Multiple Education funding information: FOI release

Information requested

1. How much money has been spent on plans to replace the SQA since 2021, with a breakdown of what the money has been spent on?

2. How many teachers have left the profession in the last three years, with breakdown by year.

3. How much money has The School Library Improvement Fund handed out since it was founded and how many libraries have benefited?
- Can you break this down by which library got money, how much and for what projects.

4. All correspondence, notes and briefings prepared for ministers, including internal correspondence, received and sent by the Scottish Government about dangerous RAAC in schools, between August 2023 and the date of this FOI.

5. All minutes and held from the Scottish Government’s school violence summits, including a list of outcomes and whether they have been achieved yet.

6. All correspondence, notes and briefings prepared for ministers, including internal correspondence, received and sent by the Scottish Government about the Centre of teaching excellence, from September 2023 to the date of this FOI.
- Was there any consultation, costings or backing from teachers before the announcement was made at the SNP conference?

7. Full list of organisations and people consulted for the Scottish Government’s Statutory Guidance on the Delivery of Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) Education.

Response

1. The replacement of the SQA is part of the Education Reform Programme. It is not always possible to separate SQA specific spend from the wider programme costs. Please find below a breakdown of spend since 2021 for a) The SQA; and b) The Education Reform Programme:

a) SQA only:

SQA staff

£999,000

b) Education Reform Programme

The independent review into the replacement of the Scottish Qualifications Authority, reform of Education Scotland and removal of its inspection function	£121,378
Consultants	£988,448
Legal	£4,409

Scottish Government staff have also worked on this proposal however, the specific value of that resource is unknown as staff also contribute to other work within the Education portfolio.

2. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The information you have requested would be held by Scottish education authorities. The reasons why we don’t have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter.

3. The School Libraries Improvement Fund (SLIF) has provided £1.7 million in funding to small scale school library improvement projects since the creation of the fund in 2017.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested as it is collected elsewhere by the Scottish Library Information Council (SLIC). You can find this information from the Scottish Libraries website which can be accessed via the following hyperlink.

Past SLIF Awards (scottishlibraries.org)

4. Question 4 has been considered in line with the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs).

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under the exception at regulation 10(4)(b) of the EIRs a public authority may refuse a request for information if it is 'manifestly unreasonable'. The Scottish Information Commissioner's guidance on the regulation 10(4)(b) exception at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/EIRs/EIRsExceptions.aspx says that there may “be instances where it is appropriate for the Commissioner to consider the proportionality of the burden on the public authority in terms of the costs and resources involved in dealing with a request when considering the application of this exception”.

You may wish to note that having conducted searches for the correspondence that you have requested, we have found that your request would cover a substantial volume of information. Therefore, you may wish to consider resubmitting your FOISA request with a significantly reduced scope for this specific question – for example, you may wish to request information for a one month period. Please note that I cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request would not fall within the cost exemption. You may also find it useful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’.

However, to be as helpful as possible, we can provide a general update on RAAC within the learning estate in Scotland.

To date, RAAC has been identified in 39 schools across 18 local authorities. 4 ELC settings are included in these 39 schools and 1 standalone ELC setting has confirmed RAAC. All 32 local authorities have completed all of their assessments.

It is important that there is transparency around the schools where RAAC has been identified and there are mitigations in place, a list of the initial local authorities with confirmed cases of RAAC was published in a Scottish Government news release on 8th September 2023 Local authorities publish RAAC data - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). All schools with RAAC should also be available on relevant local authority websites.

Although it is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage and main their school estate, the Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust continue to be in close contact with local authorities in relation to RAAC in schools.

5. Some of the information you have requested is available from Health and wellbeing in schools - Schools - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

6. I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested as an annex to this response.

Some of the information you have requested will be available from the Scottish Government website, where FOI responses are routinely published, and the Scottish Parliament website, where responses to parliamentary questions are routinely published.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

You also asked if there was any consultation, costings or backing from teachers before the announcement was made at the SNP conference?

The answer to your question is that since her appointment, the Cabinet Secretary has indicated that excellence in teaching would be a key element of her agenda and has been discussing this in different fora with a range of stakeholders. Prior to the announcement on Sunday 15 October, no formal consultation had taken place regarding the establishment of a Centre for Teaching Excellence. The role and remit of the Centre, how it operates, its interaction with teachers and practitioners, performance measures, and associated costs and timescales will be considered as part of the co-design process.

An exemption under section s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

Exemptions have also been applied to some of the information you requested, under the following sections of FOISA:

• Formulation or development of government policy (section 29(1)(a)).
• Free and frank provision of advice (section 30(b)(i)).
• Free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation (section 30(b)(ii)).
• Effective conduct of public affairs (section 30 (c)).

These exemptions are subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemptions in all of the cases.

We recognise that there is public interest in release of some of the information because stakeholders, including teachers, practitioners, and wider education and skills partners, will be interested in the policy options being considered as part of establishing a Centre for Teaching Excellence.

However, Ministers and officials must be able to explore all available options, and the risks, costs, and implications of such options, particularly during the initial stages of policy development where Ministerial decisions have not yet been made, nor – in the case of the Centre for Teaching Excellence – the co-design process initiated.

There is therefore a greater public interest in allowing officials the required space within which to develop and set out such options, as part of the process of exploring and refining government policy, before reaching a settled view. This private space is essential to enable all options to be properly considered so that good decisions can be taken based on fully informed advice and evidence.

Disclosure of early policy advice would be likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Scottish Government officials and Ministers in future, which in turn will undermine the quality of the decision making process, which would not be in the public interest.

7. Information on the organisations and people consulted for the Scottish Government’s Statutory Guidance on the Delivery of Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) Education is included within the Annex to this letter.

ANNEX

2.The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because the information is not collected by the Scottish Government. The information sought would be held by Scottish local authorities. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

6. Please see separate attachment.

7. STAKEHOLDERS CONSULTED IN DEVELOPMENT OF Guidance on the Delivery of Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) Education in Scottish Schools.

1. Association of Directors of Education in Scotland
2. Church of Scotland
3. Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
4. Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
5. Differences in Sex Development Managed Clinical Network
6. Education Scotland
7. Educational Institute of Scotland
8. Engender
9. Equalities and Human Rights Commission
10. Equality Network
11. Humanist Society of Scotland
12. Hypospadias UK
13. Interfaith Scotland
14. Klinefelter’s Syndrome Association
15. LGBT Youth Scotland
16. Muslim Council of Scotland
17. National Parent Forum of Scotland
18. National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children
19. NHS Forth Valley
20. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
21. NHS Lanarkshire
22. NHS Lothian
23. Rape Crisis Scotland
24. respectme
25. School Leaders Scotland
26. Scottish Catholic Education Service
27. Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office
28. Scottish Commission for Learning Disabilities
29. Scottish Council of Jewish Communities
30. Scottish Qualifications Authority
31. Scottish Trans Alliance
32. Scottish Youth Parliament
33. Sikh Sanjog
34. Stonewall Scotland
35. Time for Inclusive Education
36. Turner Syndrome Support Society
37. Zero Tolerance

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202300387346 - Information released - Attachment

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