Scotland's People Annual Report: Results from 2012 Scottish Household Survey

7 Education and Young People

Introduction and Context

Ensuring that everyone in Scotland has equal access to learning opportunities to achieve their full potential and increase skill levels across the population is a key part of achieving the Scottish Government's purpose:^[55] To focus government and public services on creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth. This is captured through one of the five strategic objectives:^[56] Expand opportunities for people in Scotland to succeed from nurture through to life long learning ensuring higher and more widely shared achievements.

Although the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is not the definitive source of information about education and qualifications in Scotland^[57], it can contribute to the measurement of key education indicators. Education level is also an important factor that can be used in the wider analysis of the Survey's data, for example to explore differences in people's characteristics and attitudes by educational attainment.

This chapter starts with an overview of educational qualifications achieved across the population as a whole and across key sub groups. Analysis is then presented on the types of play areas available for children to play in, along with measures on perceptions of adults on how safe it is for children to play there. Finally, this chapter looks at the types of activities young people engage in within their local area.

It should be noted that the SHS 2011 Annual Report presented information on parents satisfaction with schooling. The relevant questions were dropped from the SHS from January 2012, though some comparative results are available in the Local Services chapter.

Main Findings

• One-fifth (21%) of adults have no qualifications, with relatively little difference between males and females, though those with no qualifications are more likely to have lower incomes.
• Almost nine-in-ten households (88%) with young children have access to some form of play areas within their neighbourhood. Over half have access to a park (57%), whilst around half have access to either a playground (52%) or field or other open space (49%).
• Generally, those households with young children within rural areas are more likely to say children would be very safe or fairly safe when walking or cycling to play areas on their own, ranging from around three-fifths for most play areas in urban areas to around four-fifths in rural areas.
• Most householders with young children would feel comfortable with children being aged around 9 or 10 years old to play without supervision at such play areas. This increases to closer to 11 years old when playing within a natural environment or wooded area for those living in urban areas.
• Just less than three-quarters (73%) of young people aged 8 to 21 take part in some of activities regularly, with the majority of young people (53%) taking part in sports or sporting activity whether played competitively or not.

Highest Qualification level

Table 7.1 and Table 7.2 present the proportions of people who attained qualifications by gender, age and, for those of working age, by household income. Respondents to the SHS are asked about a wide variety of qualifications and these have been condensed into the categories presented in the tables.

Table 7.1: Highest level of qualification held by gender and age

Column percentages, 2012 data

Adults	Male	Female	16 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 59	60 to 74	75 plus	All
Degree, Professional qualification	26	28	13	40	33	30	23	15	27
HNC/HND or equivalent	11	10	9	15	15	11	6	3	10
Higher, A level or equivalent	19	16	35	18	17	15	12	7	17
O Grade, Standard Grade or equivalent	20	19	35	18	21	21	11	6	19
Other qualification	3	5	1	1	1	2	10	14	4
No qualifications	21	22	6	8	12	20	38	54	21
Qualification unknown	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	1
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	4,410	5,490	780	1,380	1,550	2,460	2,440	1,290	9,890

One-fifth (21%) of all adults had none of the qualifications presented. Of these, by far the highest proportion was in the 75 and over age group, with over half (54%) having no qualifications There was little difference between men and women on the highest level of qualifications they held.

Established links between degree level qualifications and higher incomes can be seen among working adults interviewed as part of the SHS (Table 7.2). Less than one-in-five of those in the lowest income brackets (up to £15,000) have a degree or professional qualification compared with half of the working age respondents with the highest incomes (51% for those with incomes above £40,000). Additionally, those of working age in the highest income brackets were considerably less likely to have no qualifications (3%). Around a quarter of adults with a household income of less than £15,000 had no qualifications.

