Education and skills - National Improvement Framework plan 2024: update on activity
Sets out progress on existing actions from the 2024 National Improvement Framework and improvement plan from across the education and skills landscape.
Update on activity from the 2024 National Improvement Framework Plan
School and ELC Leadership
Action |
Current position |
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SL79 Support for Into Headship will form part of our ongoing commitment to fund professional learning for teachers, including at school leadership level. |
Complete Funding for the Into Headship programme is now in its tenth year, with Cohort 10 starting the 24/25 session. It continues to be developed through a partnership approach between Education Scotland, seven universities and local authorities. Into Headship leads to the award of the GTCS Standard for Headship, which became a mandatory requirement for new substantive head teachers on 1st August 2020. Participants from 2015 – 2023: 1423. 2023/24 cohort - 270. Cohort 10 in 2024/25 - 249. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The main route to achieving the Standard for Headship is the completion of the Into Headship programme which is managed by Education Scotland, accredited by the General Teaching Council for Scotland and is offered by seven universities. Programme evaluations remain positive with participants indicating that while quite demanding, Into Headship is preparing individuals well for the role of headteacher. The Into Headship programme was successfully re-accredited by the GTCS in March 2021. An external evaluation of Into Headship, led by Professor Alma Harris, was published in September 2022. The Into Headship Strategic Oversight Group provides collaborative governance for this work. SG funding is confirmed for cohort 10 in 2024/25. |
SL86 We are in the process of establishing a Gender Equality Task Force in Education and Learning, as recommended by the First Minister’s National Advisory Committee for Women & Girls. Throughout 2020, the Task Force, chaired by the Deputy First Minister, will consider where gaps exist in the provision of a gender neutral experience of education and learning in Scotland, and publish a set of recommendations which will address those gaps. |
Complete The Gender Equality Taskforce has been through a number of iterations since it was established in 2020. A theory of change provides the basis for its work and a number of the actions in it have been completed. This includes identifying a permanent chair in the current Cabinet Secretary and revising the group membership as it had become large and unwieldy. The Cabinet Secretary was clear that the group required to refocus and as a result it is now more streamlined and aims to provide policy coherence, taking a strategic view of emerging and existing education policy ambitions and apply a gendered lens to both the high level ambitions and detailed actions within them. This approach began with the draft Behaviour in Schools Action Plan and continues with emerging areas such as the School Age Childcare Programme and existing areas such as the Harmful Sexual Behaviours Guidance. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The Taskforce's workplan for 2025 is being finalised and the group will provide input to the following areas in terms of development: post 16 education skills reform programme to improve careers support; school age childcare Programme; early child development and transformational change policy; and to the following areas in terms of continuous improvement/refresh: the Harmful Sexual Behaviours Guidance; development of thematic inspection for the GBV in schools framework, Behaviour in Schools Action Plan refresh and Education Reform (Qualifications Scotland Charters and Frameworks development). |
SL92 The Scottish Government will work with partners from across the ELC sector to develop a new Childcare Workforce Strategy, which will explore key issues and challenges on workforce, including professional learning and leadership support for all those working across ELC and the wider childcare sector. |
Closed We do not propose to publish a Strategic Framework as previously planned. In its place, we will develop a long-term workforce plan setting out the profile of practitioners required to support sustainable delivery of 1140. Other actions from the strategic framework will be progressed as part of the Support for Quality Plan. Anticipated outcomes and next steps In line with Audit Scotland recommendations and the Programme for Government, in 2024-25, we plan to:
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SL94 Education Scotland will undertake a national thematic inspection in the early learning and childcare sector on progress with implementation of the expansion of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC). |
Complete HM Inspectors of Education completed a national thematic inspection report of the early learning and childcare sector on progress with implementation of the expansion of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC). This report provides an overview of success stories from the expansion identified by HM Inspectors during visits to early learning and childcare settings during academic session 2022-23 and is due to be published in the early part of 2025. |
SL95 HM Inspectors will undertake a national thematic inspection in 2023 on the subject of inclusion: promoting positive behaviour. |
Complete HM Inspectors of Education published a thematic inspection report on preventing and responding to bullying on 21 March 2024. To support system improvement and help schools to respond to the recommendations of a previous HMI report published in February 2023, HM Inspectors undertook a further phase of evidence gathering to identify and share effective approaches to preventing and responding to incidents of bullying in schools across Scotland. The report is based on visit to primary, secondary and special schools. |
SL96 Education Scotland will provide further professional dialogue and support aligned to UNCRC at every level of the system. This will include professional learning for elected members and a continuation of the 'train the trainers' approach for those local authorities and Regional Improvement Collaboratives (RICs) who have not yet participated, or who have requested further input. Education Scotland will focus its professional dialogue and support with the South West and Tayside RICs, and Moray and Highland councils. (Action relates to UNCRC). |
Closed – business as usual The lead officer has developed training materials and resources which encourage anyone who supports learners and their families to understand how the UNCRC connects their work, and how it links to the core competencies in education. Feedback from those who access the materials and seek advice has been very positive, with almost all agreeing that it had improved their knowledge and confidence in the topic. Next steps Work will continue in this area according to demands from the system - for example current requests for support are focussing on informing parents/carers and educationalists out with the teaching profession. |
SL99 Education Scotland will work with excellence and equity leads (EEL), local authority officers and the Scottish Government to increase and diversify the use of the recently created online professional learning community by EELs, for example through increased practice sharing and use of the online networking facilities to support the development and scaling of improvement activity. Future engagement will address the priority areas and other feedback identified through the consultation process. It will continue to include support for collaboration and effective practice sharing between EELs working in the early learning and childcare sector. |
Complete Education Scotland worked with excellence and equity leads (EEL), local authority officers and the Scottish Government and as a result facilitation and support for the professional learning community is now embedded as part of Education Scotland’s core offer for Early Learning and Childcare. It is anticipated that the work undertaken will support excellence and equity leads to have increased clarity and focus on the purpose of their role within their day-to-day work; increased confidence and capacity in the use of data to support improvement; and a wider network of peer support. |
SL101 Education Scotland will evolve its headteacher and system leader professional learning offer in partnership with the profession and other relevant stakeholders. This professional learning will build capacity with headteachers and system leaders to be leaders of learning in their settings, manage change and lead their setting through upcoming reform. |
Complete In Headship - the recruitment for cohort 8 is now complete, 26 participants will be engaging in the programme across three universities; Glasgow, Stirling and University of Highlands and Islands. A national induction event took place on 10th October at University of Stirling. The programme will continue through until June 2025. There has been high demand for the school and system leadership professional learning programmes, with over 450 places taken up to date. The Connected and Collaborative System Leadership programme provides learning opportunities for experienced headteachers and local authority officers with an initial focus on inclusion and intersectionality. The programme launched its latest cohort in September. Early evaluations show the value of this leadership learning opportunity afforded by this programme, with participants stating the group discussion, professional dialogue and time to network and connect with leaders from across Scotland being the most valuable part of the session. Almost all participants gave feedback back that their confidence and understanding has increased in relation to inclusion and intersectionality, with 96% stating that they will implement the learning in practice. Excellence in Headship has evolved into a new dedicated programme called Leading the How of Change for Strategic Leadership designed to build capacity in leaders to support ahead of - and during - curriculum reform in Scotland. This offer is now open to all those who hold the General Teaching Council for Scotland's Standard for Headship, thereby widening participation. In September, the team held a dedicated session with ADES and headteachers to co-create the offer. Over the course of the academic session, there are 9 opportunities to engage with the programme, with participants choosing from one of two online sessions, or one of seven in-person sessions at five venues across Scotland (Glasgow, Stirling, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen) In addition to this, the new Leading the How of Change programme has been co-designed with headteachers following service design principles to allow for flexibility for busy practitioners, as well as widening the reach to include leaders who hold the GTCS SfH. This will be offered in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen - as well as online sessions. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The planned next steps will be to continue to review the offer and develop it to continue to meet system needs. The learning from this approach will continue to influence the ongoing offer from Education Scotland and the Professional Learning and Leadership team. Learning will be taken from all elements of the PLL offer with feedback gathered which will influence future design, delivery and evaluation approaches. |
SL102 Education Scotland will undertake a transition process to a new Regional/National/Professional Learning and Leadership structure, to ensure delivery of agreed priorities, including accelerating progress towards closing the attainment gap, improving experiences and outcomes for children with additional support needs, and supporting curriculum leadership and learning and teaching approaches. |
Complete The restructuring was completed by the end of March 2024. The new structure for support and improvement has two Strategic Directors: one overseeing Lifelong Learning and one overseeing learning, teaching and assessment, and curriculum. They will work closely together to accelerate progress towards closing the attainment gap, improve experiences and outcomes for children with additional support needs, and support curriculum leadership and learning and teaching approaches. |
Teacher and Practitioner Professionalism
Action |
Current position |
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TP01 The intention remains to fund professional learning for teachers in this area (Masters level Professional Learning) including at school leadership level. |
Closed The Scottish Government has supported Masters-level learning for teachers through the Teacher Education Partnerships with over £8 million invested which has enabled over 7,400 teachers to engage with high quality professional learning opportunities. Due to budget pressures, the Scottish Government was unable to fund the Masters-level learning programme in 2023-24 or 2024-25. The Scottish Government has continued to fund Into Headship and In Headship, which are post-graduate programmes for aspiring and current headteachers. In 2024/25 we are providing a total of £890k to universities to deliver these programmes. Anticipated outcomes and next steps We are continuing to fund Into Headship and In Headship, which are post-graduate programmes for aspiring and current headteachers. |
TP32 Additional collaborative professional learning opportunities in STEM will become available through the activities of the college-led STEM Hubs, now known as STEM Partnerships. |
Complete The Energy Skills Partnership (ESP) STEM Leads Forum continues to meet on a six monthly basis bringing together key stakeholders from colleges, local authorities and national organisations to promote and share collaborative professional learning opportunities in STEM. |
TP34 A Young STEM Leaders awards programme. The programme aims to grow mentoring opportunities and encourage inspiration for STEM by young people. Following a successful pilot in 2019, the programme is now available to all schools in Scotland. |
Complete The Young Stem Leader Programme (YSLP) is now available at SCQF Levels 2 – 7 (with non-formal versions delivered at SCQF Levels 2 – 4 and formal qualifications delivered at levels 4 – 7). YSLP Level 7 launched this year with funding from Ocean Winds. It is estimated that over 20,500 Young STEM Leaders have engaged in the programme to date and the programme is now available across all 32 local authority areas. |
TP106 To promote the recruitment of Gaelic teachers, the Scottish Government is funding a Gaelic Teacher Recruitment Officer at Bòrd na Gàidhlig (BnG) to attract Gaelic speakers into the profession. A range of promotional materials have been prepared for this purpose and BnG and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) are promoting Gaelic teaching at school events. In addition, courses are available at Glasgow University and Sabhal Mor Ostaig to assist teachers who would like to transfer from English to Gaelic teaching and also local authorities are providing support within their area for those who would like to teach through the medium of Gaelic. |
Complete Activity undertaken by Bòrd na Gàidhlig (April 24 to date) to promote pathways into careers in teaching Gaelic include:
Next steps As part of our ongoing engagement with BnG, we will continue to review progress and impact of these and other actions with the Bord, including considering whether any adaptations or further, focussed activity may be required. |
TP109 The Scottish Government will continue to work with key partners to deliver the ASL Action Plan to enhance professional learning and development for additional support for learning. The Scottish Government will also work with partners to ensure that there is appropriate career progression and pathways for teachers looking to specialise in additional support for learning. |
