International Council of Education Advisers meeting papers: June 2022

Refreshed Scottish Attainment Challenge programme 2022/23 – 2025/26 (paper 3)

This paper is for discussion/information ICEA(22)03. Paper by the Scottish Government

Background and progress to date

The Scottish Attainment Challenge was launched in 2015 and the ambition remains unchanged since its launch: “It is the defining mission of this Government to close the poverty-related attainment gap.”

In March 2021, the Scottish Government and Education Scotland published a report on five years of progress in the Scottish Attainment Challenge and Audit Scotland (a day later) published their report on education. 

Key findings from each are below. 

The five year report highlighted:

• that over the first five years of the Scottish Attainment Challenge there is evidence that almost all of the short and medium-term outcomes have been achieved
• 90% of headteachers reported having seen an improvement in closing the gap in attainment and/or health and wellbeing thanks to Attainment Scotland Fund projects
• a large majority of headteachers (96%) felt that they had a good awareness of the range of approaches that can help close the poverty-related attainment gap, while 93% felt confident selecting the approach most effective for their school
• the vast majority (95%) felt that COVID-19 and school building closures had at least some impact on their progress in closing the poverty-related attainment gap
• while there are positive indications of progress, there are also variations in the pace of progress across the country
• the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on children and young people impacted by poverty

Audit Scotland: The Scottish Government and (/or) Education Scotland should:

• understand and address variation in performance across schools and councils across Scotland
• achieve greater consistency in applying the NIF drivers through a targeted response that reflects local priorities of improvement, with a focus on reducing inequalities
• be clear on the expected pace of progress for improvement and closing the poverty-related attainment gap
• ensure that future methods for targeting support to address inequalities reflect broader demographic issues, which are not well reflected in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), and updated data on the economic impact of Covid-19 on communities

At a very high level and in terms of attainment data, we can summarise progress as below:

We anticipate that this year’s data, with the return to more traditional exam arrangements, will see a reduction in achievement in the senior phase and potentially a widening of the gaps back towards pre-pandemic levels. On the other hand, we would expect to see progress in primary school ACEL data scores; effectively, some reversal of developments during the pandemic. See Annex A for further high level data trends.

With the above mentioned reports and a range of other evidence in mind and having begun a new Parliamentary term, it was appropriate to review and refresh the Scottish Attainment Challenge. 

This work was undertaken over the course of approximately 18 months, with extensive engagement and collaboration with key stakeholders, including COSLA, ADES, professional associations, academics, a range of other policy areas and related services, such as community learning and development, and focused on four key areas. These are set out below. 

The refreshed SAC programme

Refreshed mission 

• to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty related attainment gap

This broader mission recognises the breadth of experiences and achievements that will, alongside improved attainment in literacy, numeracy and national qualifications, support young people to leaving school to enter and sustain positive destinations. It also continues to recognise the vital role of improved health and wellbeing for children and young people impacted by poverty; and reads across to the national mission to tackle child poverty. 

Simplified distribution model

The Scottish Government has increased its planned investment in the Scottish Attainment Challenge from £750 million over the course of the last Parliamentary term to £1 billion over the course of this Parliamentary term. Within that overall planned investment, there is both some continuity of approach to distributing resource and some significant changes to the distribution model supporting the Challenge.

Two aspects of the funding model are largely unchanged:

• Pupil Equity Funding (PEF), whose use is determined by schools and headteachers (albeit now with greater emphasis on co-operation with local government) continues. The rate is now £1225 per pupil registered for free school meals, up from £1200 per pupil. PEF allocations are now set for the next four years to give schools the opportunity to forward plan effectively
• Care Experienced Children and Young People (CECYP) funding continues, and like PEF has been increased to £1225 per looked after child, up from £1200 per pupil. This continues to be allocated annually given the relatively smaller numbers of pupils

Local authority funding arrangements have changed more significantly:

