Attainment Scotland Fund Evaluation: Reporting on Wider Evidence Sources, 2024

Characteristics of pupils and their families in relative deprivation

23. The NIF measures of the poverty-related attainment gap utilise the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) to assess the attainment gap between the pupils from the least and most deprived areas in Scotland. The same is true for the majority of the datasets and analyses in this report, although some use different measures such as income or bespoke measures such as the Index of Economic, Social and Cultural Status (ESCS) in PISA. Most of the analyses in this report are based on comparisons between SIMD 1 (the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland) and SIMD 5 (the 20% least deprived). It should be noted that the SIMD is an area-based measure of relative deprivation: not every person in a highly deprived area will themselves be experiencing high levels of deprivation.

24. The following paragraphs outline some of the characteristics of children and young people, and their families, living in SIMD 1 in Scotland. These data show that children and young people living in SIMD 1 are more likely to have identified Additional Support Needs (ASN), to be Care Experienced, and to have care responsibilities themselves.

Number of pupils living in relative deprivation

In 2022/23, there were over 154,000 pupils in schools in Scotland who lived in SIMD 1 (the 20% most deprived data zones in Scotland based on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation). This was 22.1% of all pupils in schools in Scotland.^[1] Of these pupils:

• There were almost 87,000 pupils living in SIMD 1 in Primary Schools – 22.6% of all pupils.
• There were over 67,000 pupils living in SIMD 1 in Secondary Schools – 21.5% of all pupils.
• The local authorities with the highest number of pupils living in SIMD 1 were Glasgow (almost 40,500 pupils or 26.2% of the national total), North Lanarkshire (almost 15,500 or 10.0% of the national total), and Fife (just over 11,000 pupils or 7.1% of the national total).
• There were slightly more males (over 95,000) of school age (4-18) living in SIMD 1 than females (just over 91,000) in 2021. However, these data do not take account of whether the males and females were still in school.^[2]

Additional Support Needs by SIMD

Pupils living in SIMD 1 were more likely than pupils living in the least deprived areas to have identified Additional Support Needs (ASN):

• There are over 259,000 pupils in Scotland that have identified Additional Support Needs (ASN)^[3]. Of this total, 71,500 pupils with ASN lived in SIMD 1 (27.6% of the total). This compares to 37,000 pupils with ASN who lived in SIMD 5 (the least deprived quintile), which is 14.3% of the total.
• Based on these figures, 46.3 per cent of SIMD 1 pupils have an identified Additional Support Need, compared to 27.4 per cent of SIMD 5 pupils. Of the 52,000 pupils with Child Plans in place, 27.5% lived in SIMD 1 compared to 12.6% that lived in SIMD 5.
• Research has shown that the association between ASN and deprivation is evident across all ASNs apart from dyslexia.^[4]

Care Experienced Children and Young People by SIMD

There is a substantial overlap between care experience and SIMD 1 area. In total, 59% of care experienced children were born into the most deprived areas compared to 25% of children in the general population.^[5]

Care Responsibilities

Various evidence sources show that children and young people living in the most deprived areas are more likely to have caring responsibilities. Parents in SIMD 1 in the Growing up in Scotland survey were more likely to say that their child had caring responsibilities (17.2%) compared with those in less deprived quintiles (11.4% of quintile 2, 12.3% of quintile 3, 8.9% of quintile 4 and 6.8% of quintile 5).

Child Poverty statistics

Although poverty (absolute and relative) data are not aligned with SIMD data, poverty statistics provide insights into the characteristics of pupils and their families who live in relative deprivation in SIMD 1. Poverty data^[6] show that almost one in four children (230,000) are officially recognised as living in poverty. A significant proportion of children in poverty (65%, 130,000) are living in working households.

The risk of poverty is higher for children in the following groups: lone-parent families, in a household where someone is disabled, in families with three or more children, in minority ethnic families, families with a child under one year old and families where the mother is under 25 years of age. More than eight out of 10 children in relative poverty in Scotland are in one of these groups.