Ongoing See action CA94 for updates. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The Project Board have produced a detailed work plan in response to this report outlining how we will ensure that we deliver meaningful change through this work. To deliver the measures set out in our joint action plan, we will review the actions being delivered on a bi-monthly basis to ensure that progress is being made and that we achieve the broad and deep change necessary to achieve our ambitions that all children and young people are valued, respected, included and supported to achieve and succeed. Following publication of the updated ASL action plan and progress report, more actions have been completed bringing the total of delivered actions up to 40, which represents more than 52% of the total plan. The next reporting period ends in March 2026, at which point we will be publishing a final update of the Action Plan and a Progress Report. |
TP112 Scottish Government will work with the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) to agree how the commitment to reduce class contact time for teachers by 90 minutes per week will be delivered. |
Ongoing We are committed to working with the teacher unions, and COSLA, through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), to agree our approach to delivering a reduction in class contact time. This is part of the agreement reached with COSLA in December 2024, which will see Local Government and Scottish Government working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels in 2025, as well as freezing learning hours and making meaningful progress on reducing class contact time for teachers. We are providing £186.5m to local authorities in 2025-26 to support this work. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Following the agreement with COSLA, work will commence through the SNCT to make meaningful progress towards delivering this commitment, starting in the 2025-26 school year. This is ultimately a matter which will require agreement from the whole SNCT. |
TP113 Scottish Government will work with local government to deliver the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party's shared policy programme commitment to recruit 3,500 additional teachers and 500 classroom assistants over this parliamentary term. |
Ongoing The commitment to recruit 500 classroom assistants has been achieved. We have 17,330 classroom assistants in Scotland – the highest level on record and an increase of more than 2,000 since 2020. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The agreement reached with COSLA, will see Local Government and Scottish Government working together to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels in 2025. We are providing £186.5m to local authorities in 2025-26 to support this work. We have also committed to working together on medium and long-term joint workforce planning, which will take into account the importance of responding to issues including different local needs. |
TP119 Education Scotland will set up a National Response to Improving Literacy group to sit alongside the National Response to Improving Mathematics Partnership Board. Both groups will examine the existing landscape in Scotland and internationally and seek out the best opportunities to enhance the professional learning for teachers and the classroom experiences for young people. |
Complete National Response to Improving Literacy group to sit alongside the National Response to Improving Mathematics Partnership Board. NRIL summary 2024: Co-chaired by Education Scotland, the Scottish Government and ADES, the National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) has brought together key partners from across Scotland to develop a coherent response to the implementation of change through a focus on equity and excellence to improve literacy outcomes. In the course of its work, the partnership board and attendant Short Life Working Groups addressed four key areas with the ultimate aim of developing the scope and quality of professional learning in literacy. These were: 1) Re(in)stating Scotland's definition of literacy; 2) Core elements of literacy and developmentally appropriate pedagogies to support; 3) Pedagogical approaches to literacy throughout the learner journey; 4) Supporting learner-centred progression in literacy. SLWGs came together between December and March of 2023/24, with approximately 20 meetings taking place across all groups. Each group was co-chaired by two of the six regional/local authority NRIL partnership board members and supported by members of the Education Scotland Literacy and English team. Working with a brief agreed by the NRIL partnership board, each SLWG was tasked with:
The NRIL partnership board subsequently made connections across the diverse proposals produced by the SLWGs in order to create a set of themed recommendations, which will form the basis of an NRIL implementation and action plan. With this in mind, two part-time NRIL Development Officers have been seconded for 5 months to develop professional learning in two areas of literacy identified in the recommendations as requiring further support i.e. Critical Literacy and Disciplinary Literacy. |
TP121 As part of the Future of Gaelic and Scots consultation, we have identified the need to enable teachers to improve their confidence in Scots and Gaelic for Learners skills by expanding the Continued Professional Development (CPD) opportunities available. The Scottish Government will work in partnership with local authorities, Gaelic training institutes and other partners to identify what CPD training is already available and to establish what work is required to expand CPD opportunities. |
Complete Through developments including introduction of a Gaelic element in the Into Headship programme and provision of CPD in both Gaelic and GME by our Gaelic bodies, we have identified and enhanced the CPD training opportunities for teachers in respect of both Gaelic Language and Gaelic Medium Education. We also expect that wider actions to support the recruitment, retention and professional practice of teaching staff give consideration to the particular needs and circumstance of Gaelic language and GME practitioners. Next steps We are considering what new action/s may be appropriate in respect of CDP support for Gaelic language and GNE practitioners following progress of the Scottish Languages Bill. Any further actions and/or assessment of the existing CPD supports for GME and Gaelic Language practitioners will need to be reviewed within the post-Bill context and within the context of the ongoing national education bodies reforms. |
TP122 Education Scotland will build capacity through the development and refresh of the suite of inclusion, wellbeing and equality professional learning information, resources and opportunities through the lens of: Relationships Wellbeing and care Inclusion and targeted support Rights and Participation |
Complete During this reporting period the Inclusion, Wellbeing and Equalities (IWE) team have collaboratively developed, facilitated and led a wide range of professional learning opportunities across Scotland and internationally. A core focus has included the ongoing development of the IWE Professional Learning Framework which focusses on four interconnected and interdependent themes including a focus life chances impacted by wider inequalities.
The framework has been collaboratively developed with 32 local authorities and aims to build capacity within and across the education system, supporting improved knowledge and understanding of inclusion, wellbeing and equalities which underpin Scottish education. Primarily aimed at supporting all adults who work with children and young people in an educational context it can also support those who work with adult learners, parents, carers, families and in community learning contexts. Other developments, activities and delivery to student teachers, probationers, and educators have been developed. |
TP124 Education Scotland will work with partners, including local authority, RIC and private and third sector ELC leads and practitioners, to design and deliver improvement support to the early learning and childcare sector at national, regional, local and setting level during academic session 2022-23. |
Complete Education Scotland has worked successfully with partners at Local Authority, Regional and National level, including private and third sector leaders and practitioners to design and deliver professional learning for the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) sector. Themes covered include curricular areas and subjects such as: literacy and English; numeracy and mathematics; health and wellbeing and STEM, and learning, teaching and assessment (including play pedagogy); digital learning and teaching; curriculum innovation; best use of evidence; system leadership; inclusion, wellbeing, equity and equalities. During 2023, over 96% participant evaluations rated the professional learning as good or very good quality. Other developments, activities and delivery to student teachers, probationers, and educators have been developed. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Education Scotland will continue to work with partners across the public, private and third sectors to identify need, co-design and deliver high quality support to the ELC sector. |
TP125 Education Scotland will work with stakeholders to design and deliver targeted professional learning to support recently appointed ELC practitioners and leaders. |
Complete The planned improvement activity was completed in May 2024. To support newly qualified early learning and childcare (ELC) practitioners, an online programme was co-produced with a provider from private sector. 95.1% of evaluations rated the sessions as good or very good and almost all stated they were likely or highly likely to implement their learning and share it learning with others. An in-person programme for leaders was developed to support improvements in pedagogical leadership in ELC settings. 100% of pilot programme evaluations rated the programme as very good or good and it was subsequently offered to leaders across 9 local authorities. Evaluations were highly positive with almost all participants stating that they are likely or highly likely to implement and share their learning. Due to the success of the programmes and continued demand, Education Scotland is continuing to offer the programmes as part the ongoing support to the ELC sector. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Due to demand the programmes developed have been incorporated into the ongoing support for the ELC sector in 2024 - 2025. The appointment of 6 Education Scotland ELC Associates in January 2025 is supporting the delivery of an enhanced programme which now includes a coaching offer for participants. |
TP126 Education Scotland will participate in Education Reform work streams, working in collaboration with Scottish Government officials to progress the ASL Action Plan; facilitate national networks and local authorities to 'Keep the Promise'. |
Complete The successful implementation of recommendations of the range of reviews and reports on Scottish education since 2020 require Inclusion wellbeing and equalities to be central to all work and planning within Education Scotland and across all local authorities. Education Scotland Inclusion Wellbeing and Equalities officers have provided:
The engagement and feedback about the framework, together with the OECD report on Curriculum for Excellence, the ASL Action Plan from the Morgan Review and the Relationships and Behaviour Action plan, all continue to contribute to the IWE professional learning framework’s content development. Inclusion, Wellbeing and Equalities (IWE) team have supported the capacity building across the system to improve consistent understanding, language and effective practice across all Local authorities when supporting children, young people, families and staff. |
TP127 The Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to promote teaching as a valued career, with a strong sense of professional development. |
Ongoing We are continuing to work with our partners, through the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, to explore how we can collectively promote teaching as a highly rewarding, inspiring and challenging career with opportunities for creativity and autonomy and, crucially, to make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people, with the aim of improving recruitment and retention and attracting more high quality individuals into teaching, in areas where they are most needed. Anticipated outcomes and next steps A sub-group has been set up, led by the Scottish Government and comprises members from teacher unions, local authority employers, universities and Scottish Catholic Education Service. Actions are the development of key messages and a common narrative that can be deployed across the communications channels of all stakeholders. |
TP128 As part of the refresh of the LfS Action Plan we have engaged with educators to gather their views on LfS. A better offer for Career Long Professional Learning (CLPL) has been identified as one of the key themes on our engagement exercises. SG is working with ES to develop an LfS portal, from which all the training and resources that are already available can be accessed centrally. This will provide practitioners with readily available CLPL resources on LfS which will ensure they are better able to embed LfS in their practice and ensure that children and young people receive their entitlement to LfS. |
Complete The refreshed Action Plan was published in June 2023. One of the key actions of this plan is the development of an LfS portal that will provide an accessible way for educators to share understanding of LfS, its values and its practice. Education Scotland successfully launched the new resource webpage in early October 2024. Available resources will be continually reviewed and updated on a rolling basis to provide ongoing support to practitioners in their implementation of LfS across the 3-18 curriculum. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The new Education Scotland LfS webpage delivers the following:
Resources will be regularly reviewed and updated as required. |
TP129 The Scottish Government will work with teachers and other partners to co-create a Centre for Teaching Excellence to ensure that Scotland remains at the forefront of innovation in learning and teaching to support and empower the profession. |
Closed Throughout 2024, the Scottish Government has worked with teachers and other key education stakeholders to co-design the scope of the Centre for Teaching Excellence. The host of the Centre has been identified through a competitive grant process, which concluded in December 2024. The 2025 Improvement Plan highlights our commitment to now setting up the Centre for Teaching Excellence, which, together with partners such as Education Scotland, will lead to an improvement in learning, teaching and assessment at a national level, through enabling teachers to develop their practice through critical reflection and use of research. |
TP130 The Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to promote teaching as a valued career, with a strong sense of professional development. In 2024, we will work with our partners, through the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, to explore how we can collectively promote teaching as a highly rewarding, inspiring and challenging career with opportunities for creativity and autonomy and, crucially, to make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people, with the aim of improving recruitment and retention and attracting more high quality individuals into teaching, in areas where they are most needed. |
Closed – action merged with TP127 |
TP131 The Scottish Government will work with partners from across ELC to develop a range of actions that will support a sustainable, diverse, highly skilled workforce to serve the whole childcare sector. |
