Parentzone and the School Information Dashboards: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for the following information:

1. When was this change made?

2. Who took the decision - specifically was it taken by officials at Education Scotland, a committee or specific leadership team?

3. What consultation was undertaken with relevant stakeholders, in particular to seek the opinions of parents, external education experts and employers?

You are requesting all the correspondence and internal documentation relating to this change including, but not limited to:

• Internal email discussion of the change, the reasoning behind it and any process of consultation
• All correspondence with external advisors, stakeholders, teaching unions and the Scottish Government
• Education Scotland position papers and briefing documents

Response

1. When was this change made? 

Parentzone and the School Information Dashboards present the attainment data from Insight (and previously STACs – Standard Tables and Charts). 

The decision to change reporting school leaver attainment on Parentzone (now the School Information Dashboards) was made in 2014 and published on 26 March 2015, following changes in the reporting of senior phase attainment following the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). The change in reporting senior phase attainment is consistent with Building the Curriculum 5: A Framework for Assessment which made a commitment to update and adapt STACs so that it is fully aligned to Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). The development of Insight (which replaced STACs) led to changes in the methodology for the attainment data, reflecting the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence in 2010. Under CfE, schools and their partners are able to offer greater personalisation and choice in the Senior Phase (S4 to S6) in a range of ways, for example by: designing the Senior Phase as a three- year experience, rather than planning each year separately; and delivering qualifications over a variable timeframe in response to young people's needs and prior achievements. Insight is part of a range of evidence for evaluating performance and supporting improvement. School leaver attainment is only consistent benchmark which can demonstrate improvement providing as it does information on attainment at the point of exit. 

2. Who took the decision - specifically was it taken by officials at Education Scotland, a committee or specific leadership team? 

The decision to measure senior phase leavers attainment was taken by the Curriculum for Excellence Management Board. One of the objectives of the Board was to consider the evidence of the benefits for learners delivered by Curriculum for Excellence. In September 2012 the CfE Management Board agreed the development of the Insight tool, with the awareness that some information derived from the Insight tool is made available through Scottish Schools Online, national statistics publications and school handbooks, noting that following finalisation of the measures discussions take place with stakeholders to define the range of information to be made available. 

Previously the national measures from the STACs benchmarking tool were reported on Scottish Schools Online (SSO). 

3. What consultation was undertaken with relevant stakeholders, in particular to seek the opinions of parents, external education experts and employers? 

The proposal on the school leaver attainment measure was taken within the development of the Insight Senior Phase Benchmarking tool. Insight was developed through a partnership involving Scottish Government, local authorities, secondary schools, national education agencies and other partners. 

Consultation on the senior phase leavers attainment measure took place during the development of Insight with Education Scotland, local authorities, SQA, ScotXed STACs main contacts, SLS (School Leaders Scotland), SOLACE, EIS (Educational Institute of Scotland) and ADES (Association of Directors of Education in Scotland). Information about the development of the Insight tool was presented at the Scottish Learning Festival and other events, and made available on Education Scotland’s website. 

Education Scotland undertook the task of bringing together the previous Parentzone and Scottish Schools Online websites to form Parentzone Scotland. Education Scotland consulted with schools, parents / carers, and parents representative bodies such as SPTC and NPFS on the design and format of the Parentzone Scotland website. 

4. I am requesting all the correspondence and internal documentation relating to this change including, but not limited to

• Internal email discussion of the change, the reasoning behind it and any process of consultation 
• All correspondence with external advisors, stakeholders, teaching unions and the Scottish Government 
• Education Scotland position papers and briefing documents 

Please see the enclosures document within the attachment. 

Exemptions 

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exemption under sections 30(b)(ii) (free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation) and 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. 

1. s.38(1)(b) (personal information) 

Section 38(1)(b) exemption has been applied in respect of the names of the individuals involved in the submissions, minutes of meetings, and emails, in Enclosures 3-6, 9-10, 13-14 and 16, because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. named individuals and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. It is standard practice within the Scottish Government only to release the names of those officials who are Senior Civil Servants. Where the Government officials involved in these documents are not Senior Civil Servants they have an expectation of privacy. 

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. 

2. s.30(b)(i) (Free and Frank Provision of Advice) 

An exemption under section 30(b)(i) of FOISA (free and frank provision of advice) applies to some the information requested in Enclosures 5 and 14. These exemptions apply because disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank provision of advice and exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. This exemption recognises the need for Ministers to have a private space within which to seek free and frank advice from officials before the Scottish Government reaches a settled view. Disclosing the content of free and frank advice on matters relating to the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence in order to inform appropriate decision making will substantially inhibit the provision of such advice in the future, particularly because these discussions relate to sensitive handling of Ministerial responsibilities and information provided by third parties which is not in the public domain. This exemption is 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 exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide full and frank advice to Ministers and other officials, as part of the process of exploring and refining the Government’s position, until the Government as a whole can adopt a position that is sound and likely to be effective. 

This private thinking space is essential to enable all options to be properly considered. Premature disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Ministers and officials, which in turn will undermine the quality of the decision making process, which would not be in the public interest. 

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.

202300366164_1

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