Scottish Attainment Challenge 2022 to 2023 - 2025 to 2026: equality impact assessment

Key findings – evidence

1. Summary statistics for schools in Scotland no. 10: 2019 edition

2. National Improvement Framework for Scottish Education - 2016 Evidence Report

3. Child Health 27-30 Month Review Statistics - Scotland 2017/18

4. School level summary statistics/

5. Analysis on trends in poverty covering various factors affecting the risk of poverty

6. Equality and Human Rights Commission - Prejudice-based bullying in Scottish schools

7. Scottish Government - Equality Outcomes: Gender - Evidence Review

8. National Statistics - Teenage Pregnancy - Year of conception ending 31 December 2014

9. The State of the Nation - Race & Racism in Scotland - 2nd Edition 2013, Vol 2

10. 2017 National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan

11. 2018 national improvement framework and improvement plan

12. The Cost of Learning in Lockdown – 2020 Evidence Report

13. Exploring the UK’s digital divide - Office for National Statistics

The EQIA process identified that some protected characteristics, for example some ethnic minority groups and those with disabilities, are disproportionately represented in the lower SIMD quintiles and therefore part of the targeted group for this work.

The evidence shows that children and young people living in areas of multiple deprivation perform less well than the general school population. This is illustrated in the Tables below. Note the data for Tables 5, 7, 9 and 11 was not collected for 2019/20 and 2020/21 due to COVID-19, the 2018/19 data remains the latest available.

Table 1 shows that the percentages of school leavers attaining at SCQF levels 4 to 6 are lower for those from the most deprived areas than for those in the least deprived areas. Further, Table 3 shows that the percentage of school leavers in positive initial destinations was lower for those from the most deprived areas than those from the least deprived areas (90.0% compared to 96.3%). The size of this gap has decreased by 1.6 percentage points between 2015/16 and 2019/20 due to a combination of an increase in the proportion of school leavers from the most deprived areas entering a positive destination and a decrease in the proportion of school leavers from the least deprived areas entering a positive destination.

In addition, the evidence shows that some children and young people with protected characteristics perform less well than the general school population, and the figures show a similar negative pattern for the impact of deprivation on their attainment. For example, Tables 4 & 5 show that the proportions of boys achieving the expected Curriculum for Excellence Levels in literacy and numeracy are lower than the proportions of girls across all SIMD quintiles and that the percentages of both sexes achieving the expected levels are lower for those in the lower quintiles.

Similarly, Tables 6 & 7 show that the proportions of pupils with additional support needs who achieved the expected CfE Levels in literacy and numeracy were lower than for those without additional support needs and that performance varies across the SIMD quintiles.

Tables 8-11 provide information on the proportions of pupils achieving the expected CfE Levels in literacy and numeracy broken down by ethnicity and show a mixed picture with some ethnic groups performing better than the general population and some, particularly gypsy travellers, performing worse (note that the numbers of gypsy travellers represented in these Tables are very small meaning that the figures can fluctuate)., Performance across all ethnicities varies across the SIMD quintiles.

Table 1: Percentage of school leavers attaining at SCQF level 4 to 6, by SIMD ¹, 2018/19 and 2019/20

	2018/19			2019/20
	1 or more at SCQF level 4 or better	1 or more at SCQF level 5 or better	1 or more at SCQF level 6 or better	1 or more at SCQF level 4 or better	1 or more at SCQF level 5 or better	1 or more at SCQF level 6 or better
0-20% (most deprived)	92.1	74.4	43.5	91.7	74.5	46.6
20-40%	94.6	80.1	50.8	94.8	81.5	54.7
40-60%	96.7	86.2	60.2	96.7	87.8	65.7
60-80%	97.7	90.8	70	97.4	90.9	71.7
80-100% (least deprived)	98.8	94.6	79.3	98.8	95.3	82.7
All Leavers	95.9	85.1	60.5	95.8	85.7	63.9

1. Based on SIMD 2016 for 2018/19 & 2019/20. More information on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation can be found at: Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

2. A dashed line break has been placed between the attainment figures for 2018/19 and 2019/20 school leavers reflecting the impact of the change to the assessment approach in 2020 on 2019/20 school leaver attainment as national examinations were cancelled due to COVID-19.

