Strategic Equity Funding: national operational guidance 2023

Planning

Strategic Equity Funding allocations have been confirmed until March 2026. Opportunities to implement longer term strategic aims can be planned for with the support of these confirmed allocations. Consideration should be given to longer term plans which support the mission to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap.

Local authorities should consider the totality of Attainment Scotland Funding (Strategic Equity Funding (SEF), Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) & Care Experienced Children and Young People (CECYP) funding), working collaboratively with headteachers, senior leaders and other partners to identify how the funding is best utilised to enhance local plans to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap and contribute to the mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge. As set out in the Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress, there should be alignment between aims set by schools to improve the outcomes for children and young people affected by poverty and the stretch aims of the local authority.

Utilising a longer term approach by planning the use of Strategic Equity Funding over multiple years provides opportunities for more effective planning of spending, recruitment and development.

Planning can be supported by the logic model (which can be found as a supporting document to the Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress), which shows how a programme produces change. The SAC logic model can help bring detail to programme goals, aid planning, evaluation, implementation and communication. It incorporates outcomes reflecting the mission, which encompasses child poverty, broader achievement and an increased focus on health and wellbeing and family and community support.

As set out in the Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress local authority plans and stretch aims for the Scottish Attainment Challenge should be embedded within existing local authority education service improvement plans. Local authorities should ensure there is collaboration with stakeholders, e.g. children, young people, families and third sector partners in the planning process. This should be inclusive of all children affected by poverty, including those with identified additional support needs and those where alternative communication methods are required.

Plans should read across to related local authority service improvement plans, such as Community Learning and Development, social work, housing etc., which may also contribute to efforts to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap. They should also have clear links to the local authority tackling child poverty action plans and children's services plans.

In line with the agreement on multi-year funding and building on the year 1 plans established for 2022/23, local authorities are required to prepare stretch aims for 2025/26 underpinned by a strategic plan. The plan should set out a clear and ambitious trajectory for progress towards those three-year aims.

General principles for planning for Strategic Equity Funding within the Scottish Attainment Challenge

The planning cycle will use the academic year, aligning with existing annual Education Service Improvement Planning cycles.

Stretch aims for 2025/26 and trajectories for 2023/24 and 2024/25 should be agreed and submitted to Scottish Government by the end of September as part of the local authority's Education Service Improvement Plan.

Stretch aims for 2025/26, accompanied by an outline trajectory for progress, should be submitted to the Scottish Government by the end of September 2023. Local authorities should evaluate their plans and progress towards their stretch aims annually and report on progress through their NIF reports/Standards and Quality Reports in September each year.

An 'Interventions for Equity' resource has been developed to support the planning and implementing of approaches to meet the needs of children and young people affected by poverty in order to close the attainment gap. The examples cited act as a stimulus for wider reflection of what would suit your local context and are by no means the only approaches that should be considered.

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Collaborative: Actively engage children, young people, families, communities, staff and partners in planning process.

Evidence informed: Plans are based on data and a clear understanding of the context of communities they will be implemented. 

This data should include: local & national data and reference to research including SAC Theory of Change and Logic Model.

Setting ambitious and SMART aims: Aims should be smart, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed. They also need to be ambitious enough to achieve long term goals of closing poverty related attainment gaps.

Measuring progress: SMART measures and baseline data are needed to be able to show progress towards aims. Regular tracking and monitoring will support staff respond timeously to interventions which are not having the desired impact and make adaptations.

Evaluative: All plans should have aims and measures which allow leaders to clearly state whether aims have been achieved.

Quality assurance processes embedded to support the development and implementation of SAC plans. This can be both internal or external, involve peers or senior leaders.

Stretch Aims

Specific requirements for setting local stretch aims are set out in the Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress.

Stretch aims should be ambitious within local contexts and take into account previous years' attainment data and local authorities' 2022/23 stretch aims. The process of setting local stretch aims should be an iterative and collaborative process between local authorities and schools, including special schools and ASN provisions. 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.

In setting these stretch aims, a "core plus" model is expected.

The "core" sets a minimum requirement for aims measurable by a sub-set of the National Improvement Framework key measures based on national data and Insight data, and local data for health and wellbeing.

The "plus" should reflect additional local priorities, such as attendance, initial leaver destinations, literacy and numeracy in the senior phase, aims for Gaelic Medium Education, and aims for improved outcomes for children and young people who have experienced care and / or identified with additional support needs who experience poverty related barriers to learning.

The core aims are:

a) Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (literacy at primary 1, 4 and 7 combined and numeracy at primary 1, 4 and 7 combined);

b) the proportion of school leavers attaining 1 or more award at SCQF level 5 based on Insight (All SCQF Awards) information;

c) the proportion of school leavers attaining 1 or more award at SCQF level 6 based on Insight (All SCQF Awards) information;

d) the proportion of 16-19 olds participating in education, employment or training based on the Annual Participation Measure produced by Skills Development Scotland; and

e) a locally identified aim for health and wellbeing, to be measured using local datasets. NB: whilst a national dataset for health and wellbeing gathered consistently across all local authorities does not yet exist, amongst the core aims – with absolute parity of esteem – must be an ambitious locally identified and measured aim for improvement and closing of the poverty-related gap in progress in health and wellbeing.

There are plans for the data for the health and wellbeing survey to be included in the National Improvement Framework, when there should be a greater degree of confidence and consistency in the data.

Each identified stretch aim should clearly articulate overall aims for raising attainment, achievement and improving health and wellbeing, and for tackling the poverty-related attainment gap by 2025/26. The Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress includes exemplification of such local stretch aims. Local authorities should consider stretch aims which are inclusive of the achievements accomplished by children and young people affected by poverty and also educated in special schools or ASN provisions.

The setting 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. These 2025/26 stretch aims and anticipated broad trajectories for progress towards them over the course of 2023/24 and 2024/25 should be agreed and submitted to Scottish Government by the end of September 2023 as part of the local authority's Education Service Improvement Plan.

Financial Planning

Local authorities should submit a high level financial planning template for SEF which sets out how funding will be invested over the course of the financial year. This should be submitted to Scottish Government by the end of September, alongside the confirmation of the agreement of local stretch aims each year.

Funds will be drawn down twice in each financial year, once at the midpoint of the financial year (September) and once at the end of the financial year (March).

Scottish Government should be notified of any changes to plans at the financial draw down points where appropriate.