staff from 26 local authorities, with a focus on delivering bespoke professional learning and providing professional advice and support in response to local and regional requirements. In addition a programme of professional learning was co-constructed with a large private nursery chain, to meet the specific needs of the staff team within the context of the ELC expansion policy implementation. This work is being used to inform approaches to future work. Examples of engagement include support for child-centre and play pedagogy, pedagogy and curriculum, parental engagement, leadership, meeting the needs of children under three; numeracy, equity and practitioner enquiry. The further implementation of national practice guidance 'Realising the Ambition: Being Me' has been embedded in almost all support work with the sector.

Outcomes:

ELC practitioners and Primary 1 teachers who have engaged with the professional learning and support on offer have increased knowledge and confidence in delivering high quality early childhood education.

Next steps:

Education Scotland will build on the professional learning offered in 2022 to support further development and improvement in 2023, through continued collaborative working with a wide range of stakeholders.

Performance Information

Action: PI16

Early work is under way on a long-term project to develop a new index of social background, which is aimed at creating individual level data (as opposed to area-based) which allow more targeted and effective intervention for disadvantaged pupils

Current position:

Ongoing

We have identified that the Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) social security data, and in particular their Children in Low Income Families dataset, would be key to developing this index.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

To enhance our evidence base on school-level deprivation, we are currently working with DWP to agree sharing of their Children in Low Income Families dataset at school-level. Should this principle be agreed with DWP, work will begin to explore the practicality of accessing the individual-level data from DWP that is needed to develop the index.

Action: PI19

Research and development work will continue around the three aims of the Research Strategy.

Current position:

Ongoing

When the Research Strategy was published in 2017, a commitment was made to evaluate it after five years (2022). A review of the strategy is currently being undertaken internally. This includes mapping research activity and outcomes against the aims of the strategy and consultation with the members of the National Advisory Group and Academic Reference Group and internal SG policy and analytical stakeholders.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Next steps

The results of the review will inform the development of an updated Research Strategy. The new strategy will also take into account the recommendations from recent reports (OECD, Stobart, Muir, etc.). A draft of the revised Strategy will be shared with members of both the National Advisory and Academic Reference Groups and their input sought.

Anticipated outcomes:

We intend to publish the revised/updated Research Strategy in spring 2023 alongside the report of the internal review.

Action: PI20

The PISA 2021 assessment has been postponed until 2022 due to the impact of COVID-19. Results will be available in 2023.

Current position:

Ongoing

The Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA) is an international study that assesses the knowledge of 15 year old students in maths, reading and science. Over 80 countries are taking part in PISA 2022, with Scotland taking part in every assessment since its inception in 2000. The PISA 2022 assessments took place in Scotland in October and November 2022, with more than 3,000 15 year olds in almost 120 schools taking part.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

The results of the assessment will be published for Scotland and internationally in December 2023. PISA offers time series data on Scotland's performance in the assessments over the last 20 years, and comparison with countries/economies across the world.

Action: PI22

The Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) 2021 will be published.

Current position:

Ongoing

The BISSR fieldwork could not take place as planned in March 2021 due to the COVID restrictions in place in schools. Following removal of restrictions, the research was put back out to tender with ScotCen being awarded the contract. The BISSR research fieldwork will take place in the first half of 2023, with the report published in the Autumn.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

This will inform the future policy development and actions taken by the Scottish Government and partners to continue to support positive relationships and behaviour policy in schools.

Action: PI23

Scottish Government will work with our partners, including the ICEA, to design the best approach to accelerating progress with closing the poverty related attainment gap, through the next phase of the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

Current position:

Complete

The Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress was published on 30th March 2022 as part of the refreshed SAC programme. This contains guidance on the setting of local stretch aims to close the poverty related attainment gap.

Local stretch aims for overall attainment and closing the poverty related attainment gap in 2022/23 have been received and are being quality assured with initial feedback/clarification questions issued to (some) local authorities over the next few days.

Outcomes and next steps

Work to aggregate the local aims to develop a national picture for the ambitions of the system will take place over the coming weeks, with that national ambition/aggregation to be published at the end of October/early November.

Some internal analysis will be undertaken, taking into account local authorities' previous years' performance and local contexts, to inform ongoing support and challenge from Education Scotland as local authorities progress their plans to close the poverty related attainment gap.

Action: PI24

By Spring 2022, the Scottish Government will, in collaboration with partners, develop a national measurement framework for children and young people with additional support needs. This will create a mechanism to fully capture and celebrate the range of diverse outcomes and achievements of all children and young people nationally.

Current position:

Ongoing

Linked to actions CA93 and CA102. Following delays to this work due to COVID-19, significant progress has been made by the working group to develop the framework. A draft framework has been developed and considered by the newly established Additional Support for Learning Project Board. The draft National Measurement Framework has been informed by the Young Ambassadors' for Inclusion vision statement for success which set out their vision of what is required in order to achieve success.

This progress has also been reflected within the updated ASL Action Plan and the associated updated report on progress. Implementation of this work will continue to be considered and monitored through the Additional Support for Learning Project Board, during 2022 and 2023 and next steps will include will include engagement with local authorities and consideration of options to test this new approach within a sample of authorities.

The anticipated outcome of this work is the creation of a mechanism to capture, and celebrate, the range of diverse outcomes and achievements of all children and young people nationally, linking to National Improvement Framework and National Performance Framework measures.

Action: PI25

During the first half of 2022, the Scottish Government will carry out a formal consultation process to review the 11 key measures and the 15 sub-measures to measure progress towards closing the poverty related attainment gap. The revised measures will be in place for the 2023 NIF in December 2022.