3. For information on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected these statistics, see section 1.1 of the publication. Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 3: 2021 Edition - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Table 2: Percentage of pupils who are assessed or declared as having a disability, by SIMD quintiles, 2019

	SIMD Quintile
	1	2	3	4	5	Missing
All Pupils	22.7	19.5	18.6	19.3	19.8	0.1
Total assessed and/or declared as having a disability	27.6	21.2	19.6	16.2	14.7	0.6
Assessed as having a disability(1)	28.0	20.8	19.4	16.2	14.8	0.8
Declared as having a disability but not assessed	25.6	23.2	20.8	16.2	14.1	0.1
Assessed requirement of adaptation to school provision(2)(3):
Physical adaption	24.8	19.7	20.9	17.9	16.5	0.1
Communication adaption	30.3	21.4	18.0	15.6	14.5	0.1
Curriculum adaption	28.1	21.1	19.4	16.3	14.8	0.2

(1) Irrespective of whether a pupil is declared as disabled.

(2) Occurrences. Pupils with more than one adaptation requirement will appear multiple times.

(3) 1,032 assessed disabled pupils had no adaption recorded. This includes all disabled pupils at grant aided special schools.

Table 3: Percentage of school leavers in a positive initial ¹ destination by SIMD ² and pupil characteristics, 2019/20

Sex	SIMD Quintile 1 - Most deprived	SIMD Quintile 2	SIMD Quintile 3	SIMD Quintile 4	SIMD Quintile 5 - Least deprived
Female	91.8	93.0	95.5	96.3	96.9
Male	88.2	90.3	92.7	94.0	95.6
All leavers	90.0	91.6	94.1	95.1	96.3
Disability Status
Not declared or assessed disabled	90.0	91.7	94.2	95.3	96.3
Declared or assessed disabled	88.5	88.8	90.3	90.4	93.3
All leavers	90.0	91.6	94.1	95.1	96.3
Ethnic Background
White – Scottish	89.3	91.6	94.1	95.2	96.2
White – Other British	89.5	87.3	94.3	92.6	97.4
White – Irish	87.5	92.3	95.2	*	*
White – Polish	95.7	94.6	95.7	97.5	97.6
White – Gypsy/Traveller	60.0	62.5	87.5	*	*
White – Other	92.2	92.5	93.0	94.9	95.3
Mixed or multiple ethnic groups	89.4	94.3	85.9	94.5	95.7
Asian - Indian	92.3	94.0	97.8	95.5	96.5
Asian - Pakistani	96.6	95.1	97.0	99.4	98.2
Asian - Chinese	100.0	100.0	96.7	98.0	96.5
Asian – Other	94.7	95.2	95.9	100.0	91.4
African/Black/Caribbean	95.4	94.5	85.7	93.8	100.0
All other categories	88.9	93.9	97.8	97.7	100.0
Not Disclosed/Not known	90.2	85.8	92.2	94.3	98.3
All leavers	90.0	91.6	94.1	95.1	96.3

1. Positive Destinations include: Higher Education, Further Education, Employment, Activity Agreement, Personal Skills Development, Training and Voluntary Work.

2. Based on SIMD 2016 for 2018/19 & 2019/20. More information on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation can be found at: Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

3. The categories used to collect ethnicity and national identity data changed in the 2011 pupil census to agree with the categories used in the main population census. This means they are not directly comparable with information collected in previous years. ‘White – UK’ and ‘White – Other’ could not be calculated for more recent years so are represented by N/A, and ‘White-Scottish’ and ‘White-non-Scottish’ could not be calculated for 2009/10 and 2010/11. Some categories have been grouped together due to small numbers. Some categories (typically ‘Asian – Indian’, ‘Asian – Chinese’ contain between 100-200 leavers and due to relatively small numbers may be subject to fluctuation. Comparisons between groups should take this into account.

4. For 2011/12 to 2019/20 the 'African/ Black/ Caribbean' category includes 'African', 'African - Other', and the 'Caribbean or Black' categories.

5. Pupils who have a CSP, IEP, Child’s Plan are assessed or declared disabled or have another need.

6. For information on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected these statistics, see section 1.1 of the publication. Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 3: 2021 Edition - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

* - information was suppressed due to small numbers

Source: School leavers data, Scottish Government

Table 4: Percentage of primary ¹ pupils achieving expected level in literacy ² and numeracy by sex and SIMD ³- 2020/21

	Female	Female	Male	Male
SIMD	Literacy	Numeracy	Literacy	Numeracy
SIMD Quintile 1 - Most Deprived	62	66	50	64
SIMD Quintile 2	67	71	56	70
SIMD Quintile 3	72	75	60	73
SIMD Quintile 4	79	81	68	80
SIMD Quintile - Least Deprived	85	87	77	86
SIMD - Unknown	57	61	50	65
Total	72	75	61	74

Notes:

a. ACEL 2020/21 publication covers Primary school children (P1, P4 and P7). Secondary school and special school data were not collected; the 2018/19 data remains the latest available. b. The time period covered by these statistics means that the results will be affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and this should be kept in mind when interpreting results.