Closed - action merged with SL92 The Scottish Government has funded the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to collaboratively design a new national portal for professional learning. This brings together a range of existing high-quality learning resources and materials available, to provide a single source of information for professionals across all parts of the ELC sector, and was launched in March. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The portal was launched on 18 March 2024. We will continue to work with Scottish Social Services Council colleagues, and the sector, to further develop the portal in 2024/25. |
TP132 The Scottish Government is funding a project which aims to support children’s early speech and language development and support a reduction in the equity gap in children’s early speech, language development. This is being taken forward through the secondment of six full time equivalent (FTE) senior speech and language therapists as Early Speech and Language Leads (the Leads). The six FTE posts will be hosted and line-managed by Education Scotland to make maximum use of existing relationships and networks including local education authorities and practitioner networks. The Leads have three core elements to their role: 1. Strategic Oversight - The Leads will work with partners to understand the current system, including what is working well and the actions required to improve to better support children’s speech, language and communication development from pre-birth to 5. The Leads will work collaboratively with health and early education teams to co-design, develop and deliver bespoke plans, measures, professional learning and resources aligned to regional and local priorities for early speech and language improvement. 2. National Leadership – The team will contribute to national actions to support children’s early language development and lead on the development of a national action plan for early speech and language development. 3. Operational Support – The Leads will help build the confidence and capacity of staff working in ELC and health settings to implement effective universal and targeted approaches to support children’s speech and language development in line with ‘Realising the Ambition: Being Me’, and to support increased communication and collaboration across other key public services in-line with ‘Ready to Act’. |
Ongoing Over the course of the project, the Leads have been engaging with key partners across Scotland to gather information on what is working well and where the challenges lie in the support of early speech, language and communication (SLC) development from pre-birth to school entry. They have established a ‘Connectors Network’ made up of identified leads from a range of professional backgrounds from local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships to discuss support for local SLC collaboration. The Leads have engaged widely with partners across health, education and third sector and have developed a leadership session which has now been delivered to the Private Voluntary and Independent (PVI) nursery sector. A workshop has also been delivered to CYPIC colleagues to explore the evidence base, local knowledge and understanding and potential areas for early SLC quality improvement support across Scotland. An evidence paper exploring factors associated with better and poorer SLC outcomes is in progress and a summary has been shared with stakeholders for feedback. The Leads have identified areas for national support and development , including broad principles on preventative support for speech, language and communication. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The Leads are promoting awareness of national resources and training offers to assist key partners to support early SLC development and are working to increase awareness of leadership roles and multi-agency working to supporting SLC across systems. An evidence paper on exploring factors associated with better and poorer SLC outcomes will be made available to leaders and practitioners in final draft form to support this further. The Project will then move into the final planning stage with an emphasis on the development of a National Action Plan on supporting young children's speech, language and communication, which it is anticipated will be published in 2025. |
TP133 Education Scotland will work on a prototype programme that focuses on teacher and practitioner learning happening directly in schools by designing an offer that improves the professional learning being delivered by leaders in the setting. This programme will look at building participants' understanding of what makes professional learning effective and transformative; coaching and developing their understanding of collective efficacy to see real change in how teachers and practitioners experience professional learning in their settings. This protype will be open to senior leaders, teachers in promoted posts and teachers leading on aspects of work across their school. |
Complete The Leadership of Professional Learning Programme's protype cohort successfully concluded on June 4th with a knowledge exchange event. The programme welcomed 64 educators in various leadership roles, including teachers, middle leaders, depute head teachers, headteachers, and local authority representatives. The programme has been well received in supporting schools and settings to improve how professional learning is designed and delivered to support school focuses like improvements in learning, teaching and assessment. The delivery model offers both a national cohort but also co-construction and co-delivery with local authorities. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Based on the programme's success and participant feedback, Leadership of Professional Learning is now a national offer. Recruitment for the next cohort will begin in the new academic session. |
TP134 The Scottish Government has commissioned a research project examining examples of pedagogies employed by practitioners engaging in all three elements of learning for sustainability – outdoor learning, sustainable development and global citizenship learning and teaching – drawing out the potential benefits for reducing the poverty-related attainment gap, overcoming some of the barriers to attainment and identifying improved/positive educational outcomes for learners (and practitioners.) |
Complete A PhD graduate conducted a research project examining examples of pedagogies employed by practitioners engaging in all three elements of LfS – outdoor learning, sustainable development and global citizenship learning and teaching – drawing out the potential benefits for reducing the poverty related attainment gap, overcoming some of the barriers to attainment and identifying improved/positive educational outcomes for learners (and practitioners). The research project has now been completed, with findings produced to inform policy and delivery moving forwards. This research “Exploring the link between Learning for Sustainability and attainment” was published in August 2024 and is available at: Exploring the link between Learning for Sustainability and attainment - gov.scot Anticipated outcomes and next steps Providing evidence to practitioners on how LfS approaches improve outcomes for learners will support and encourage them to better embed LfS into the curriculum and will support the ambition for all learners to receive their entitlement. In turn, this will contribute to delivery of the refreshed action plan Target 2030 vision for all learning settings to become sustainable. |
TP135 Education Scotland will respond to requests for support for Gaelic Medium Education, with bespoke professional learning and advice, in line with our national guidance, the Advice on Gaelic Education. Education Scotland will make available translations of resources in collaboration with key stakeholders and other colleagues. |
Complete Throughout the year Education Scotland has responded to requests for support across Primary and Secondary Gaelic Medium Education from local authorities. We have provided a variety of professional learning sessions and a national seminar bespoke for Gaelic based on our Advice on Gaelic Education document. We have made available some resources in Gaelic and have worked with colleagues and stakeholders to do this e.g. materials relating to the UNCRC and Sustainability Development Goals. Next steps Education Scotland will continue to respond to requests for support for Gaelic Medium Education, with bespoke professional learning and advice, in line with our national guidance, the Advice on Gaelic Education. Education Scotland will make available appropriate translations of resources in collaboration with key stakeholders and other colleagues. |
Parent and Carer Engagement and Family Learning
Action |
Current position |
|---|---|
PE36 The joint Scottish Government/COSLA “Learning Together” Action Plan was published on 21 August 2018. The plan contains a variety of national actions in relation to both involvement and engagement which will be implemented in 2019, including: review and strengthen statutory guidance in time for academic year 2019/20. |
Complete - Linked to PE98 Officials published a light touch re-draft of the Action Plan as directed by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 21 Dec 2023. |
PE93 The Scottish Government will continue to collaborate with partners, including parents and carers to deliver the actions from the ASL Action Plan to enhance parental empowerment and engagement. We will continue to ensure that the key role of parents, as partners in their children’s learning, is realised. We will identify additional avenues for engagement to develop and deliver ways of working together that support and promote positive relationships, communication and co-operation. |
Ongoing The third progress report and updated action plan, demonstrates the steps that have been taken across all 9 themes that were set out in the Morgan Review (2020) and highlights areas of progress, particularly drawing on the involvement and positive impact for parents and carers to date. The third progress report also include a case study, setting out ‘top tips’ for engaging effectively and meaningfully with parents and carers of children and young people with an additional support need. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Since October 2020, 40 of the 76 actions have been completed and whilst there is still much to do to deliver the remaining actions by the end of this parliamentary term, we are fully committed to achieving this. In broad terms, there are three priority areas of focus for the ASL Project Board over the next 18-months, which will support the delivery of the remaining actions set out in the ASL Action Plan: 1. Communication 2. National Measurement Framework 3. Refresh of the Code of Practice The ASL Project Board and the ASL Network will continue to meet over the next 18- months to ensure delivery of the remaining actions in the ASL Action Plan and to ensure that the positive impact of this work is demonstrated. The next Progress Report will be published in March 2026. |
PE98 The “Learning Together” action plan on parental engagement will come to a close at the end of 2021. In early 2022, the Scottish Government will work in partnership with parent organisations national education agencies to review that plan, and to publish a refreshed policy framework on parent and carer involvement and engagement. |
Complete - Linked to PE93 Officials published a light touch re-draft of the Action Plan as directed by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 21 Dec 2023. |
PE105 In 2023 the Scottish Government will consider the recommendations from the co-design phase of the Learner Participation Project, with a commitment to launch a new co-created learner participation mechanism that protects and promotes children's rights by embedding the voice of children and young people into education policy development and decision making. |
Closed - Superseded by SI106 Recognising the need for learners to be front and centre of changes within Scottish Education, the Scottish Government are working with the third sector collaborative involved with the Learner Participation Project to pivot activities to better support and be aligned with the ongoing Education Reform Programme. Scottish Government continues to work with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive and strategic approach to ensure that children and young people’s voice are taken fully into account in education policy development and decision-making. We continue to utilise our existing evidence base of what children and young people have previously told us in respect to education policy to ensure the learner voice is considered and embedded when developing policy. Anticipated outcomes and next steps We have proposed a programme of participation and engagement to embed the voices of children and young people within education policy, with an initial focus on education reform, and will continue to work with stakeholders to develop that. |
PE106 Education Scotland will work with Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers, local authorities, and national organisations to begin scoping out and piloting the implementation of the Strategic Framework for Parental Involvement, Parental Engagement, Family learning and Learning at Home. |
Ongoing Education Scotland worked in partnership with ITE providers and a local authority to capture the impact of the pilots through the filming of university and local authority staff and students. Two pilots have been successfully undertaken with ITE providers and a local authority. Work is underway for the planning and scheduling of further pilots with different ITE providers and local authorities during 2025. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Work is underway to capture feedback from students involved in the 2nd pilot with Strathclyde University and North Lanarkshire Family Learning Team. This evaluation feedback will be captured and published via podcast with a view to including it in any professional learning moving forward. |
PE107 Education Scotland will further develop the Parents and Families topic page on the refreshed Education Scotland website with the most up-to-date and relevant information and resources, in collaboration with relevant parties including the research community. |
Complete The Parents and Families topic page on the refreshed Education Scotland website has been populated with the most up-to-date and relevant information and resources. This action will be business as usual as the topic page will continue to be updated in line with Education Scotland’s content review and refresh. |
PE108 Education Scotland will work with local authorities and Regional Improvement Collaboratives to deliver a bespoke Parental Involvement, Parental Engagement, Family Learning and Learning at Home offer based on their identified needs and national priorities. |
Complete Education Scotland have worked in partnership with a number of local authorities to develop and co-deliver bespoke professional learning based on identified needs and national priorities. Next steps After a self-evaluative process, feedback from participants indicated increased awareness, knowledge, confidence and skills as a result of attending the professional learning sessions. Participants included practitioners across all sectors. This work is ongoing and Education Scotland will continue to work in partnership with local authorities to develop and co/deliver bespoke professional learning. |
PE109 Education Scotland will work with Campaign for Learning, a UK-wide lifelong charity to plan the 2024 Scottish Family Learning Festival. This will continue to highlight the breadth of where Family Learning is being delivered across Scotland and by whom. It will also identify emerging trends and gaps in provision, to then inform Education Scotland's planning in relation to support and development at a national, regional and local level. |
Complete Education Scotland joined with Campaign for Learning (CfL) in a four nations Family Learning Festival. This builds on the work undertaken for the 2023 Family Learning Festival. Education Scotland were asked to contribute to Campaign for Learning’s conference in November on Family Learning and Parental Engagement in Scotland. Anticipated outcomes The event continues to provide opportunities to promote and share family learning practice in Scotland. Trends and needs identified across Scotland are used to inform future planning. |