• from 2015/16 to 2020/21, nin Challenge Authorities (those in areas of greatest deprivation) were allocated funding. Under the relaunched programme, the money that went to Challenge Authorities, plus some that went to local authorities with individual schools in particularly deprived areas, has been distributed across all 32 local authorities in the form of Strategic Equity Funding totalling £43m
• this funding going to all local authorities is known as Strategic Equity Funding (SEF) and allocations have been also confirmed over the next four years
• the redistribution of funding will take place over four years – supporting Challenge Authorities to transition to their equitable share over time with a tapering down of their existing allocations, whilst the remaining 23 local authorities will see their allocations gradually taper up
• the funding is distributed on an equitable basis using Children in Low Income Families (CILIF) data. CILIF directly measures household income, and so provides a precise count of children impacted by poverty – effectively reflecting the needs of individuals in each local authority. This is in contrast to SIMD, that does not always best represent need, including in rural communities
• amongst the drivers for this change were:
  • to recognise that poverty impacts children and young people in all parts of the country: CILIF data shows that in 2019-20, 59% of children living in relative poverty before housing costs lived outside those nine Challenge Authorities
  • to remove the “them and us” perception between Challenge Authorities and non-Challenge Authorities and ensure all local authorities recognised the role they have to play in the mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge
  • to provide all local authorities funding that can be used to leverage input from across wider local services; and clear role in the Framework for recovery and accelerating progress
  • evidence that the progress made by the nine Challenge Authorities to date had not been significantly better than other LAs
  • there is clear evidence (as reported in the SAC five year progress report) that there has been significant progress in terms of enhanced learning and teaching and use of data for improvement; a sustained focus on health and wellbeing; collaborative working; and work with families and communities. The funding issued to Challenge Authorities has contributed to this, giving those LAs a good, sustainable grounding for fewer, more targeted approaches going forward and an evidence base that can be shared across the country
• Strategic Equity Funding was developed in close collaboration with local government and was welcomed by COSLA when announced
• Cllr Stephen McCabe, COSLA’s then spokesperson for Children and Young People (and Labour leader of Inverclyde Council), in a Scottish Government press release announcing the refreshed model said [quote]: ‘…we welcome the recognition that councils across Scotland will be pivotal in work to tackle the attainment gap – not only providing additional support within schools but enabling stronger links with the wide range of important services for children, young people and their families that sit beyond the school gates’
• however, it has attracted some high profile criticism too . Officials have found that whilst not every local authority is pleased by the change, it is generally recognised as fair and Directors of Education have been pragmatic and solution-focused when discussing the change and the transition to the new funding arrangements

Enhanced support

This suite of support in the form of guidance materials, resources, support, challenge and professional learning will be available to the system from 30 March. It includes: 

• revised guidance including the agreed Framework and arrangements for implementation
• refreshed Logic Model (theory of change)
• Education Scotland Publication: Pupil Equity Funding: Looking inwards, outwards, forwards – sharing effective practice to maximise support for learners and practitioners’  
• Education Scotland National Equity Toolkit (proto-type on 30 March, full launch in summer)
• strengthened SAC Digital Footprint – ES website
• Education Scotland Professional learning sessions and video resources
• Education Scotland Sharing practice case studies
• Education Scotland-led national networking events 
• refreshed ASF evaluation strategy (to be developed from April)

In addition to these national resources, Education Scotland Senior Regional Advisors and Attainment Advisors, as well as wider teams, continue to provide bespoke support and challenge to local authorities and schools to develop and implement effective approaches to tackling the poverty-related attainment gap.

More detail on this is available in the related Education Scotland paper ICEA (22)04 on accelerating progress.

A Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress

We have agreed a Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress with local government, which requires local authorities to set realistic but ambitious aims for progress in closing the gap. Education Scotland will provide support and challenge on in terms of their ambition in relation to their recent data and the planned approaches to achieving those ambitions. Through SG there will be further engagement with local authorities on those ambitions – and individual ambitions relative to other local authorities – holding local authorities accountable for driving greater progress and in reducing unwarranted variation. This is a departure from the previous emphasis with the Challenge, which was more exclusively focussed on school and headteacher empowerment. Ministers are nevertheless clear at this stage that it is important that arrangements are in place that reflect the statutory role of local authorities in school education, and which can support a better informed future discussion about progress, lack of progress and variation between and within local authorities and schools. 

This Framework will underpin the ambition contained in the refreshed Scottish Attainment Challenge mission and applies to teachers, school leaders, local government, Education Scotland, Scottish Government and Ministers. 