Current position:

Complete

The consultation on enhanced data collection for improvement ran from 9 May to 18 July 2022 and more than 70 responses were received. This included a series of meetings with key stakeholders to better understand their views on the proposed changes to the key measures. Analysis of responses was published alongside the 2023 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan.

Outcomes and next steps

The consultation had two main areas of focus:

- How to ensure that the basket of key measures to assess progress towards closing the poverty related attainment gap reflects the wider ambitions of the curriculum, and;

- the value of the wider data for improvement purposes, both qualitative and quantitative, and the range of data needed by schools, education authorities and at the national level in order to fulfil their different requirements.

The information gathered from the consultation has provided us with a steer on what additional measures we should be including in the National Improvement Framework to ensure that we are gathering all the information we need to create an accurate national picture when assessing progress towards closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

Alongside helping to inform the 2023 National Improvement Framework and Improvement plan, the outcome of the consultation will also feed into the wider work on reform and the national discussion on the vision for Scottish education, which is being taken forward in response to Professor Ken Muir's report. A full analytical report, a "We Asked, You Said, We Did" document and consultation responses (those individuals/organisations who gave consent) was published at the same time as the 2023 NIF.

Action: PI26

Education Scotland will continue to offer support to local authorities for reporting and planning, including data, aligning to the NIF for 2021-22.

Current position:

Ongoing

Education Scotland offered support to local authorities across the six Regional Improvement Collaboratives with the formulation of statutory annual education plans during the 2021/22 session. A range of engagements with local authorities were carried out in response to requests for further support. For example, where support was requested, Education Scotland provided feedback on previous plans/reports to inform the structure and development of planning processes. Further examples of support include providing professional advice on the statutory guidance and national policy drivers to school and system leaders.

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Education Scotland will continue to engage with local authorities to support formulation and ongoing implementation of statutory annual NIF plans.

Action: PI27

Scottish Government will work with colleagues in ADES, COSLA, and Education Scotland to consider how to secure greater visibility of the NIF drivers in local and regional improvement and recovery planning, to help to ensure a national line of sight on local ambitions and practices.

Current position:

Ongoing

During the annual Statutory Review of the NIF 2022, we consulted with stakeholders, including ADES and COSLA, to seek views on how we might secure greater visibility of the NIF drivers in local and regional improvement planning.

Next steps

We will use the outcome of the consultation, alongside ongoing work with local authorities around variability in outcomes, to identify what more we can do to ensure a national line of sight on local ambitions and practices.

Action: PI28

Plans are in place for local authorities to carry out the Health and Wellbeing and Parental Involvement and Engagement Censuses in 2021/22. The next round of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is also due to take place in early 2022.

Specific actions include:

• Launch Health and Wellbeing Census in LAs (August 2021) and publish results in late 2022.
• Launch Parental Involvement & Engagement Census in LAs (Spring 2022) and publish results late 2022.
• Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study (2022) with analysis to follow by the HBSC team

Current position:

Ongoing

Health and Wellbeing (HWB) Census: 16 local authorities have collected the pupil survey data in 2021-22, and are currently undertaking their own analysis (all 16 have shared their data with SG)

Parental Involvement and Engagement (PIE) Census: 20 local authorities have collected the parent/carer survey data in 2021-22, and are currently undertaking their own analysis (18 have shared their data with SG)

In addition to producing their own local analysis, local authorities shared their data with SG to allow for a national picture to be presented. SG will publish national level findings and where possible local authority breakdowns in December 2022 (PIE Census) & February 2023 (HWB Census).

Anticipated outcomes and next steps

Local authorities have their health and wellbeing data for their use in identifying and monitoring improvement actions. Local authorities are currently producing the analysis they require, for example in setting stretch aims. SG will publish national level statistics for monitoring improvement activity in children and young people's health and wellbeing across the existing frameworks: National Performance Framework, National Improvement Framework, The Children, Young People and Families Outcomes Framework Core Wellbeing Indicator Set, and PHS Children and young people's mental health indicators. Other published measures are those previously reported in SALSUS, to provide continuity in time series where applicable, supporting policy development across health.

Action: PI29

Over the next 3 years, the Scottish Government will support the development of a Scottish Coalition for Educational Research (SCER) which aims to improve:

• The depth and quality of policy relevant educational research across Scotland, including improving the methodological breadth of educational researchers;
• Research collaboration among educational researchers and practitioners;
• The communication of educational research findings to policy and practice (knowledge exchange).

Current position:

Complete

Following a review of the SCER proposal, we decided to proceed with two hubs – Curriculum and Quantitative research in education – to be led by the Universities of Stirling and Edinburgh (as set out at PI30 below). This action is now closed and superseded by activity at PI30.

Action: PI30

SCER will create three hubs based at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling, with proposed research activity to focus primarily on:

• Curriculum
• Educational equity, leadership and systems changes
• Quantitative research in education

Current position:

Ongoing

Following a review of the SCER proposal, we decided to proceed with two hubs – Curriculum and Quantitative research in education – to be led by the Universities of Stirling and Edinburgh.

Anticipated outcomes

• An independent evidence base on Scottish education.
• Improved channels for cross-institutional collaboration and networking amongst researchers, policy makers and practitioners – developing networks in two core areas (curriculum and quantitative research in education).
• Building educational research capacity across Scotland.
• Creating and sustaining pathways for knowledge exchange by communicating educational research findings to support policy making and analysis and supporting research informed practice.