PE110 Education Scotland will work with the research community to identify and share new and emerging research relating to parents and families, through a series of webinars aimed at practitioners in the field. |
Complete Education Scotland worked with the British Deaf Association (Scotland), Edinburgh University and SCILT to develop a case study focusing on the experiences and challenges of deaf young people attending, school, college and university. The case study has been published and is available on Education Scotland’s website. An article focusing on the case study was published in the British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (BATOD) international e-magazine. |
PE111 The Scottish Government will work with key stakeholders in reviewing and producing refreshed materials for use by all local authorities when undertaking their own Parental Involvement and Engagement (PIE) Census in the 2024/25 academic year. The Scottish Government will work in collaboration with all key stakeholders to better understand why some local areas do not intend to use these materials. |
Ongoing Work has started on reviewing the PIE Census. Stakeholder meetings (internal and external) have been undertaken to understand specifically what evidence is needed on parental involvement and engagement. Engagement with local authorities to understand what data and support is needed locally has started. Analysis of the 2019 and 2022 collections to identify improvements to data quality is complete. This will inform any future census or alternative evidence collection. Next steps Work will continue to consider and engage with key stakeholders in relation to the future evidence needs of local and national stakeholders, with an aim of making recommendations by Summer 2025. |
Curriculum and Assessment
Action |
Current position |
|---|---|
CA02 From 2020, we will also draw upon two additional health visitor assessments at 13 months and at around 54 months. |
Complete The fifth annual release from the 13-15 month and 4-5 year review was published in April 2024. Coverage of these child health reviews has stabilised over the last few years, with the implementation of the Universal Health Visiting Pathway across Scotland. In 2021/22, coverage of the 13-15 month and 4-5 year review was 89% and 78% respectively, with the reviews carried out in every Health Board in Scotland. These additional datasets have provided a more holistic picture of child development among the under 5s. Outcomes and next steps Agreement has been reached to include the additional measures of developmental concerns captured at 13-15 months (data from 2019/20 when coverage reached 87.9%) and 4-5 years reviews (data from 2020/21 when coverage reached 84%). These will be included in the NIF Report. Inclusion in the NIFIER will follow a NIFIER consultation and development. |
CA03 From 2021, we anticipate a revised ELC census that will provide additional data on some of the drivers of children’s outcomes. |
Ongoing Work to enable data on the number of hours of funded ELC children are registered to be available as part of the ELC Census was delayed due to a delay in the roll-out of the SEEMiS Early Years management information system. The new census process is dependent on an extract of data from this SEEMiS system. It will now be 2026 before we have individual-level data on children accessing funded ELC. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The introduction the new ELC census is anticipated to take place in 2026, enabled by the SEEMiS Early Years management information system. Plans to trial a data collection before the first census remain in place. The individual level ELC Census data will enable us to better understand take up of the expanded entitlement to 1140 hours of funded ELC and will allow us to analyse the number of hours children are registered for funded ELC as a driver of child outcomes by child characteristics (e.g. sex, deprivation.) |
CA43 We will ensure that by 2030, students from the 20 per cent most deprived areas make up 20 per cent of higher education entrants. |
Closed The fair access agenda is currently focused on access to higher education. This is in part based on the approach recommended by the Commission for Fair Access, and because those from deprived areas are under-represented in higher education. We have made good inroads with regards to wider access to higher education with interim targets having been met to date. Next steps We will continue to promote widening access by working with colleges, universities, and others to ensure that, by 2030, admissions to university reflects our population with at least 20 per cent of university entrants coming from our 20 per cent most deprived communities. Professor John McKendrick, Commissioner for Fair access published his first annual report in January 2024, an SG response to his recommendations was published in September 2024. |
CA57 Following the publication of the national strategy for school libraries in September 2018, an implementation group was established to oversee implementation and progress in relation to the 20 action points in the strategy which are designed to support the improvement in literacy and numeracy, boost attainment across the curriculum, support health and wellbeing, foster inclusion, and enable opportunities for family learning. |
Complete The Scottish Library Information Fund (SLIF) allocated £150,000 in 2024/25 to support a total of 17 initiatives across 19 local authorities with priority being given to applications with a focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. The School Libraries Improvement Fund (SLIF) has now provided a total of £1.85 million in funding to small scale school library improvement projects since the creation of the fund in 2017. An implementation group was established to oversee delivery of the 20 actions in the National Strategy for School Libraries in Scotland 2018-2023. When the Strategy concluded in 2023, this body evolved into the School Libraries Education and Policy Group. Next steps When the National Strategy for School Libraries in Scotland 2018-2023 came to an end, an independent evaluation was conducted resulting in the convention of the School Library and Education Policy Group. The Scottish Library Information Council (SLIC) appointed a new chief executive in June 2024. Scottish Government will work with partners to consider options and reconvene the School Libraries Education and Policy Working Group and review its priorities. |
CA71 The latest BISSR project is currently out to tender. It is anticipated that it will report towards the end of 2020/ early 2021. |
Complete Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) fieldwork could not take place as planned in March 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions in place in schools and their impact on survey reference periods. The research took place in 2023 with the final report being published on 28 November 2023. An action plan to respond to the BISSR findings was published in August 2024. |
CA72 Improve communications and engagement on national standardised assessment in Scotland and clarify key messages. |
Complete Published in August 2019, and updated in May 2024, the National standardised assessments: purpose and use document provides clear guidance on the intended use by local authorities, headteachers and practitioners of national standardised assessments. The May 2024 update reflected ongoing user feedback which is critical to the continued improvement of the assessment system and user experience of it. Two user assurance groups - one for educational content and the other for additional support needs and accessibility issues - were established in January 2022 and feedback and input from these is now an established part of business as usual activity around the standardised assessments. Regular school visits and discussions with practitioners about the use of the assessments take place. NIF meetings with the professional associations have recommenced, whilst newsletters are now circulated to all active NSA users on a quarterly basis. Next steps NSA stakeholder engagement and communications strategies continue to be reviewed and refined on an ongoing basis, with user assurance group membership regularly reviewed to ensure a diverse range of stakeholder views are received. Case studies demonstrating good practice around the use of the assessments and related data are currently being developed to further enhance the guidance available to teachers and local authorities. A programme of engagement with local authorities is planned for early 2025. |
CA77 Continue to work with partners to enhance the Gaelic medium standardised assessments. |
Complete Phase two of the Gaelic medium education standardised assessments, the MCNG, was launched under a public beta banner in May 2022, allowing a user feedback period before full launch of the assessments. The outcomes data derived from the public beta phase was then used to calibrate assessment items and standardise the assessments, for the first time in the history of the MCNG, bringing parity of approach with the English medium SNSA assessments. An item performance review relating to this content was then conducted in conjunction with the supplier at the end of the 2022/23 and 2023/24 school years, further enhancing the statistical rigour of the GME assessments. This is now an established process forming part of business as usual activity. The SG has also brought the creation of MCNG content in house; recruiting a panel of GME practitioners to produce content which is relevant to and cognisant of Curriculum for Excellence and the approach to GME and immersion learning. All learner-facing assessment items are quality assured externally against the Gaelic Orthographic Convention. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Reports, training, and content will continue to be developed in the medium of Gaelic. User research and ongoing stakeholder consultation will seek to obtain feedback to inform proposals for continuous improvement specific to the Gaelic sector's needs. |
CA79 Work with key partners to assess and enhance the value of the national standardised assessments |
Complete Our plans for ongoing user consultation and engagement recommenced from the 2022/23 school year onwards. Two user assurance groups – one for educational matters and the other for accessibility matters – have been re-established and are now an established part of business as usual activity. User research and feedback via school visits and related teacher feedback interviews are equally conducted on an ongoing operational basis, with more booked in for the coming term, ensuring continual qualitative feedback from a range of stakeholders. Learner feedback continues to be gathered at the point of assessment whilst practitioners provide feedback on an annual basis via the staff survey. Next steps In-depth analysis of the staff survey results allow data-driven identification of areas where the NSA offer can be further enhanced. User research work as part of the scoping work around the next phase of delivery of the NSA platform is currently being planned. Expanded membership of the user assurance groups has ensured a broader array of stakeholders are able to feed into the ongoing development of the NSA digital assessment platform and have, for example, assisted in the improvement of user guidance. These groups and continued school visits and teacher interviews will support the continuous improvement of the phase two national standardised assessments platform, and feed directly into the scoping of future development work. |
CA85 Developing resources and support for schools to address gender based violence and sexual harassment. |
Ongoing The Gender Based Violence in Schools Working Group published its new framework on preventing and responding to gender-based violence in March 2024. An information session promoting the guidance was run by Education Scotland in September 2024. As part of that, feedback was gathered about whether there may be further areas where professional learning may be beneficial. Next steps An independent review of the guidance will be commissioned before the end of the parliamentary session. |
CA88 The Learning for Sustainability (LfS) self-assessment tool provided by the SCQF supports credit rating bodies (CRBs) to identify their awards and qualifications as LfS-relevant. The Scottish Government will work with the SCQF to monitor the number of LfS relevant awards as more credit rating bodies periodically review their offerings. This information will allow the Scottish Government to monitor associated enrolment and attainment and ultimately the prevalence of LfS in the senior phase of the curriculum. |
Complete Scottish Government funded the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) to work with programme owners to develop new LfS qualifications, link existing programmes to LfS, and develop LfS-themed resources in Financial Year (FY) 22/23. After a bidding process, 8 programmes successfully secured funding and were completed by Summer 2023. Scottish Government provided funding again in FY 23/24 for a second phase of this project. Projects continue to be accredited from both phases. Next steps An increased number of LfS related awards and qualifications will be made available to learners. Previously completed projects continue to be accredited and it has been agreed with SCQF that there will not be funding for 2024/25 due to SG financial priorities. |
CA89 The Scottish Government has formed a Gender Based Violence in Schools working group to take forward specific actions to support children and young people in light of the reports. The working group will produce guidance for schools by January 2022. |
Complete Linked to Action CA85. The Gender Based Violence in Schools Working Group published its new framework in preventing and responding to gender-based violence in schools in March 2024. Next steps An independent review of the guidance will be commissioned before the end of the parliamentary session. |
CA93 The review of the implementation of additional support for learning (ASL) made recommendations about how to enhance the educational experiences of children and young people with additional support needs. This includes ensuring that the achievements and successes of children and young people are fully recognised and celebrated. A national measurement framework for additional support for learning (ASL) will be developed by 31 October 2021. |
Closed - superseded by action in the Improvement Plan Work has been underway to consider how a National Measurement Framework for Additional Support Needs can be created to capture the range of successes and achievements of children and young people with additional support needs. This is a complex piece of work, that has required careful consideration and engagement with a wide range of partners, to ensure that the different learning outcomes, progress and achievements of each child with additional support needs can be evidenced and celebrated. Discussions have been ongoing with analytical colleagues in the Scottish Government, to establish what will be required to develop, build and publish the first iteration of the National Measurement Framework, and to consider the next phases of this work. To ensure that the development of the National Measurement Framework for additional support for learning and the progress made to progress this work, is recorded, monitored, and discussed at a national level, as part of the NIF, it anticipated that this work will be undertaken during 2025. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Next steps will include engagement with local authorities and consideration of the options to test this new approach within a sample of authorities. The next phase of this work will require the Monitoring and Analysis sub-group to work with Education Scotland and the Scottish Government, to develop a paper outlining options, challenges and timescales associated with the development of the Framework, for consideration by ASL Project Board members. Once we are in a position to publish a first iteration of the Framework, ASL Project Board members will work with partners to consider how this information that is collected can be presented in an accessible and meaningful way. The anticipated outcome of this work is the creation of a mechanism to capture, and celebrate, the range of diverse outcomes and achievements of all children and young people nationally, linking to the National Improvement Framework and National Performance. |