Table 7.2: Highest level of qualifications held by adults of working age by net annual household income

Column percentages, 2012 data

Working age adults (16-64)	£0 - £6,000	£6,001 - £10,000	£10,001 - £15,000	£15,001 - £20,000	£20,001 - £25,000	£25,001 - £30,000	£30,001 - £40,000	£40,001+	All
Degree, Professional qualification	19	12	14	21	23	23	34	51	29
HNC/HND or equivalent	9	8	9	10	12	14	12	14	12
Higher, A level or equivalent	27	17	18	17	20	22	21	18	19
O Grade, Standard Grade or equivalent	20	29	28	29	25	22	22	14	23
Other qualification	2	4	2	2	3	1	1	0	2
No qualifications	20	30	27	21	15	16	8	3	14
Qualification unknown	3	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	1
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	200	600	1,010	990	920	760	1,060	1,300	6,830

Household income in the SHS is that of the highest income householder and their partner only. Includes all adults for whom household income is known or has been imputed. Excludes refusals/don't know responses.

Opportunities for children to play

At the start of 2009, a series of questions on the opportunities for children to play in their neighbourhood was added to the SHS to measure progress on the Early Years Framework.^[58] A key element of this framework is in improving the physical and social environment for children, with an emphasis on play. The set of questions was previously asked in one of two ways: if there was a child aged between 6 and 12 years, the questions were set in the context of one of the children in the household; otherwise, when there were no children in the household the questions were asked in more general terms. From January 2012, this was changed so that the questions were only asked if where there was a child aged 6 to 12 in the household. This means that results will not be comparable with previous years, as households with children will likely be more knowledgeable of opportunities for children to play in their neighbourhood, so estimates should be higher.

Table 7.3 shows that just under nine-in-ten households with children aged 6 to 12 have access to play areas within their neighbourhood. More than a half (57%) have access to a park, whilst 52% can access a playground and 49% a field or other open space. There are some differences based on the level of deprivation. In particular, of those households within the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland only 20% say there is a natural environment or wooded area in their neighbourhood, as compared to almost half of households (47%) in the rest of Scotland.

There is evidence of greater variation in access to play areas for children when considering the level of rurality. As expected, a higher proportion of households in rural areas have access to either fields and natural environment or wooded areas than urban areas. Those from the large urban areas have the lowest proportion of households being able to access children play areas, other than parks (58%). Over one-in-ten (12%) households with young children say they have access to no play areas, particularly in large urban (15%) and other urban (13%) areas.

Table 7.3: Types of children play areas available in the neighbourhood by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

Percentages, 2012 data

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	42	52	66	64	63	58	52
Park	58	53	70	74	56	50	57
Football or other games pitch	32	42	62	64	51	61	44
Field or other open space	34	47	65	56	63	83	49
School playground	24	38	39	47	35	40	34
Natural environment / wooded area	28	39	55	53	61	78	43
Access to at least one play area	85	86	93	94	91	95	88
Access to none	15	13	7	6	9	5	12
Base	420	410	140	70	140	150	1,330

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	42	54	52
Park	51	59	57
Football or other games pitch	36	45	44
Field or other open space	34	52	49
School playground	21	36	34
Natural environment / wooded area	20	47	43
Access to at least one play area	81	89	88
Access to none	19	10	12
Base	220	1,100	1,330

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Generally, those households within rural areas are more likely to say children would be very safe or fairly safe when walking or cycling to play areas on their own (Table 7.4), ranging from around three-fifths for most play areas in urban areas to around four-fifths in rural areas.

There are also marked differences in feeling of safety when looking at deprivation. Those in the least deprived areas of Scotland are more likely to say it is safer for children to travel on their own to such play areas than those in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland.

