Fairer Scotland action plan: progress report 2020
Annual report on the progress made on the Fairer Scotland Action Plan and Shifting the Curve reports, published in 2016, and the Life Chances of Young People in Scotland report, published in 2017.
Education and childcare
Children and young people have been particularly impacted by the pandemic and we must ensure the best start in life for our children and young people, and enable them to grasp their potential. We are committed to delivering 1,140 hours free early learning and childcare and to begin to go further, looking at wraparound care options that will give families more choice, greater opportunities to work, and greater financial freedom.
Childcare for school-age children is equally important, and has a significant part to play in supporting people into work and to secure better jobs with higher incomes. We have committed to develop and deliver a framework for school age childcare during this Parliamentary term. This will set out a bold vision for school age childcare in Scotland and the steps we will take to make it more accessible and affordable.
Our central mission remains to deliver excellence and equity across Scottish education, with an immediate emphasis on supporting the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
In July we announced £80 million of additional investment in education staff, sufficient for the recruitment of around 1,400 additional teachers and 200 support staff this year. It is anticipated that these additional teachers will intensify support for individuals or groups of pupils who have significant gaps in their progress as a result of lockdown.
The experience of lockdown shows that access to technology and digital capability is, and will remain, a fundamental aspect of education in Scotland. Despite pupils now being physically back at school, we are still committed to tackling digital exclusion. We are investing £30 million as part of a huge digital boost through provision of laptops for disadvantaged children and young people, which includes £25 million to enable rollout of digital devices to school pupils to enable them to study online.
| FSAP | 29. By 2020, entitlement to free early learning and childcare (ELC) will almost double for all 3 and 4 year olds, as well as those 2 year olds that stand to benefit most, to 1140 hours per year (from current levels of 600 hours per year) |
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| FSAP | 30. We will take action to reduce the costs of school for low income parents |
| FSAP | 34. We will do more to address bullying in schools – including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (HBT) bullying |
| FSAP | 38. We will take action to widen access to university: our ambition is that any child born today should have an equal chance of entering university, no matter what their socio-economic background is |
| StC | 3. Ensure childcare commitments focus on quality to improve outcomes, and consider providing a limited number of free hours of childcare for primary school aged children |
Updates on the recommendations and actions listed above can be found in the Tackling Child Poverty Progress Report.
Early learning and childcare
| FSAP | 32. By 2018, we will ensure that every nursery in our most deprived areas has an additional qualified teacher or childcare graduate (they are now called Equity and Excellence Leads) |
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| FSAP | 33. We are committed to making real progress in closing the attainment gap during the lifetime of this Parliament and to eliminate it, as far as we can, over the next decade |
| FSAP | 35. We will tackle poverty directly for some of our most vulnerable children by delivering parity of child allowances between kinship and foster carers |
Local authorities reported in March 2020 that the vast majority – over 95% (418 full time equivalent posts) - of Equity and Excellence lead posts have been recruited since August 2018. With 30 Local Authorities reported having recruited all the Equity and Excellence Lead posts in their areas at some point, even if the post-holder has since moved on.
The Scottish Government is working with the Care Inspectorate to understand how the policy is being implemented and whether Equity and Excellence Leads are being deployed in the best way for promoting quality of Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) and improving child outcomes. From September 2019, this included a specific focus area for the remainder of the inspection year to understand how Equity and Excellence Leads are being deployed in ELC settings in Scotland and assess what indications there are of early impact of Leads on: children's learning and wellbeing outcomes; family engagement and involvement in their child's learning; and practitioner skills. The Special Inspection Focus was paused due to COVID-19. We are drawing together the data collected to date alongside case studies of good practice in the work Leads have been doing, including during lockdown, into a progress report.
We recognise that disruption caused by the pandemic is impacting children from disadvantaged backgrounds particularly severely. We have encouraged local authorities and schools to target support where it is most needed, giving them flexibility to redirect Attainment Scotland Funding to help mitigate the impacts of school closures on our most disadvantaged families, and to make adjustments to existing plans to be delivered as schools return.
For the first time, Pupil Equity Fund allocations of over £250 million were confirmed for two years (2020/21 and 2021/22) benefitting 97% of schools and giving head teachers assistance in their planning and decision making. As well as taking total investment in the Scottish Attainment Challenge to over £750 million over the last five years, this also extends the programme for a further year beyond this Parliamentary term and provides invaluable long‑term commitment.
Following the announcement in 2015 of additional funding to ensure local parity (i.e. within their local authority area) of allowances between kinship and foster carers, the Scottish Government is working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) to agree how to best take forward the recommendations of the 2018 National Review of Foster, Kinship and Adoption Care Allowances. The implementation of these recommendations will improve consistency and transparency for looked after children, their families and their carers across Scotland.
As part of our Winter Plan, we will create a £1 million fund which will be open to early learning and childcare settings delivering the universal funded ELC offer to bid into to purchase outdoor clothing to support children who need it. This fund will ensure that all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds have access to suitable outdoor clothing during their time in early learning and childcare, should they need it allowing them to enjoy as much time outdoors as they can with the resulting benefits.
Contact
Email: sjsu@gov.scot
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