CA94 The Scottish Government will monitor progress made against the actions from the ASL Review. The Scottish Government continue to monitor this progress. |
Ongoing Scottish Ministers and COSLA have a joint agreement in place for the delivery of the ASL Action plan, and in 2022, the ASL Project Board was established. The ASL Project Board has oversight of delivery for the ASL Action Plan and has a wide stakeholder membership. This approach provides accountability through discussion, challenge and delivery progress. This governance structure has been established to ensure transparency in the delivery of our work and to create accountability of Ministers and our partners, including COSLA, ADES and Education Scotland. It also allows regular scrutiny of the work plan and prioritisation of any areas of concern and progress on short, medium and long-term actions. In November 2024 an updated ASL Action plan and Progress Report were published. The ASL Action plan includes the most recent updates on the work that the ASL Project Board are taking forward to deliver specific actions agreed to meet the recommendations set out in the ASL Review. The Progress Report captures progress made towards delivery of the actions set out in the Action Plan between November 2022 and June 2024. Good outcomes have been achieved across all recommendations with more actions progressed and completed. The ASL Project Board will continue to meet every two months, with a final update of the ASL Action Plan due in March 2026. Anticipated outcomes and next steps In March this year, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills gave evidence to the Education, Children and Young People’s (ECYP) Committee on the delivery of Additional Support for Learning. In the knowledge that the ECYP will produce a report and recommendations following their evidence sessions, the Cabinet Secretary agreed to consider their outcomes prior to publishing the next progress report. The ASL Project Board published a further up-date on the ASL Action Plan, along with a Progress Report in November this year (2024), having considered outcomes from the ECYP committee report. The next, and final update, will be due in March 2026. |
CA95 The Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland’s 2018 No Safe Place report, and evidence gathered during the Scottish Government’s engagement with local authorities in 2019, highlighted inconsistencies in the definitions of restraint and seclusion used in local policy and practice and the lack of a standard dataset for recording incidents. In 2020, a Physical Intervention Working Group was established to take forward improvements in this area by: a) Developing new national human-rights based guidance on physical intervention, which includes national definitions, by 2021. b) Developing and implementing a new national dataset for the recording and monitoring of incidents. c) Reviewing the restraint and seclusion data collected by local authorities as part of a one year review following publication of the guidance, to assess the guidance’s success. |
Complete The guidance was published on 8 November 2024 and includes the new national dataset. Next steps The next step formal step with this work is to review the effectiveness of the guidance in November 2025. |
CA103 In response to the ASL Review, significant progress has been made to develop a new national measurement framework. This seeks to capture the wider set of data which will be used to measure and support improvement. It is anticipated that the framework will be published by spring 2022. The framework will allow us to capture and celebrate outcomes and achievements of all children and young people nationally through the development of an annual report. This report will be co-created with children and young people and their families and will align with other initiatives around exam results time to provide further opportunities to celebrate and promote the successes and achievements of children and young people in equivalence to exams and attainment. |
Closed This action had been merged with CA93. |
CA104 Scottish Government and Education Scotland will work with a range of education agencies, children and young people organisations, and wider stakeholders to review the curriculum framework in relation to children’s rights and in relation to race equality and anti-racism, reporting to the Curriculum and Assessment Board and Scottish Ministers in 2022. |
Closed – see CA128 for final updates in relation to this action. The Curriculum and Assessment Board sub-group on children’s rights completed its initial examination of this issue during autumn/winter 2021 and provided general recommendations to the CAB in spring 2022. The sub group concluded that the curriculum framework would require a range of important updates in order to be fully “UNCRC compliant”. Outcomes and next steps The Curriculum Reform Sub-Group of the Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education Programme has created principles for an anti-racist curriculum. These principles, entitled Breaking the Mould, were published in June 2023 and seek to articulate and support what it means to embed anti-racism across the education system. Further work to consider updates to the curriculum framework will be considered in light of decisions on next steps in development of a systematic curriculum improvement cycle, which was announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills on 12 December 2023. The improvement cycle will be systematic and therefore this will mean considering and addressing cross-curricular themes. The sequencing and programme planning for the review and improvement cycle is underway. Details of how and in what ways cross-curricular themes are addressed will be clarified and finalised as part of that planning process. |
CA105 Scottish Government will continue to support improvement activity across the CfE subject areas. This will include joint work with local authorities to develop a model for a long-term sustainable instrumental music tuition service as well as the work to implement the recommendations from the Logan Review of Scotland’s Tech Ecosystem. |
Ongoing Scottish Government continues to implement the recommendations of the Logan Review of Scotland’s “technology ecosystem”. Actions are designed to ensure that teachers in Scotland have access to high-quality support for computing education and include support to the teacher-led body – the Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science – STACS which supports teachers to run extra-curricular activities, promotes computing science as a career option and provides a resource centre allowing teachers to enhance their support to young people. Instrumental Music Tuition - The Scottish Government have agreed with COSLA funding of £12 million for instrumental music tuition in 2025/26 (subject to Scottish Government budget setting), continuing to remove barriers to participation. The funding means that where music tuition is offered in schools, parents and carers will not be required to pay fees. Funding will be provided on a financial year basis model which is consistent with other funds being provided to local authorities. Anticipated outcomes and next steps DG Economy and DG Education and Justice policy officials continue to work collaboratively on the implementation of the Logan Review of Scotland’s Tech Ecosystem. This includes providing total funding of £270k for FY 2024/25 to Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS) to support their professional learning offer and related teacher upskilling activity. Work to explore and implement innovative approaches to addressing computing science recruitment challenges in partnership with ITE providers and STACS continues. Instrumental Music Tuition - Scottish Government is continuing to fund removal of fees for Instrumental Music Tuition in 2025/26 (subject to Scottish Government budget setting). The policy on removal of charging for music tuition supports equity of access to instrumental music tuition, helping ensure the widest range of young people can benefit from learning to play an instrument. Progress on long term sustainable funding model remains challenging in the current budgetary context. |
CA108 Scottish Government will co-create a new communications strategy for Curriculum for Excellence with teachers, practitioners, children and young people, and parents/carers. |
Closed - Superseded by action in the Improvement Plan The Education Reform Programme continues its progress, with the Education (Scotland) Bill currently at Stage 1 of the Parliamentary process, as well as the refocussing of Education Scotland’s remit and the establishment of the Centre for Teaching Excellence in process. In addition, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills responded to Professor Louise Hayward’s Independent Report of Qualifications and Assessment, and the Curriculum Improvement Cycle, which aims to refresh the Curriculum for Excellence, is also underway. 2025 is a significant year for reform of Scotland’s education system and a communications and engagement plan is required to ensure that stakeholders know what is happening and when. This will be comprehensive and inclusive of, not just work on improving the curriculum, but all other aspects of reform which are taking place in 2025. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Scottish Government will ensure that engagement continues with all stakeholders on various aspects of Education Reform. A communications and engagement plan, which is currently under development, will be used to ensure that we communicate effectively with stakeholders and hear their views at the appropriate times as the programme progresses its work. |
CA109 The Scottish Government has confidence in the current approach to assessment and qualifications, but to ensure that it remains effective and fair as society changes we are undertaking a process of reform. This will involve agreeing a consensus for the purposes and principles of assessment, and then considering how these may be used to design a reformed process. |
Ongoing In September 2024 the Scottish Government published its response to the final report of the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment. The SG response sets out the next steps in respect of reform of qualifications and assessment including the rebalancing of assessment methods, further work on inter-disciplinary learning, recognition of wider achievement and the long-term aspiration to develop a leaving certificate. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The development of a workplan, in conjunction with national education bodies, designed to take forward reform to qualifications and assessment as set out in the SG response to the IRQA. |
CA111 Work will also be undertaken to review the current role of measures and indicators associated with Curriculum for Excellence, and revised measures of progress and proposals for supporting teacher professional judgement and system evaluation will be included in the National Improvement Framework from December 2022 onwards. |
Closed Following publication of the OECD report on Curriculum for Excellence, exploratory work was undertaken to consider what may be the key elements of a “Matrix of Success” for Curriculum for Excellence but this work was superseded by wider developments in particular education reform and curriculum reforms via the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (commenced in December 2024). Education Scotland continue to provide support and resources to enhance the quality and consistency of teacher professional judgement. |
CA113 Scottish Government will develop a review cycle for the curriculum (including the four capacities and the eight curricular areas) as recommended by the OECD review. These reviews will take account of the OECD commentary on areas such as the role of knowledge and skills. |
Closed - see CA128 for final updates in relation to this action. |
CA117 Scottish Government will work towards the implementation of the actions within the Promise 21-24 Action Plan. Specific actions during 2022: - Scottish Government will consider, with key partners including SAGRABIS (Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools) how we can further support schools use of relational approaches, ensuring that exclusion from school is a measure of last resort for all pupils, but particularly those who are care experienced. - Scottish Government will consider the further actions required, with key partners, to implement the Promise within schools in Scotland. |
Ongoing The Keeping the Promise Implementation Plan was published in March 22 and included a range of actions which the Scottish Government will undertake to implement the actions of The Promise 21-24 Action Plan. This includes a range of actions, which will be undertaken in partnership between Scottish Government, Education Scotland and partners to deliver the aims of the Action Plan relating to education. Work is currently underway with Education Scotland, COSLA and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) to develop and agree meaningful, measurable outcomes in response to the Education asks within The Promise. This has resulted in the development of a Framework which aims to focus on improving the educational outcomes of care experienced children and young people which include increased attendance and reduced exclusion, improved staying on rates past the earliest possible school leaving date, improving achievement and attainment, and more care experienced children and young people going into and sustaining a positive destination upon leaving school. The Framework has recently completed a period of testing with the results of that testing period to be considered before the Framework is adopted. During 2023 the Scottish Government continued to engage with partners to further refine these actions. This included engagement with key stakeholder groups such as SAGRABIS (Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools) on how we can further support schools use of relational approaches, ensuring that exclusion from school is a measure of last resort for all pupils, but particularly those who are care experienced. Anticipated outcomes and next steps We have committed to working with our partners to ensure our response to The Promise is both thoughtful and meaningful, whilst also reflecting on good practice already being demonstrated across educational authorities. To that end, we have been working in close partnership with Education Scotland and are currently engaging with a number of partners - such as COSLA, the Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection (CELCIS) and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) - to consider the calls for action made by the Promise in order to develop these into meaningful, measurable outcomes which has resulted in the development of the Framework. |
CA122 Education Scotland will undertake a national thematic inspection on the subject of curriculum design. |
Complete HM Inspectors of Education published a thematic inspection report of curriculum design on 8 May 2024. This report provides an overview of strengths and areas for improvement identified by HM Inspectors during visits to early learning and childcare settings and primary, secondary and special schools during academic session 2022-23. Schools and settings will refer to the recommendations in the thematic inspection report to ensure that all children and young people receive their full entitlement to a coherent, progressive broad general education that enables children and young people to build on their prior knowledge and skills more effectively. |