Table 7.4: How safe it would be for children to walk or cycle to play areas on their own by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

Percentages, 2012 data

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	54	69	68	*	81	77	67
Park	44	59	71	*	76	79	59
Football or other games pitch	52	52	64	*	73	79	60
Field or other open space	58	57	61	*	76	81	64
School playground	58	59	67	*	82	74	65
Natural environment / wooded area	34	32	39	*	61	67	44
Street/Road	50	59	62	55	63	58	56
Base (minimum)	100	160	60	30	50	50	450

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	51	70	67
Park	43	62	59
Football or other games pitch	48	62	60
Field or other open space	44	66	64
School playground	*	66	65
Natural environment / wooded area	*	47	44
Street/Road	43	59	56
Base (minimum)	50	400	450

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Table 7.5 shows similar patterns of variation when considering how safe it would be for children to go to play areas with two or three friends to play. Again, those in rural areas are generally more likely to say they think children would be safer than those living in urban areas. Intuitively, the overall feeling of safety for each type of play area are higher when going with two or three friends than they are when children travel alone. There is little difference in feelings of safety when considering the streets around the respondent's home.

Table 7.5: How safe it would be for children to go to play areas with 2 or 3 friends by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

Percentages, 2012 data

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	61	75	72	*	85	82	73
Park	54	69	74	*	85	85	67
Football or other games pitch	61	62	71	*	83	86	69
Field or other open space	63	66	63	*	84	86	70
School playground	61	64	70	*	91	79	70
Natural environment / wooded area	35	41	45	*	67	72	50
Street/Road	53	62	65	60	65	60	59
Base (minimum)	100	160	60	30	50	50	450

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	60	75	73
Park	53	70	67
Football or other games pitch	61	70	69
Field or other open space	54	72	70
School playground	*	71	70
Natural environment / wooded area	*	53	50
Street/Road	48	61	59
Base (minimum)	50	400	450

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Householders concerns of children being bullied or harmed by other children while playing in play areas show little variation across the different types of play areas (Table 7.6), though the lowest proportion of those with a concern over bullying by other children are for those playing within the streets around the respondent's home (28%). The next lowest is within fields and other open spaces and school playgrounds, which may be associated with a greater likelihood of supervision by adults.

As before, there are marked differences when looking at impacts or rurality and deprivation. Those from rural areas are less concerned about bullying by other children (less than one third across all play areas) as compared to those from urban areas (for example, 56% of households in large urban areas would be concerned with bullying if children played in natural environment and wooded areas).

There is less concern amongst householders of children being harmed by adults whilst playing in play areas (Table 7.7), though those saying they are very or fairly concerned are still high at around one third or higher within each play area. The greatest concern of safety is related to those playing within a natural environment or wooded area (46%). In particular, those from the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland are much more likely to be concerned about the safety of children in coming to harm by.

Table 7.6: Concern of bullying by children in play areas by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

Percentages, 2012 data

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	53	45	39	*	18	28	41
Park	54	45	37	*	19	26	43
Football or other games pitch	52	45	43	*	22	21	40
Field or other open space	48	43	34	*	20	19	36
School playground	41	44	32	*	15	16	36
Natural environment / wooded area	56	47	33	*	25	18	40
Street/Road	27	36	30	18	11	21	28
Base (minimum)	100	160	60	30	50	50	450

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	68	37	41
Park	60	40	43
Football or other games pitch	56	37	40
Field or other open space	60	33	36
School playground	*	32	36
Natural environment / wooded area	*	37	40
Street/Road	42	24	28
Base (minimum)	50	400	450

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Table 7.7: Concern of children being harmed by adults in play areas by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

Percentages, 2012 data

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	49	41	32	*	25	23	38
Park	49	43	28	*	18	20	39
Football or other games pitch	45	44	33	*	18	20	36
Field or other open space	47	44	32	*	19	20	35
School playground	36	39	24	*	12	16	30
Natural environment / wooded area	61	56	42	*	30	27	46
Street/Road	26	33	27	21	16	24	27
Base (minimum)	100	160	60	30	50	50	450

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	51	36	38
Park	55	36	39
Football or other games pitch	48	34	36
Field or other open space	53	33	35
School playground	*	28	30
Natural environment / wooded area	*	43	46
Street/Road	38	24	27
Base (minimum)	50	400	450

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Table 7.8 shows the median age at which households believe the youngest age should be when it would be safe for a child to play in each of the different play areas without supervision. As can be seen, most would feel comfortable with children being aged around 9 or 10 years old to play without supervision at such play areas. This increases to around 11 years old when playing within a natural environment or wooded area.

