Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill - Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA)

1. Brief Summary

Type of proposal: Bill

Name the proposal, and describe its overall aims and intended purpose.

The Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill is an essential component of reforming the post-school education and skills public body landscape. The purpose of the Bill is to make provision for the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to take full responsibility for the delivery of National Training Programmes (NTPs), apprenticeships and work-based learning. The Bill will also make consequential changes and other improvements to the SFC’s functions and governance arrangements.

The provisions within the Bill aim to simplify the post-school education funding landscape by conferring new responsibilities for the funding and administration of NTPs, apprenticeships and work-based learning by the SFC, which already secures the provision of further and higher education through funding. This will facilitate different, more transparent ways of funding apprenticeships and other work-based learning and training, so that the system is easier for learners to navigate. This will also help to ensure people have access to the skills and training that employers need.

This Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment assesses only the impact of the provisions included within the Bill and not the policy evolution and development which it enables. Further impact assessments will be conducted as consequent policies are developed.

The overarching objectives of the post-school reform programme are set out in the Purpose and Principles for Post-School Education, Research and Skills (“the Purpose and Principles”)^[1]:

Purpose: To develop new thinking, products and systems through research and to ensure that people, at every stage in life, have the opportunity and means to develop the skills, knowledge, values and attributes to fulfil their potential and to make a meaningful contribution to society.

Principles:

Transparent, Resilient and Trusted: The system is financially and environmentally resilient; trusted to deliver, and subject to effective governance.

Supportive and Equitable: People are supported throughout their learning journey, particularly those who need it most.

High Quality: High quality opportunities are available for people to enhance their knowledge and skills at the time and place that is right for them.

Globally Respected: Research, teaching, innovation and knowledge exchange undertaken by Scotland, must make a difference; enhance and contribute to global wellbeing, addressing 21^st century challenges such as the climate emergency and attracting inward investment and talent to study, live and work in Scotland.

Agile and Responsive: Everybody in the system collaborates to deliver in the best interests of Scotland’s wellbeing economy.

A simplified post-school funding body landscape will contribute to the delivery of the following national outcomes in these specific ways:

1. Education: We are well educated, skilled and able to contribute to society

• Enables targeted and equitable distribution of funding that places children, young people and adult learners at the core.
• Less investment goes on administering the system, duplication is reduced, the quality of data is enhanced which enables more informed decision making and supports a national approach to skills planning.

2. Economy: We have a globally competitive, entrepreneurial, inclusive and sustainable economy

• Improved quality and availability of data supporting national and regional skills planning.
• More flexible models of funding are enabled within a streamlined system.
• Clear responsibility for funding innovation, research and knowledge exchange within institutions, underpinning Scotland’s globally competitive economy.

3. Fair Work and Business: We have thriving and innovative businesses, with quality jobs and fair work for everyone

• The way that funding flows through the system is clear; there is confidence across Scotland’s economy that the system delivers and clarity on the return on investment.

4. International: We are open, connected and make a positive contribution internationally

• Maintaining Scotland’s internationally renowned research base.

5. Poverty: We tackle poverty by sharing opportunities, wealth and power more equally

• Simplifying the funding body landscape, clarifying roles and responsibilities and removing duplication will enable more innovative and person-centred approaches to student support to be developed and delivered. This will enable learners, no matter their background, to access support to take up learning opportunities enhancing their career and life prospects.

Start date of proposal’s development: Policy development on potential legislation began in spring 2024, leading to the public consultation from 25 June to 20 September. Development of the legislation was informed by analysis of responses from the public consultation, other engagement with stakeholders and other evidence.

Start date of CRWIA process: The CRWIA implications have been under consideration since the policy started being developed in spring 2024.

2. With reference given to the requirements of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which aspects of the proposal are relevant to/impact upon children’s rights?

The Bill will confer new functions for the funding and administration of NTPs, apprenticeships and work-based learning on the SFC, which is already responsible for securing the provision of further and higher education.

The Bill will have potential to indirectly impact on the following rights:

• Article 28 – Right to education
• Article 32 – Child labour

Article 28 – Right to education

The Bill creates a statutory framework which is intended to support the development, delivery and wide availability of tertiary education and training, including vocational education.

Section 4 of the Bill establishes, for the first time, a statutory framework for apprenticeships in Scotland. Section 5 of the Bill establishes a power for Scottish Ministers to make grants to the SFC for the purposes of securing the delivery of Scottish apprenticeships and work-based learning. There is no age range of learners specified in the Bill but apprenticeships and work-based learning will in some cases be available in the later years of school education and immediately after, therefore, children and young people aged 16 to 18 may be indirectly impacted.

Article 32 – Child labour

Participation in apprenticeships requires for it to be conducted in the context of an employment relationship and so children and young people who are, or will be, apprentices will also be indirectly impacted.