CA126 Education Scotland will provide ongoing support during the academic session 2022-23 for the quality assurance of education content for national standardised assessments and continue to contribute to the development of policy. |
Complete During the academic session 2023-2024, Education Scotland provided ongoing support for phase two of the National Standardised Assessment programme. Educational advice and guidance was provided for the development of phase two of the NSA project. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Education Scotland will provide continued support for the quality assurance of educational content for the National Standardised Assessment programme. |
CA127 Education Scotland will work with local authorities during the academic session 2023-24 to establish systems to support the delivery of assessment and moderation approaches through both regional and national offers. |
Complete Education Scotland supported bespoke requests from RICS and local authorities to develop self-sustaining systems and networks to support assessment and moderation moving forward. Next steps Assessment and moderation will be considered as part of the ongoing work relating to The Curriculum Improvement Cycle. |
CA128 In 2024, the Scottish Government will instigate a regular Curriculum for Excellence improvement cycle which will consider curricular areas in a planned and systematic way, including considerations around the relevance of curriculum content, role of knowledge, transitions between primary and secondary, and alignment between the broad general education and senior phase. |
Closed The action is now closed as the Curriculum Improvement Cycle has now commenced. Since the initial announcement regarding the Curriculum Improvement Cycle in December 2023, Education Scotland has taken forward overall co-ordination of the project. Maths and Numeracy was the first area to commence, and English/Literacy, Sciences and Health and Wellbeing have also now commenced. In May 2024 a former principal mathematics teacher and headteacher was seconded in to work alongside Education Scotland to update the maths curriculum. Education Scotland has also seconded in a number of curriculum area National Advisors from schools to lead work on the initial set of curriculum areas to undergo the improvement cycle. As per the initial announcement in December 2023, the Cycle is now considering each curricular area. The work is focusing on curriculum content, role of knowledge, transitions between primary and secondary and alignment between the broad general education and senior phase. Education Scotland published a paper “Background and A Case For Change : Findings from the Pilot Curriculum Reviews 2023/24” in November 2024. This paper provided an update on the pilot curriculum reviews and considered the technical framework of Scotland’s curriculum. A copy of the paper and further information on progress with the Cycle is available at: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/cices/ Anticipated outcomes and next steps The Curriculum Improvement Cycle will ensure the curriculum remains relevant and forward looking - a key feature of high performing jurisdictions. It will ensure Scotland's 3-18 curriculum continues to excite and engage our young people, builds on a strong foundation of knowledge, and continues to support the recovery in attainment and support attainment. |
CA129 In 2024, the key priorities of the National Response to Improving Mathematics (NRIM) will be to:
Given the interplay between curriculum and qualifications, particularly in the senior phase, the SQA and then the new qualifications body will be part of the joint work to update the curriculum framework, and ensure that maths qualifications reflect the updated framework in consultation with NRIM. To support the implementation of any revised maths curriculum, the Inspectorate will also undertake a maths national thematic inspection with a focus on teaching and learning. The Council of Deans will also convene their Initial Teacher Education National Maths Group to ensure initial teacher education aligns with the latest developments in maths and numeracy. Taken together, this additional focus on maths improvement will be supported by funding of around £500,000 in 2024-25. |
Complete National Response to Improving Mathematics (NRIM) is evolving to become the Curriculum Improvement Board for Mathematics. Key priorities are summarised below: 1. Draft updated Principles and Practice paper was shared at the national event on 4/11/24 and feedback was considered in the final draft to be shared with SG and ES colleagues, ahead of wider publication. 2. A practical tool for schools is being used to evaluate the quality of their current provision and identify priorities for improvement - One of the SEOs and EO leading small group of national colleagues to progress this work. We are also working in consultation with HMIe colleagues and aim to have a draft set of proposals by spring 2025. 3. Development of new accredited professional learning for primary and secondary broad general education teachers has not yet started. This will be led by seconded NRIM DO and SEO/EO. This includes developing a tiered approach. This work has not progressed due to the focus on the CIC. 4. Numeracy/Maths curriculum framework being updated, strengthening the place of knowledge and being clearer on progression and mapping learner's knowledge and skills. A draft curriculum framework will be ready to share by the agreed date of December 2024. Finally, it is important again to note the importance of the newly evolved Mathematics Curriculum Improvement Board. The board and associated Core Group (20 members) and wider Collaboration Group (80 members) will continue to work in collaboration to co-create curriculum updates and ensure wider consultation is gathered from around the country. Next steps The NRIM and NRIL Partnership Boards will now evolve to become Curriculum Improvement Boards. These NRIM NIF priorities will become the responsibility of the new MCIB. |
CA130 In 2024 the key priorities of the National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) will be to:
In addition, these NRIL key priorities will be further enhanced by ongoing Education Scotland activity, which will:
The work of NRIL and Education Scotland will be complemented by national literacy programmes already benefiting schools such as ‘Read Write Count with the First Minister’ which helps ensure that all families have access to high quality books and other learning resources; and Reading Schools which recognises and rewards schools for building and sustaining a whole-school inclusive reading culture. |
Complete National Response to Improving Literacy group to sit alongside the National Response to Improving Mathematics Partnership Board. NRIL summary 2024: Co-chaired by Education Scotland, the Scottish Government and ADES, the National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) has brought together key partners from across Scotland to develop a coherent response to the implementation of change through a focus on equity and excellence to improve literacy outcomes. In the course of its work, the partnership board and attendant Short Life Working Groups addressed four key areas with the ultimate aim of developing the scope and quality of professional learning in literacy. These were: 1) Re(in)stating Scotland's definition of literacy; 2) Core elements of literacy and developmentally appropriate pedagogies to support; 3) Pedagogical approaches to literacy throughout the learner journey; 4) Supporting learner-centred progression in literacy. SLWGs came together between December and March of 2023/24, with approximately 20 meetings taking place across all groups. Each group was co-chaired by two of the six regional/local authority NRIL partnership board members and supported by members of the Education Scotland Literacy and English team. Working with a brief agreed by the NRIL partnership board, each SLWG was tasked with:
The NRIL partnership board subsequently made connections across the diverse proposals produced by the SLWGs in order to create a set of themed recommendations, which will form the basis of an NRIL implementation and action plan. With this in mind, two part-time NRIL Development Officers have been seconded for 5 months to develop professional learning in two areas of literacy identified in the recommendations as requiring further support i.e. Critical Literacy and Disciplinary Literacy. Most recently, the partnership board has begun the important process of evolving into the Curriculum Improvement Board for literacy and English, which will oversee improvements as part of the broader CIC process, thereby ensuring a continued and coherent focus on literacy as a key educational priority. Next steps The NRIM and NRIL Partnership Boards will now evolve to become Curriculum Improvement Boards. |
School and ELC Improvement
Action |
Current position |
|---|---|
SI28 Developing an approach to funding that truly empowers schools, and provides the framework of support which schools need, based on the outcome of the consultation. |
Complete New revised Devolved School Management guidance, co-produced with local government, was published in June 2019. Local authorities worked to implement this guidance, requiring them to prepare revised Devolved School Management Schemes for their own authority. These new schemes were then due to be in place by April 2021. Although all local authorities had made good progress, with some publishing new schemes, some experienced COVID-19 related challenges in progressing reviews and Ministers reviewed the deadline. Outcomes and next steps As of Summer 2024 almost all local authorities have implemented their DSM plans apart from one due to technical issues. However, the local authority hopes to produce a DSM principles and policy direction summary for consultation in the next few months. Therefore this workstream is now complete. Going forward SG officials will engage with those local authorities, who have had their DSM plans in place for 3 years, to ensure that reviews of these plans are taking place. |
SI67 Scottish Government will work with partners to implement the 16 recommendations from the Review of Personal and Social Education (published Jan 2019) during the course of 2019. This will include the establishment of a senior phase Personal and Social Education Mentoring Programme to coach and enable pupils to design and deliver aspects of health and wellbeing/personal and social education whilst working towards an award. |
Ongoing Significant progress has been made in delivering the recommendations. The PSE Delivery and Implementation Group are taking stock of the work done to date, and the future of this work programme in light of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle. Next steps A paper detailing progress on the recommendations will be published in Spring 2025. |
SI81 The incorporation of the UNCRC and the experience of children and young people during COVID-19 reinforces the importance of gathering and sharing children and young people’s views with decision-makers at every level – school, local and national – and following up to ensure that those views are taken into account. We will take forward a range of further actions to ensure that this is done during 2021. |
Closed – superseded by SI106 Scottish Government is currently working with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive and strategic approach to ensure that children and young people’s voices are taken fully into account in education policy development and decision-making as per the action under PE105 and SI106. |
SI96 Scottish Government will develop an overarching programme of race equality and anti-racism in education to encompass 4 separate, but interlinked, workstreams:
These workstreams will be underpinned by a whole-system approach, |
Complete Initial stakeholder engagement sessions with officials and Ministers were undertaken between October 2020 and January 2021. This was followed by the establishment of the Race Equality & Anti Racism in Education Programme. Originally it comprised of a Programme Board (SG, ES, SQA & ADES) and a larger stakeholder network group with representation from a number of education and race equality stakeholders. 4 subgroups were established under the Stakeholder Network Group (SNG) to take forward the development of actions in collaboration with stakeholders. The overarching programme containing all 4 sub groups' actions was signed off in principle by the Cabinet Secretary in April. COSLA and ADES also agreed the programme in principle in noting that it was supportive of the actions already underway and committed to working to deliver those which are not yet in train. In 2023, CALABAR consultants developed an evaluation framework to assess the impact of the actions as they roll out. In addition to the development of the framework, key achievements across the programme since the last update include: the further roll out of Education Scotland's Building Racial Literacy Programme, the development of an anti-racist framework for Initial Teacher Education providers, the development of anti-racist principles for the curriculum, and work just about to commence with ADES to develop an anti-racist framework for local authorities to help support them in the recruitment, retention and promotion of minority ethnic teachers. The Anti-Racism in Education summit in May was postponed due to FFM's resignation in April. The AREP Board reflected during the summer on the best way to proceed with the event and came to the conclusion that a slimmed down, better targeted, online event would be preferable at this stage and does not carry the same inherent risks and costs as an in person session with 2 Ministers in attendance. The event has therefore been revised and advice is with FM asking him to deliver the keynote speech when it takes place in the new year (currently planned for end Jan/beginning Feb 2025). Since the summer, the AREP Board has delivered more outputs: the Action Guide for Local Authorities to better support them with the recruitment, retention and promotion of ethnic minority teachers and the annual Diversity in the teaching profession data report. Outcomes and next steps The Anti-Racism in Education Programme (AREP) Board developed a commitment for all organisations in the education sector to sign up to, which will support them to implement systemic, sustainable anti-racist actions. This was cleared by Cab Sec and will be launched at the Anti Racism event in the new year. Following the event, the AREP sub groups will be holding various events to further promote their various outputs with the stakeholders who use them on a day to day basis. |
SI98 Scottish Government will commence work to expand funded early learning and childcare for children aged 1 and 2, starting with low-income households within this Parliament. In the coming year we will start engagement with families, the early learning sector and academics to design how the new offer will work. |
Closed Current work is focused on building on our research undertaken in 2023/24 (including work to map current ELC provision for younger children and a literature review) to help us understand and identify what models of early learning and childcare are best for younger children, to learn from existing models and to review current evidence. We know that needs of younger children can be different from those of older children, and it makes sense to take the time to better understand that through this work. Next steps Work which focuses on funded ELC provision for younger children will continue through our actions detailed in the Improvement Plan. This includes our commitment to ensure that the children who will benefit most, benefit first from high quality funded ELC, by providing targeted early access to funded ELC at age two and working on a National Improvement Project focusing on boosting take up of the two-year-old offer among the families most at risk of poverty. |