For more information, please see Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

1. Primary pupil is combined P1, P4 and P7, where pupil achieved expected CFE level for their stage

2. Literacy is the combination of reading, writing and listening and talking organisers

3. Based on SIMD 2016 for 2018/19 & on SIMD 2020 for 2020/021. More information on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation can be found at: Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Table 8: Percentage of primary ¹ pupils achieving expected level in literacy ² by ethnicity and SIMD ³- 2020/21

Ethnicity	SIMD Quintile 1 - Most deprived	SIMD Quintile 2	SIMD Quintile 3	SIMD Quintile 4	SIMD Quintile 5 - Least deprived	SIMD - Unknown
White – Scottish	55	61	66	73	80	60
White - Other British	55	61	67	75	83	63
White - Irish	*	*	67	78	80	-
White - Polish	64	64	64	72	*	*
White - Gypsy/Traveller	14	23	27	25	*	*
White - Other	60	64	*	77	84	*
Mixed or multiple ethnic groups	64	*	75	80	85	*
Asian - Indian	*	73	77	80	86	*
Asian - Pakistani	59	63	*	69	74	*
Asian - Chinese	78	74	75	79	81	-
Asian – Other	65	62	*	74	75	*
African/ Black/ Caribbean4	69	68	72	*	74	*
All other categories5	45	46	61	*	75	*
Not Disclosed/Not known	55	60	64	75	84	53
Total	56	61	66	73	81	53

Table 9: Percentage of secondary pupils achieving Third Level or better in literacy ² by ethnicity and SIMD ³ - 2018/19

Ethnicity	SIMD Quintile 1 - Most deprived	SIMD Quintile 2	SIMD Quintile 3	SIMD Quintile 4	SIMD Quintile 5 - Least deprived	SIMD - Unknown
White – Scottish	81	85	89	91	95	88
White - Other British	78	80	89	91	94	95
White - Irish	*	*	*	*	81-100%	-
White - Polish	81	87	84	88	89-100%	-
White - Gypsy/Traveller	*	*	*	*	-	-
White - Other	81	80	*	90	93	*
Mixed or multiple ethnic groups	86	*	87	94	94	*
Asian - Indian	88	92-100%	92-100%	91-100%	94-100%	-
Asian - Pakistani	91	92	91	*	94	*
Asian - Chinese	89	77-100%	83-100%	90-100%	93-100%	-
Asian – Other	87	86	88	91	91-100%	-
African/ Black/ Caribbean4	88	94	91	91-100%	91	-
All other categories5	66	63	77	85	91-100%	-
Not Disclosed/Not known	74	75	84	86	90	68
Total	81	85	89	91	95	70

Notes:

a. ACEL 2020/21 publication covers Primary school children (P1, P4 and P7). Secondary school and special school data were not collected; the 2018/19 data remains the latest available.

b. The time period covered by these statistics means that the results will be affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and this should be kept in mind when interpreting results.

For more information, please see Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

1. Primary pupil is combined P1, P4 and P7, where pupil achieved expected CFE level for their stage

2. Literacy is the combination of reading, writing and listening and talking organisers

3. Based on SIMD 2016 for 2018/19 & on SIMD 2020 for 2020/021. More information on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/SIMD.

4. African/Black/Caribbean' category includes 'African', 'African - Other', and the 'Caribbean or Black' categories.

5. 'All other categories' includes 'Other - other' and 'Other - Arab'.

n/a = not applicable

* = suppression due to small numbers

- = nil

Although there is very limited evidence available for some of the protected characteristics pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment, sexual orientation and religion and belief), the evidence also showed:

Age

• From the Child Health 27-30 Month Review Statistics Scotland 2017/18 one in five children from the more deprived areas (22%) had at least one developmental concern identified in the 27-30 month review compared to one in ten for the least deprived areas (9%).
• The difference between the percentage of pupils achieving the expected CfE level generally increases as children progress through the primary and secondary stages.

Gender

• A higher percentage of girls consistently achieve the expected CfE level compared to boys across all stages and curriculum areas regardless of where they live.
• The difference in the percentage of girls and boys achieving CfE levels becomes smaller for children living in less deprived areas.

Pregnancy and maternity

• There is a strong correlation between deprivation and teenage pregnancy. In the most deprived areas in 2014, the rate of teenage pregnancy in the under 16 age group was 5.2 times the rate in the least deprived areas (8.2 and 1.6 per 1,000 women respectively).
• UK level figures suggest that teenage mothers are 20% more likely to have no qualifications than older mothers.

Gender reassignment, sexual orientation and religion and belief

• Although the exact numbers of children and young people under these categories is not known, bullying and other barriers to learning are known to disproportionately impact on the outcomes of children and young people.