Attainment Scotland Fund evaluation: implementation and impact report 2024

Introduction

The Scottish Attainment Challenge was launched in February 2015 with the strategic aim of ‘closing the poverty-related attainment gap between children and young people from the least and most disadvantaged communities’. The Attainment Scotland Fund (ASF), which supports the Scottish Attainment Challenge, prioritises improvements in literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing of those children adversely affected by poverty in Scotland’s schools. Achieving excellence and equity in education are the key aims.

In 2022, the Scottish Attainment Challenge was refreshed, with the launch of its new Mission:

‘To use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap to deliver on the Scottish Government’s vision of equity and excellence in education’.

The Scottish Attainment Challenge: framework for recovery and accelerating progress published in March 2022 sets out the framework underpinning the Scottish Attainment Challenge and the Attainment Scotland Fund. This is supported by national operational guidance published annually on each of the three funding strands which together make up the Attainment Scotland Fund.

Attainment Scotland Funding strands include:

• Strategic Equity Funding (SEF) – introduced in 2022, a strategic level of funding across each of the thirty two local authorities. This replaces Challenge Authority Funding under the previous roll-out of Attainment Scotland Funding prior to 2022, which nine local authorities received selected on the basis of high levels of deprivation;
• Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) – introduced in 2017, providing funding direct to schools allocated on the basis of free school meal registration with headteachers using their professional judgement;
• Care Experienced Children and Young People (CECYP) Funding – introduced in 2018/19, funding to all local authorities based on the number of care experienced young people from birth to the age of 26 in the local authority. This includes all children and young people who have at any stage in their life, no matter how short a time, had any care experience.

The aim of this report is to provide learning from the Attainment Scotland Fund evaluation over the period since the refresh in 2022 to date about:

• the overall implementation of the refreshed Attainment Scotland Fund; and,
• the extent to which progress has been made towards meeting intended outcomes articulated in the Scottish Attainment Challenge Logic Model in support of the refreshed programme Mission.

The report covers both process and impact aspects of the evaluation, bringing forward learning related to the key evaluation objectives and associated evaluation questions as set out in the ASF Evaluation Strategy 2022-26.

Process evaluation findings are reported in Sections 1 to 3. These sections provide learning and understanding of the processes and implementation of the refreshed Attainment Scotland Fund in 2023-24. As this utilises evidence from the second wave of the SAC Local Authority Leads Survey^[9], the emphasis is on building on existing learning, presenting where the analysis corroborates previous findings, where the evidence suggests divergence from previous findings, and where new findings have emerged.

Impact evaluation findings and findings related to sustainability are reported in Sections 4 to 6. This is the first impact evaluation reporting under the ASF Evaluation Strategy 2022-26 and therefore all findings can be considered as new learning. However, there are aspects which build on previous learning which emerged in relation to the operation of the ASF during the initial Scottish Attainment Challenge prior to 2022^[10].

Learning drawn from this report will contribute to the next key ASF evaluation milestone, an interim evaluation report scheduled for Autumn 2025^[11]. This will include reporting on the wider impact evaluation commission scheduled for 2025^[12].

Methodology

The report utilises a range of evidence sources gathered as part of in-house research activities undertaken by Scottish Government social researchers in Education Analytical Services^[13].

Primary evidence sources considered were:

• Quantitative evidence via the Survey of Scottish Attainment Challenge Local Authority Leads undertaken in May/ June 2024^[14]. Twenty-six of the thirty-two local authorities responded to the survey, a response rate of 81%.
• Qualitative research with national stakeholder representatives. This included one discussion group, one focus group and nine interviews with national stakeholder representatives (eight individual interviews and one joint interview with two representatives of the same organisation)^[15]. These were undertaken between May and September 2024. All discussions/interviews were undertaken online using Microsoft Teams. The discussion group was noted. The interviews and focus group were transcribed.
• All evidence sources were thematically analysed using the ASF Evaluation Questions as the framework.
• Qualitative evidence is presented in order to report on the range of views expressed and is not intended to be reported numerically.

Consideration was also given to evidence within existing documentary evidence, including Education Scotland national summary reports.