SI99 Scottish Government will design a wraparound childcare system providing care before and after school, all year round, where the least well-off families will pay nothing. The design will be driven by the needs of families, build on existing provision and will, where possible, be integrated with the design of an offer of free breakfasts and food provision. |
Closed – superseded by SI126 As set out in the SACC Delivery Framework published in October 2023, the SACC Programme was set up to deliver on the commitment to ‘build a system of SACC which will be funded for those on lowest incomes’. The Framework sets out our key drivers – tackling poverty, and improving outcomes for children and families - and our action areas – ‘building the system’ and ‘testing the change’. In the context of current fiscal challenges across Government and learning from funded delivery of SACC to date, the SACC Programme has been rescoped to align within the boundaries of funding and resourcing in order to focus on deliverable options, and maximising funding which already exists to support families with childcare costs. The First Minister has been clear about his 4 priorities – eradicating poverty, improving public services, growing the economy and tackling the climate crisis. Our investments, in some of Scotland’s most deprived communities, to deliver funded SACC test of change work demonstrates the ability of expanded access to childcare to support across the first three priorities and the rescoped Programme of school age childcare will continue to address short term outcomes for families, as well as future proofing in preparation for more ambitious delivery in the longer term. |
SI106 Scottish Government will engage in collaborative work with children and young people organisations to understand the various ways that learners currently engage with national decision-making, and to co-design a new format and approach for all future engagement. |
Ongoing The final report from the collaborative of Children and Young People's organisations was received in 2023. The Scottish Government is continuing to review the findings of the completed Mapping Exercise and co-design process to develop our approach to the developing a rights based, sustainable mechanism for learner participation. We are committed to ensuring young people are front and centre of policy development across Education. We are currently working with the organisations involved to re-align their project proposals to better support the Education Reform Programme. This action incoporates aspects of PE105 and SI81. Anticipated outcomes and next steps We will continue to meaningfully engage children and young people to inform and challenge the development of national education policy. |
SI110 Education Scotland has worked in partnership with 3 LAs during 2022-23 to deliver a bespoke action plan to support improvement across a number of aspects identified through self-evaluation. The Accelerating Progress Forum ensured effective deployment of Education Scotland resources from across the organisation to support the implementation of these plans. |
Complete During academic session 2022-23 Education Scotland worked in partnership with 3 local authorities to deliver a bespoke action plan to support improvements over a number of aspects identified through self-evaluation. Regular updates were provided by Senior Regional Advisors at the Accelerating Progress Forum highlighting where progress was made by local authorities. Anticipated outcomes and next steps As part of Education Scotland’s increased focus on building capacity and sustainability in local authorities and services that would benefit the most, we will develop a resource that draws together a range of data and other information on local authorities where evidence suggests that, in collaboration with the LA, our resources could help build capacity and improve outcomes for children, young people, families and communities. |
SI113 As part of earlier phases of our £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme, which is being delivered in partnership with local authorities, 17 school projects will have started construction by autumn 2023. |
Complete In autumn 2023, 17 projects were in construction, a further 6 projects were open and 24 projects were in development, as part of the LEIP. As of 1 December 2024, 16 projects were in construction and a further 9 projects were open. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The LEIP will deliver 47 projects, and benefit tens of thousands of pupils across Scotland. |
SI114 The Care Inspectorate and HM Inspectors are developing a shared inspection framework for use in ELC inspections, which will be piloted in January 2025, and implemented in September 2025. They are doing so in partnership with each other and in consultation with the sector. They are also working together to plan their inspection programmes, undertake shared inspections and reduce burdens on the sector. The inspectorates have confirmed that neither organisation will inspect a service within an 18-month period of each other unless there are exceptional circumstances. |
Ongoing The framework, developed in collaboration with a stakeholder group and experts, is due to be published by the inspectorates in January 2025. Detailed work to develop the inspection methodology will take place in 2025. The inspectorates expect to implement the framework in inspections from September 2025. Anticipated outcomes and next steps It is intended that the shared framework and joint planning of inspections will reduce the inspectorate burden on ELC providers whilst supporting high-quality provision. Next steps will include a programme of familiarisation of the framework with the sector following its publication in January 2025. It is anticipated that the framework will then be piloted at selected settings in early 2025 before implementation in inspection from September 2025. |
SI115 The Care Inspectorate ELC Improvement Programme will deliver targeted improvement support to providers funded ELC who are not achieving “good” or better in their Care Inspectorate evaluations, or are at risk of not meeting the National Standard at their next inspection. |
Complete Since November 2019, over 440 providers have benefitted from the programme. The programme is contributing to a positive change in gradings, resulting in more funded ELC providers meeting the National Standard or showing increased quality evaluations in at least one key area. Anticipated outcomes and next steps To support settings which offer funded ELC to make the improvements they need to meet the quality criteria of the National Standard. Discussions are currently taking place about the focus for the programme in 25-26. It is likely that it will continue in its current form for another year, with some minor adjustments to reflect feedback and evidence around what is working well. |
SI116 The Scottish Government will collaborate with key national agencies and sector representative bodies to develop a “Support for Quality Plan” for funded ELC, that will: 1. set out the national direction for quality in ELC, and the roles and responsibilities of all key agencies in supporting the sector plan and deliver high quality services, and 2. outline how all relevant agencies will work together to support the sector. |
Complete Through the ELC Improving Quality Group, we are collaborating with key national partners with a role in supporting quality in ELC towards publishing a `light touch' Support for Quality Plan in the Spring 2025. This will follow on from the publication of the Shared Inspection Framework (SI114 above). SG is also collaborating with improvement partners through the "Improving Quality Group" to streamline and simplify the current suite of guidance to support quality in ELC. Outcomes and next steps The sector has an improved understanding of how to access to improvement support when they need it, and the roles and responsibilities of different bodies (e.g. Care Inspectorate, Scottish Social Services Council, Education Scotland). |
SI117 The Scottish Government will work with partners to scope further support for outdoor learning in ELC following the recent launch of the ‘Caring for our Outdoor Spaces’ guidance. |
Complete A national webinar on 28th October served to strengthen awareness of Out to Play - Caring for our Outdoor Space practitioner guidance and share simple and practical methods to embed Learning for Sustainability in ELC settings. Consideration is being given to what additional activity would support children to have high-quality outdoor learning experiences when they are accessing their entitlement to funded ELC. Anticipated outcomes and next steps We achieve our vision that children in ELC will spend as much time outdoors as they do indoors, and that time outdoors will happen every day, in every setting. |
SI118 Education Scotland, working with stakeholders and local authority partners will provide bespoke support for areas where improving levels of attendance remains a challenge. |
Closed - Superseded by action in the Improvement Plan Education Scotland continues to work with local authorities, using Quality Improvement Methodology to support improving attendance. Delivery of the programme has commenced with six local authorities. This will be complete by the end of February 2025. A second cohort will be delivered from February to June. Impact to date includes improved understanding of Quality Improvement tools to understand the barriers to attendance. Those who have taken part have been supported to analyse and understand their data for attendance. Anticipated outcomes and next steps - Improved attendance for identified groups of learners - Increased confidence in implementing strategies to improve attendance increased awareness of effective practice in improving attendance -Following completion of both cohorts, case studies will be published and shared across Scotland -Delivery of programme to second group of local authorities |
SI119 Education Scotland will work with local authorities to identify effective approaches to tracking and monitoring of attendance so that these can be collated and shared. |
Complete – business as usual Education Scotland worked collaboratively with stakeholders to develop resources that support tracking and monitoring of attendance. These were published in September 2024. Professional learning sessions have been delivered including: - Effective use of data to the ADES Performance and Improvement Network (PIN) - Virtual session on ‘Using attendance data for transitions’ - Virtual session to local authority data leads on using PowerBi to create a dashboard Attendee feedback has been positive at all sessions. Next steps ES will continue to work with ADES and relevant stakeholders to exemplify effective tracking and monitoring approaches through the National Network, published resources and through regular engagement sessions. |
SI120 Education Scotland and the Scottish Government will collaborate with the wider system to bring coherence to the work on improving attendance. |
Complete – business as usual A strategic planning group across ES and SG colleagues is in place to ensure progress towards the face recommendations identified in the 'Improving Attendance: Understanding the Issues' report. Ongoing links and networks have been established with researchers and Educational Psychologists. Following collaboration with the ADES Performance and Improvement Network (PIN), the National Network on Improving Attendance has been set up. As a result, regular sessions are providing the opportunity for central authority leaders to share practice, strategies and barriers to improving attendance. Education Scotland and the ADES PIN continue to work in collaboration to support the work on improving attendance. Published resources have been designed through consultation with stakeholders: local authorities, schools, YouthLink Scotland, Community Learning and Development, parental organisations and children and young people. There is regular engagement with stakeholder groups which will continue to inform plans and support moving forward. Next steps Continued collaborative working with all stakeholders to inform strategic thinking, planning and support for improving attendance. |
SI121 The Scottish Government will work with key stakeholders to review and co-develop refreshed materials for use by local authorities, in undertaking their own local Health and Wellbeing Census in the 2024/25 academic year, on behalf of themselves, and local Children’s Services Planning partners. The Scottish Government will work in collaboration with all key stakeholders to better understand why some local areas do not intend to use these materials. |
Ongoing This action is being carried forward into 2025. The current expected date for this action is now December 2025. |
SI122 The Scottish Government will continue to fund the universal provision of free school meals for all pupils in P1-P5 and all pupils in special schools, as well as for eligible pupils from P6-S6. Over the coming year, the Scottish Government will work with COSLA to prepare the infrastructure to support the further expansion of free school meals. |
Ongoing Funding has been allocated to local authorities to support the infrastructure development required to deliver the expansion of free school meals. Anticipated outcomes and next steps We are working with local authorities to better understand the infrastructure requirements and to support the expansion of free school meals. The next phase of the free school meal expansion programme will see free school meals being made available to primary 6 & 7 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment. |
SI123 In response to BISSR, the Scottish Government will:
|
Complete The relationships and behaviour national action plan was published in August 2024. Work is ongoing to implement its actions. Funding to support staff development was provided in March 2024. Clarification of recording and monitoring of bullying incidents was included within updated anti-bullying guidance, Respect for All, published in November 2024. Further work exploring recording and monitoring will be taken forward as part of the relationships and behaviour action plan. A framework for preventing and responding to gender-based violence in schools was published in March 2024. Next steps Implementation of the action plan will be taken forward in three phases between August 2024 and August 2027. |
SI124 The Inspectorate will strengthen the evidence gathered during school inspections, to ensure there is an accurate picture of behaviour in Scotland’s schools to support improvement. |
Complete HM Inspectors of Education published an advice note outlining how they will strengthen the evidence gathered and reported through early learning and childcare and school inspections about behaviour in Scotland’s schools and settings in January 2024. |
SI125 In 2024, Scottish Government will develop a digital strategy for education which will highlight the key role digital plays in our education system and will seek to define the key elements in successful technology deployment. |
Closed - superseded by action in the Improvement Plan Initial high level document and roadmap is ongoing and on track to be published early 2025. Next steps In collaboration with stakeholders and key partners, we will finalise drafting of the initial high level Strategy document and roadmap. |
SI126 Scottish Government will build a system of school age childcare, providing care and activities before and after school, and during the holidays. As we design the system, we will take account of the needs of people who use and deliver childcare, and will build on existing provision. |