Section 4 of the Bill requires there to be an apprenticeship agreement between the apprentice and the employer. The purpose of this agreement is to ensure that both parties are clear on the commitment to training and the outcomes intended to be achieved. The training commitment would need to be consistent with what was set out in the relevant apprenticeship framework but it can be tailored to that individual and employer’s circumstances.

The SFC will also have power to issue guidance to the persons it funds in relation to providing training to apprentices and attach terms and conditions to the funding it provides. This is intended to provide a package of safeguards to ensure that learners and apprentices are treated appropriately and receive suitable education and training in the context of working.

3. Please provide a summary of the evidence gathered which will be used to inform your decision-making and the content of the proposal.

Consultation/feedback from stakeholders

The Scottish Government undertook a public consultation to inform the development of the Bill. The Post-School Education and Skills Reform: Consultation on legislation^[2] was launched on 25 June 2024 and ran for over 12 weeks until 20 September 2024. The consultation sought views on proposals to change what public bodies do in the post-school system in order to simplify responsibilities for apprenticeships and student support. The consultation gathered views of:

• Individuals, including:
  • Learners (student, apprentice, community learner) aged 21 or under – this could potentially include children, though we did not collect respondent ages.
  • Learners (student, apprentice, community learner) aged over 21
  • Educators (teacher, lecturer, board member, support staff, researcher)
  • Managers or employers (manager in a larger business, self-employed business owner or employer)
• Organisations

In total, 194 consultation responses were received and analysed. This consisted of 133 responses from organisations and 61 from individuals.

The majority of respondents favoured the proposals to consolidate provision funding within the SFC; i.e. give the SFC responsibility for securing the provision of NTPs and apprenticeships.

Differing views on the need for reform shaped support for these proposals. There was comment in favour of reform objectives set out in the consultation paper, but some of those supporting business as usual wished to retain current strengths of the system and saw proposed reforms as incurring unnecessary resource and opportunity costs.

Others were of the view that significant reform was required to address challenges facing the post-school skills system. It was suggested that consolidating funding for provision could enable a more holistic and consistent approach across skills sectors and models of provision.

Concerns around equity of funding were reflected in comments supporting a more coherent and consistent approach. Equity was highlighted in terms of ensuring fair access to funding support across learner groups, and access to provision funding for different provider types. This included concern that prioritisation of colleges and universities could adversely impact access to funding for other providers.

The responsiveness of the skills system also emerged as a common theme for those who saw a need for a more streamlined and coherent approach. It was suggested that greater consolidation of funding would enable a more responsive skills system, for example through a more coordinated approach to information and advice for learners, and ensuring skills provision could better meet the diverse needs of learners. In this context, respondents wished to see reforms place learners at the centre of the skills system.

Securing efficiencies was highlighted as a key positive for proposed reforms. These respondents suggested that a more streamlined and centralised funding system could deliver significant resource savings, reflecting a view that overlapping roles and duplication of effort across public bodies was an issue for the system. However, it was also suggested that efficiency savings could take time to be realised.

Other challenges were raised for implementation of reforms, particularly around ensuring access to sufficient resources. There was concern that Scottish Government must not underestimate the investment of time and resources required to implement reforms successfully. This was seen as a key issue in the context of current financial challenges across skills sectors, and there was concern around the potential to divert the SFC’s energy and focus at a critical time for the skills system.

The potential for disruption associated with implementation of reforms was a common concern amongst respondents. This was raised as an issue for learners, employers, institutions, providers and other users of the skills system. There was reference to the potential scale of change required to current roles and responsibilities, to operational issues such as technical and staffing changes, and to challenges in achieving the required change of culture across funding bodies.

Evidence and Data

The provisions of the Bill are primarily structural, impacting directly on an organisational level for the SFC. The Bill will not impact directly on any specific groups of learners. If the Bill were enacted, any subsequent policy development that may take place in the future is outside of the scope of this assessment. There remains some uncertainty over which groups of children or young people might potentially be indirectly impacted by the Bill.

In the context of this uncertainty, it seems likely that apprenticeships and employment among children and young people (e.g. 16-18 years old) are two areas that may be more likely to be relevant for the assessment of children’s wellbeing and rights. While there is limited recent data available in this area, some of the key indicative data for understanding these groups is summarised below.

According to the Employer Skills Survey (ESS)^[3]:

• 16% of employers offered formal apprenticeships in 2022, which is generally consistent with previous years.
• Almost all apprenticeship employers (92%) offer them to young people under 25, similar to 2021 (90%).

An OECD Review of the Apprenticeship System in Scotland^[4] found that:

• While there is a strong focus on young people in apprenticeships in Scotland, there is a need to be more inclusive for adults.
• Apprenticeships should also offer a means of upskilling and reskilling, adapted to the needs of adults.