It has been developed to:

• provide clear direction to our collective work to improve outcomes for those children and young people most impacted by poverty
• articulate and emphasise the targeted nature of the Scottish Attainment Challenge
• support acceleration of continuous improvement through ambitious but realistic and measurable objectives locally and nationally
• support a shared understanding and collective accountability for expected progress over the next four years and by the end of 10 years of the Scottish Attainment Challenge and
• drive a whole system focus on improvement with clear roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders in the system working together to reduce variation

The expectation is for: 

• a prospective improvement plan and financial plan for the year ahead, within the context of an overarching four year plan
• ongoing monitoring of progress and
• a retrospective report and financial statement for the year past

The key element that is new to schools and local authorities is the requirement for locally identified stretch aims to be set out in local authority plans.

The requirement is for local authorities to set specific aims for improving outcomes for all while closing the poverty-related attainment gap. These stretch aims should be both ambitious and achievable within local contexts. 

These are set out under a “core plus” model. The “core” stretch aims (set out below) should be measurable by a sub-set of NIF key attainment measures and a health and wellbeing aim, which can be measured using local data.  

Core stretch aims

• achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (literacy combined and numeracy combined)
• the proportion of school leavers attaining 1 or more pass at SCQF level 5 based on the "Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations" publication
• the proportion of school leavers attaining 1 or more pass at SCQF level 6 based on the "Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations" publication
• the proportion of 16-19 olds participating in education, employment or training based on the Annual Participation Measure produced by Skills Development Scotland and
• a locally identified aim for health and wellbeing, to be measured using local datasets

Local authorities should also set additional aims specific to their contexts and local priorities – these are the “plus” element. 

Setting of local stretch aims should be an iterative and collaborative process between local authorities and schools. There should be a two-way process which sees school plans inform the local authority stretch aims and local authority aims and strategic plans reflected in school plans. This approach can be developed through existing local authority quality improvement processes with schools and should not see stretch aims imposed on schools. Professional dialogue, support and challenge should take account of the specific local context of each school.

The setting and ambition of these aims should be achieved by local authorities as a result of robust evidence-informed self-evaluation, supported and challenged through professional dialogue with Education Scotland.

We consider the “ground up” approach to be key to achieving progress – stretch aims are unlikely to help achieve local progress unless they have secured local buy-in and ownership. However, it is important we can develop a national picture informed by these. 

Once we have all of these stretch aims in September, SG analysis in October will enable us to see a national picture of local authorities collective ambitions for progress. We will be able to analyse not only current performance but also variation in ambition for improvement; colleagues at Education Scotland will be well placed to use this evidence to target their support.

Heightened scrutiny and support for the delivery of the programme is being provided as part of the Education & Justice Director General’s 7 Transformational Change Programmes programme management approach.

Ambition, pace and interdependencies

As noted above, the Scottish Government remains committed to its ambition to close the poverty-related attainment gap and whilst the impact of the pandemic cannot be overlooked, the Scottish Government is determined to see significant progress during this parliamentary term. 

To inform the pace of progress, first we will see the locally identified stretch aims. We (Scottish Government and Education Scotland) will then work with local authorities to support them to make the progress they aim to. 

Schools and local authorities are working in a complex landscape as they navigate and mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, as well as looking ahead to the outputs of the national consultation on the National Improvement Framework and its measures, the reform of both the SQA and Education Scotland, and the reform of qualifications currently being led by Professor Hayward. 

Next steps

As this refreshed programme is embedded, SG officials and Education Scotland are working closely together and with local government, specific local authorities and schools to support them in adapting to the new programme, in particular to the requirement for locally identified stretch aims. 

In September we will receive those stretch aims as part of overall LA education service improvement plans and look to aggregate them to inform a national picture on the pace of progress. 

We are preparing for the SQA results in the summer, which may see a reduction in attainment from current levels achieved under the alternative certification model, and may also see a widening of the gap. This will require careful handling as it may undermine confidence in the work underway as part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, supported by its associated investment. However, there remain encouraging signs, evidenced by the most recent Attainment Scotland Fund evaluation (published on 17 June 2022).

The key challenges we are facing are around: 

• using the logic model to best effect to help drive progress – considering, in particular, the capacity of the system to achieve the identified short medium and long term aims at each level of the system. Discussion on this with ICEA members would be valued
• making best use of the identification of local stretch aims to drive progress and using the levers and resources available to the Scottish Government and Education Scotland to work collaboratively with local authorities to strike the right balance between support and challenge to help drive progress whilst also ensuring local ownership of and accountability for progress. We would welcome discussion with ICEA members on this issue of driving a greater pace of progress

Additional background data

• Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2020-21
• summary statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 4: 2022 Edition