Table 7.8: Youngest age at which it would be safe for a child to play without supervision by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation and Urban Rural Classification

Percentages, 2012 data

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Playground	10.1	9.0	9.1	*	8.6	9.0	9.3
Park	10.5	9.1	9.2	*	8.7	9.0	9.6
Football or other games pitch	10.4	9.3	9.3	*	9.0	9.2	9.5
Field or other open space	10.2	9.2	9.1	*	9.0	8.9	9.4
School playground	10.1	9.4	9.1	*	9.1	9.2	9.4
Natural environment / wooded area	11.3	11.0	10.3	*	9.8	9.5	10.5
Street/Road	8.9	8.5	7.9	8.8	8.6	8.3	8.6
Base (minimum)	90	140	50	30	50	50	660

Households containing children aged 6 to 12	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Playground	9.8	9.2	9.3
Park	10.3	9.4	9.6
Football or other games pitch	10.2	9.4	9.5
Field or other open space	10.6	9.2	9.4
School playground	*	9.3	9.4
Natural environment / wooded area	*	10.3	10.5
Street/Road	9.1	8.5	8.6
Base (minimum)	40	380	660

Mean age presented

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

Those living in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland believe children should be slightly older before being allowed to play unsupervised. Similarly, those living in rural areas believe children can be slightly younger before being allowed to play unsupervised.

Participation in activities

The Scottish Government is interested in the extent to which young adults and children are involved in a range of activities. Those households for which there is someone aged between 8 and 21 are asked a series of questions within the SHS on whether they take part in a series of activities regularly. A fuller description of the activities are provided in the Glossary in Annex 2.

Table 7.9 shows that the majority of young people (53%) take part in sports or sporting activity whether played competitively or not. One quarter (26%) take part in music or drama activities (such playing in a band or a theatre group). Three per cent of young people are involved representing young people's views or involvement in youth politics while four per cent are involved in mentoring or peer education.

Table 7.9: Activities young people aged 8 to 21 take part in by Urban Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

Percentages, 2012 data

Households containing anyone aged 8 to 21	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Music or drama activities	27	22	26	38	26	33	26
Other arts activities	6	7	6	6	8	10	7
Sports or sporting activity	52	49	58	63	57	63	53
Other outdoor activities	16	17	21	25	26	41	20
Other groups or clubs	22	20	30	32	28	33	24
Representing young people's views	2	3	2	0	3	8	3
Mentoring or peer education	3	3	4	5	5	11	4
None	28	32	24	21	24	12	27
Base	770	730	230	120	280	260	2,390

Households containing anyone aged 8 to 21	15% most deprived	Rest of Scotland	Scotland
Music or drama activities	22	27	26
Other arts activities	4	7	7
Sports or sporting activity	42	56	53
Other outdoor activities	16	21	20
Other groups or clubs	20	25	24
Representing young people's views	2	3	3
Mentoring or peer education	2	5	4
None	34	26	27
Base	350	2,040	2,390

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed.

There are clear patterns in those not taking part in any of the activities within deprivation (34% in the 15% most deprived compared to 26% in the least deprived areas) and through the Urban Rural Classification (from around a quarter in urban areas down to 12% in remote rural areas). Those in remote rural areas are most likely to take part in other outdoor activities (34%) which may reflect more informal and independent activities.

Participation in any of the activities is lower for those living in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland: most notably, 42% regularly take part in sporting activities compared to 56% in the least deprived areas, with similar differences in those undertaking music or drama activities (22% and 27% respectively).