Ongoing Key Programme updates (Delivery) SACC is currently being delivered across four Early Adopter Communities (EAC); eight Access to Childcare fund projects, and 31 football clubs through the Scottish Football Association Extra Time Programme. FM announced £4m investment in 2024/25 for the SFA Extra Time Programme. Two new EACs established in 2023 - Fife and Shetland. Multi-year funding for the EACs approved and FM announced £16m investment over the next two years. We have opened a procurement exercise to introduce a Learning and Skills Development support package for the EACs and have started to draft specification for future Monitoring and Evaluation of the projects. We are working with EACs to confirm funding for capital projects that will support delivery of childcare. A Futures thinking project has been completed in order to inform the policy and delivery context of the next phase of digital service design and a tender for the next digital service design contract is being prepared for advertising. Key Programme updates (Policy Development) The Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Government have begun work on a joint feasibility study to consider the future regulation and inspection of school aged childcare services (SACC). The aim of the feasibility study is to better understand challenges with the current regulation and is a key step towards achieving change that embeds appropriate, robust, safe, proportionate and sustainable regulatory frameworks that support quality, innovation and growth within the sector, whilst offering children and families greater choice and flexibility. We have been working with UKG, Improvement Service and Local Authorities to understand deepen the analysis of existing provision of SACC delivered on school premises, including breakfast clubs. We are collating examples of best practice and evidence of the issues that services are facing, at LA and schools level. In December 2024, the draft Budget announced the intention to provide £3m funding to expand access to Breakfast Clubs in 25/26 through a new initiative, Bright Start Breakfasts. We are working on defining the scope of that fund which will also include an evaluation of existing delivery of breakfast clubs at a national level, to inform future policy development. Anticipated outcomes High level Programme Outcomes (Benefits) - Targeted groups of children are healthier and have increased wellbeing - More parents from targeted families take up, sustain and/or increase their hours of work, training or study - The poverty related outcomes gap narrows Next Steps - The Scottish Football Association have been working with social impact research partners Substance to monitor and evaluate the Extra Time Programme and published the first Annual Impact Report in November. - Reporting, financial management and engagement with the Early Adopter Community projects to oversee delivery of childcare and support learning. - Create a skills and learning partnership to support EACs to take a people-centred and place based approach to delivery. - Based on recently published Monitoring and Evaluation outputs, progress work to procure full Monitoring and Evaluation of the EACs. - Finalise procurement for the next phase of digital service design work, to be completed by end Q1 2025. - Engage with Schools and LAs to learn about the key issues they face and identify solutions to support expansion and accessibility of services. - Engage with third sector Breakfast stakeholders to understand more about their role in how breakfast provision is being supported at a national level. - Work with stakeholders, via a short life working group, to develop the Bright Start Breakfasts fund |
Performance Information
Action |
Current position |
|---|---|
PI24 By Spring 2022, the Scottish Government will, in collaboration with partners, develop a national measurement framework for children and young people with additional support needs. This will create a mechanism to fully capture and celebrate the range of diverse outcomes and achievements of all children and young people nationally. |
Closed - merged with CA93. |
PI26 Education Scotland will continue to offer support to local authorities for reporting and planning, including data, aligning to the NIF for 2021-22. |
Complete During the 2023-24 academic session, Education Scotland offered support to all local authorities with the formulation of statutory annual education plans. Education Scotland carried out various engagements with local authorities in response to requests for further support. Education Scotland worked with Scottish Government on updating the national statutory guidance around NIF reporting and planning. Next steps Education Scotland will continue to engage with local authorities to support formulation and ongoing implementation of statutory annual NIF plans. |
PI27 Scottish Government will work with colleagues in ADES, COSLA, and Education Scotland to consider how to secure greater visibility of the NIF drivers in local and regional improvement and recovery planning, to help to ensure a national line of sight on local ambitions and practices. |
Closed This is being considered as part of the work to develop a shared programme of work under the Verity House Agreement with local government. Outcomes As part of the statutory review of the NIF in 2024, the NIF drivers were replaced with strategic outcomes. Working in partnership with local authorities, and making better links between national and local improvement planning is now being taken forward as part of the work to deliver the new outcomes in the 2025 NIF. |
PI31 In 2023 Scottish Government will look at the feasibility of aligning the measures of school leaver attainment in the National Statistics Scottish Statistics on Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations (SSAILD) report and the Insight tool. If adopted, this would lead to the inclusion of a wider range of providers and courses to SSAILD (on top of National Qualifications). |
Complete The SSAILD publication in February 2024 reported on the 'All SCQF' measure from the Insight tool in addition to the existing National Qualifications only measure. |
PI33 Scottish Government will work with Education Scotland and authorities to support progress towards local authority stretch aims. This will include: - Develop an enhanced guiding coalition to support an acceleration of progress towards achieving the mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge. - Develop partnership working across services and the third sector to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on engaging children and young people for their views on this work. - Develop and publish an updated Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress for 2023/24, reflecting learning from 2022/23 and the 2022 NIF. - Develop and undertake refreshed evaluation strategy for 2022/23 through to end of parliamentary term. |
Ongoing As a joint Scottish Government and Education Scotland programme, the Scottish Attainment Challenge now has an expanded Programme Board with representation from COSLA, ADES, SOLACE and academia. Further, the ongoing evaluation of the SAC programme is supported by an Evaluation Advisory Panel which includes representation from teachers and headteachers, and from academia. Through its national programmes, the SAC programme is supporting Young Scot, Youth Link Scotland and Child Poverty Action Group. Each of these organisations is engaging directly with children and young people on important issues like readiness to learn and the cost of the school day. Further, one of the three thematic outputs of the SAC evaluation strategy for 2023/24 is on youth voice. Following extensive engagement with key stakeholders and partners, the Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress was updated and published in May 2023. The evaluation strategy for 2022 to 2026 is published on gov.scot. Three thematic evaluation reports were published in March 2024 (Families & Communities; Readiness to Learn; Voice of Children and Young People), with a report to summarise all three of these, and in August 2024 the NIF summary evaluation report and the wider evidence report were published. Young Scot and CPAG have undertaken surveys on readiness to learn and cost of the school day respectively. A programme of PEF sampling (in line with guidance and Framework) is underway to understand how PEF is being used and the local impact it is having. This has seen SG & ES visit c.70 schools in June 2024; with work underway to visit another c.60 in the 2024 autumn term. Anticipated outcomes and next steps Next step regarding evaluation: thematic work on learning and teaching; and focus on impact strand of work. Next steps in response to Young Scot and CPAG surveys are for findings to feed into SAC evaluation and to be shared widely to encourage the system to consider and respond to children and young people's views on these key issues. Framework for Recovery and Accelerated Progress next steps: SAC Programme is now working with LAs and with ADES to support progress towards these aims over the period 2023/24 - 2025/26, including Education Scotland deployment attainment advisor to support local authorities to maximise progress on key local priorities. Outcome: LAs make progress towards their stretch aims and variation reduces. PEF sampling: Key themes will be drawn together and shared across the system. Work also to highlight the impact PEF is having on individual children, families, schools and communities. |
PI35 Linked to the work to support the Annual Participation Measure, we will support service delivery and reform by sharing individual level employment data with partners for operational purposes. |
Closed There are two elements to this data share with HMRC. The first was to secure access to the employment data for 16-24 year olds for statistical purposes to support the Annual Participation Measure. This NIF action was completed in 2023 when Skills Development Scotland (SDS) began to receive employment data from HMRC for statistical purposes only. The second element was to secure the data for operational use. The legal basis for the first element does not allow the onward sharing for this Action. Officials will continue to work on this. |
PI36 From the September 2024 Insight update onwards, we will reflect the recommendations made by the ASL review within Insight by seeking to include an ever wider range of achievement. |
Ongoing Four new award providers were included in the September '24 Update (as released on 18 Sept). To raise the profile of Wider Award Providers, an email went to all School Leaders and LA Insight leads in December 2023 outlining the process of adding Wider Award Providers to Insight. We continue to work with existing and new providers to ensure data is received in a timely manner to be included in each Update. Highlighting the ability for schools to have WAPs added to Insight continues to be a core part of Advisor presentation to schools. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The outcome of this work is to continue to reflect the work done in schools with Award Providers. With an increasing number of providers delivering qualifications within schools it is essential that Insight reflects this. The number of providers who share attainment data with us now stands at 29 providers, with four new providers added in the Sept '24 Update. Through effective communications there is a greater understanding within stakeholders (both schools and providers) of the process required in setting up and maintaining data sharing agreements with WAPs. We are currently working with new providers for inclusion in Sept 2025 Update. Advisor continues to promote to schools the process of having new providers added to Insight. This work will remain ongoing as new providers are used by schools and as we look to include these providers within Insight. |
PI37 As part of wider work on improving consistency in the use of senior phase data, during the course of 2024, we will work with local government to agree a set of core school leaver statistics for inclusion in Insight and other reporting mechanisms. |
Complete The SSAILD publication in February 2024 reported on the 'All SCQF' measure from the Insight tool in addition to the existing National Qualifications only measure. Next steps As far as possible, Insight is to provide the agreed core set of statistics that all stakeholders will engage with. On an on-going basis, we will ensure Insight provides the information required across the system. |
PI38 We will take necessary steps to ensure that Insight fits with the post-reform landscape of Scottish education – the timing of this will depend on plans for taking forward proposals coming from the education reform process. |
Ongoing Continuing to monitor proposals from Reform. Recent updates from Reform discussed between Insight policy officials in September 2024 to ensure alignment of Insight with Reform. Next steps Insight reflects Reform proposals. As the work of Reform continues we will look to ensure Insight reflects any changes to Senior Phase assessment/attainment practice resulting from Reform. |
PI39 By December 2024, we will conclude developmental work to consider a further range of enhancements to the Insight tool – including refreshing the Insight user interface - as highlighted in the Insight consultation that ran from April to June 2023. |
Complete A timeline for this work has been developed. We have begun the process of visualising what an updated user interface will look like. Within this visualisation are proposals for new output measures and refreshed ways of visualising Insight data. The Insight Technical Group meeting in August 2024 approved proposals with suggestions of further improvements which will be included as we work towards the launch of Insight 2.0 from Sept 2026 Update. This will be an updated Insight Tool with refreshed measures and visualisations that better meets the needs of users. between Dec 24 to Sept 25, "Insight 2.0" will be produced for internal and selected external testing. Regular meetings with the Technical Group will help Scottish Government ensure that development of Insight 2.0 remains on track. Next steps Between Dec 24 to Sept 25, "Insight 2.0" will be produced for internal and selected external testing. Regular meetings with the Technical Group will help Scottish Government ensure that development of Insight 2.0 remains on track. |
PI40 The Scottish Government will develop an outcomes and measurement framework for funded early learning and childcare. We will continue to work closely in partnership with local government and the ELC sector to develop a framework that can contribute to shared accountability and improvement goals, within the overall context provided by the Verity House Agreement. |
Ongoing A prototype dashboard has been developed in partnership with local authorities and work has begun to scope the narrative report and support offer. In addition, we have consulted CoSLA officers on progress with the project, and have also provided updates to CoSLA Children and Young People’s Board, and Scottish Ministers. The project is on track to establish an operational framework by April 2025. Anticipated outcomes and next steps The anticipated outcome of this work is the creation of an outcomes and measurement framework (OMF) for funded ELC – jointly owned by Scottish Government and local government which will support both improvement and assurance goals for funded ELC. The project aims to produce a benchmarking dashboard tool, a summary narrative report, support and resources for councils and in the longer term, there is also potential to link SEEMiS/ELC census data on funded ELC participation to later outcomes. We intend to establish the first iteration of the benchmarking dashboard tool and narrative report by April 2025, with potential for further iterations to be developed beyond this date. |
PI41 Scottish Government will rejoin the Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), adding to the current evidence on Scotland’s education performance. The next cycles of PIRLS and TIMSS will be in 2026 and 2027 respectively. |
Complete The Scottish Government has officially rejoined TIMSS and is currently procuring a contractor to manage and deliver the assessments, with the study cycle set to begin in early 2025. Meanwhile, work on delivering PIRLS continues, and we are in the process of recruiting schools for the field trial, which is scheduled for Spring 2025. Anticipated outcomes
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