A survey^[5] of Modern Apprentices (MAs) found that:

• 6 months after their start date, 75% of MAs in training planned to stay with their current employer.
• 3 months after leaving, 87% of completers were still working for the employer with which they started their MA.
• 15 months after leaving, 71% of completers were still working for the employer with which they completed their MA.

According to MA Statistics, up to the end of Q4 2023/24^[6]:

• In 2023/24, 40% of MA starts were aged 16-19.
• In 2023/24 there was an increase in starts for those aged 16-19 (+3.0%).

According to the 2023 Foundation Apprenticeships (FA) Progress Report^[7]:

• The proportion of FAs at SCQF L6 self-identifying a disability increased in 2021/22 (19.7%), up 2.2 percentage points from 2020/21 (17.5%).
• Around 14% of children in Scotland are classified as disabled.

ONS Annual Population Survey^[8] estimates reported that for 16 to 24 year olds in Scotland in July 2023 to June 2024:

• the estimated employment rate was 56.4%.
• the estimated unemployment rate was 10.0%.
• the estimated economic inactivity rate was 37.3%.

The Annual Participation Measure 2024^[9] found that for 16-19 year olds:

• 92.7% were participating in education, employment, or training.
• Females were more likely than males to be participating in education (76.5% v 66.3%).
• Males were more likely to participate in employment (23.8% v 15.1%).

Evidence from previous policy reports

The Bill sits within a wider programme of reform and the overall policy objective of the Bill is supported by a robust evidence base and the result of an extensive process involving an independent review, stakeholder engagement, public consultation, evidence gathering, and an options appraisal process, including:

• the Purpose and Principles which sets the vision and objectives for the wider post-school education and skills reform programme;
• the Independent Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape^[10] by James Withers (“the Withers Review”) which makes 15 recommendations for change in skills delivery. This includes reform of the functions of two of the principal public bodies which help run our post-school education and skills system, SDS and the SFC;
• a Strategic Outline Case (SOC) which set out the strategic context and case for change for simplifying the post-school education and skills funding body landscape; and
• an Outline Business Case^[11] (OBC) which comprised five cases: strategic, socio-economic, commercial, financial and management cases. The OBC considered the relative merits of the three shortlisted proposals in the SOC which were included in the consultation paper.

4. Further to the evidence described at ‘3’ have you identified any 'gaps' in evidence which may prevent determination of impact? If yes, please provide an explanation of how they will be addressed

The consultation included proposals for legislation to change what public bodies do in the post-school funding landscape, therefore, findings specifically on the impact of the Bill on children and young people are limited.

Through the development of subsequent policies that will be underpinned by this Bill, the evidence base relating to impact on children and young people is expected to be strengthened. This maybe done through engagement with public bodies, institutions, training providers and through learners themselves.

The reports and research mentioned above provide the case for change for reforming the post-school system, some of which are addressed through the Bill. However, similarly with the consultation, evidence on the impact on children and young people are limited from these reports and research.

5. Analysis of Evidence

To inform the development of this CRWIA, we have analysed the responses of learners and their representative stakeholder bodies to the consultation.

The majority of the responses to the consultation focus on the technical and operational matters relating to the reconfiguration of functions and responsibilities within the post-school education funding landscape. Therefore, evidence about the impact on the rights and wellbeing of children and young people is limited.

However, there are a number of organisations who responded to the consultation that highlighted areas relating to young people’s education and skills development that need to be considered as subsequent policies are developed.

These respondents emphasised that young people should have input into any decisions with regards to their learning experience, be provided with adequate information and support systems and that lived experience is an important element of this. There were respondents who also raised the importance of providing opportunities of learning for young people and how apprenticeships offer realistic career paths to young people from all backgrounds.

Although the Bill’s provisions focus on reconfiguring the functions and responsibilities within tertiary education and training, the changes that they will deliver will facilitate different, more transparent ways of funding apprenticeships. Bringing responsibilities for all forms of post-school education provision together at the SFC will help improve services for learners. It is through this improved delivery that will further support children and young people as they will be able to have better access to the education and training they need.

6. What changes (if any) have been made to the proposal as a result of this assessment?

As a result of this assessment, provisions regarding the SFC’s consideration of the needs and interests of learners were included in the Bill. The approach taken in the Bill is to make the essential changes in respect of the expanded remit of the SFC. The other matters raised by stakeholders will be considered administratively, for example as the approach to SFC Council (Board) appointments is refreshed as part of the transition. Otherwise, no other changes to the Bill provisions were considered necessary, as there is no evidence to suggest that there will be impact on children and young people.

This CRWIA will continue to be a live assessment and will be reviewed and updated where appropriate during the passage of the Bill.