International Council of Education Advisers meeting papers: June 2022

Education and skills key priorities (paper 2)

This paper is for discussion/information ICEA(22)02. Paper by the Scottish Government.

Purpose

To outline the key priorities across the Education and Skills portfolio to help facilitate discussion on the coherence across the policy landscape for learners and their families.

Background 

The Scottish Government’s 2021-22 Programme for Government (published in September 2021) sets out the actions the Government will take in the Parliamentary year and beyond. The recently (May 2022) published Resource Spending Review sets out the high level parameters for resource spending up to 2026-27, and outlines the high-level spending plans to deliver the Programme for Government. Together, these documents summarise the high level actions and resources to deliver the Government’s priorities over the next few years.

For Education and Skills portfolio, the Government’s ambition is to support young people and their families by tackling inequality and investing in changing lives for the better, including support to learners in our schools, colleges, universities, and those participating in skills and community learning and development programmes. This paper sets out the key strategic priorities for each of the five directorates in the Education and Skills portfolio.

Directorate for Children and Families

The Directorate’s work spans three portfolios across the Scottish Government – Education and Lifelong Learning, Health and Wellbeing, and Justice – and it collaborates with delivery partners to create a better Scotland for children, young people and families, parents and expectant parents. It has five strategic priorities:

• taking the actions required to ‘Keep the Promise’ in response to the independent Care Review. The Promise is a 10 year transformational change programme which impacts on all parts of the Government and wider public sector. In March, the Scottish Government published The Promise Implementation Plan, setting out how it will Keep The Promise by 2030
• reforming delivery of children’s social work and social care services in response to the potential changes that the establishment of the National Care Service will bring
• delivering the £500m Whole Family Wellbeing Fund to transform the way family support is delivered by ensuring families can access seamless and holistic. support that is wrapped around their individual needs. £50m will be deployed in 2022-23, with a focus on building the capacity for a more significant investment from 2023-24 onwards
• incorporating the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law to the maximum extent possible as soon as practicable. We are committed to a three-year UNCRC implementation programme, in collaboration with public authorities. We are investing £4m per year over three years to March 2024 to support the delivery of a fundamental shift in how children’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled in Scotland
• taking the Children’s Care and Justice Bill through Parliament. A full 12 week public consultation ended in June 2022 and invited views on a range of issues including:
  • increasing maximum age of referral to the Principal Reporter to 18 and strengthening presumptions that children will be kept out of the criminal justice system
  • enhance children’s hearings system – considering whether it should be extended beyond a child’s 18th birthday
  • anonymity for children unless justified by public safety or interests of justice
  • ending under 18s in Young Offenders’ Institutions (YOI), offering alternatives such as secure care
  • improvements to secure care
  • additional safeguards and regulation for cross-border placements

Directorate for Early Learning and Childcare

The ELC Directorate has six strategic priorities for this Parliamentary term, determined by a combination of manifesto commitments and legacy work from the 1140 expansion programme:

• building a “wraparound” system of school age childcare, which operates all year round, is free to those on the lowest incomes, and accessible and affordable to all other families
• ensuring that all primary and special school children in Scotland have access to free, nutritious breakfasts and lunches
• realising the benefits of the 1140 expansion programme for children and their families including improving social, emotional and developmental outcomes for children; supporting and enabling parents to access work, training or study opportunities; and enhancing family wellbeing through integrating family support with the provision of ELC
• developing an early learning and childcare offer for 1 year olds and reviewing the existing 2 year old ELC offer – to meet the manifesto commitment to introduce an early learning offer for 1 year olds from low income households by the end of this Parliament, and lay the foundations for a universal offer for all 1 and 2 year olds
• review the existing scrutiny, inspection and improvement arrangements for the childcare sector in light of the creation of the National Care Service and structural changes to national education bodies and assess the opportunities for reform arising from the work of the Expert Panel chaired by Professor Ken Muir
• support the whole childcare sector to flourish – essential to delivering the ambitious agenda for reform and expansion set out above, to equip the sector to continue to respond to Covid, and to support children and families to recover; investing in the growth and development of the workforce; and promoting the sustainability of services across the public, private and third sectors

These directorate priorities will be designed and delivered to maximise the contribution we can have to realising Government-wide strategic priorities, including:

• tackling Child Poverty
• “Keeping the Promise” and delivering holistic family support
• delivering the Covid Recovery Strategy and
• improving National Performance Framework outcomes

Directorate for Learning 

Learning Directorate has eight strategic delivery priorities, with the overall ambition to achieve excellence and equity through education for Scotland’s 700,000 school-aged children and young people.

• increasing and improving data about educational outcomes for children and young people to reduce unwarranted variations in outcomes across and within local authorities, ensure more effective and consistent use of standardised assessments in schools, and to improve holistic understanding of children and young people’s experience of education
• closing the poverty related attainment gap by investing £1 billion during this Parliament through the Scottish Attainment Challenge
• expansion of Free School Meals to all children, to all primary 5 pupils from January 2022 and, through ongoing work with local government, subsequently to pupils in primaries 6 and 7
• teacher employment, wellbeing and pay, with a focus on the recruitment of 3,500 additional teaching staff and 500 support staff by the end of the Parliament and supporting an affordable, effective pay deal for 2022/23
• supporting successful delivery of the Learning Estate Investment Programme Phases 1 and 2 by August 2025 and December 2025 respectively, and announcing the Phase 3 projects and timelines during 2022/23
• developing digital connectivity and inclusion to ensure strong foundations are in place to support the wider rollout of digital devices in schools, and to support provision of a digital device and connectivity for every pupil by the end of the Parliamentary term
• equalities in education, with a focus on supporting the Gender Equality Taskforce on Education and Learning, and developing and implementing the Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education Programme
• to ensure that the response to Covid-19 within the schools system follows the following principles:
  • evidence-based
  • balances risks across all relevant harms
  • co-produced with key partners and aligned with wider policy
  • effective governance and assurance processes
  • clear and timely communication

Directorate for Education Reform

The Directorate for Education Reform has five strategic priorities:

• taking forward recommendations and actions stemming from the OECD review of CfE and the related paper by Professor Stobart on the future of assessment and qualifications in Scotland:
  • overall co-ordination and governance of SG Implementation Framework (beginning Nov 21 and ongoing through Parliament)
  • carrying through curriculum and qualifications related actions (beginning Nov 21 and ongoing through Parliament)
  • supporting delivery of recommendations in respect of the replacement of SQA and the reform of Education Scotland by Prof Muir: report delivery in early 2022
  • based on Prof Muir recommendations, develop and implement transformation plan for key national support organisations for education in Scotland (including consequent legislative change): beginning early 2022; milestones to be developed through project planning with the expectation that, where possible, action will be taken quickly
• taking actions to deliver manifesto commitments aimed at ensuring equal access in education through:
  • establishing medium and long term agreements for implementing free instrumental music tuition
  • agreeing and implementing a sustainable approach to core curriculum charging
  • planning and agreeing arrangements to ensure entitlement to school trips
• ensuring that the awarding of national qualifications in 2022 serve Scotland’s young people and are, and are perceived to be, fair and credible by stakeholders, including young people and their families, universities and employers (ongoing – August/September 2022)
• progressing work in close collaboration with children's rights experts and children and young people organisations to ensure meaningful engagement of children and young people across all education policies
• taking action to develop the future of the Gaelic language in Scotland, including: 
• providing strategic support, in a range of sectors for initiatives which increase the numbers speaking, learning and using the Gaelic language
• the development of a new strategic approach to Gaelic medium education
• leading work to explore the creation of a Gàidhealtachd area in Scotland 
• overseeing a review of Bòrd na Gàidhlig structures and functions 
• the development and delivery of a Languages Bill dealing with further steps to support Gaelic, support for Scots and multilingual recognition

Directorate for Advanced Learning and Science

The Directorate’s vision is to ensure the Scotland has world-class, person-centred, fair and inclusive lifelong learning and support, complemented by excellence in science, university research and knowledge exchange. It has seven strategic priorities:

• to secure Scotland’s international reputation and attract inward talent and investment through a world-class tertiary education, research and innovation sector, including through having learned the lessons and maximised the opportunities from COVID-19
• to support sustainable inclusive economic growth through ensuring the tertiary education sector is well-governed and financially sustainable in the short term, and provides coherent collaborative strategic purpose to drive improvement and reform in the medium term
• to tackle the global climate emergency through prioritising scientific and applied research and innovation, offering the right courses and enabling low carbon estates
• to support tertiary education learners and staff to realise their full potential for themselves, for society and for Scotland, including minimising the negative impacts of COVID-19.
• to champion the use of science advice and literacy across government, to promote STEM learning for all ages and inspire our next generation of scientists and business innovators
• to tackle poverty through improved and tailored access to the tertiary education sector for disadvantaged individuals, communities and groups, and promoting lifelong learning
• to improve public services through provision of the right number of qualified new entrants and access to education, training for continuous professional development in health, care, education and other sectors and research based contribution to improved business processes and systems

Points for discussion

ICEA members are invited to offer their views on:

• given the impact of Covid-19, what are the particular challenges for managing this busy reform agenda in a way that helps support and develop the workforce?
• how to ensure policy coherence across the whole portfolio as we recover from the impact of Covid-19