Chamber and committees

The local authorities’ stretch aims need to be in by September. Obviously, once those are collated and we ensure that we have the correct information from local authorities, I would like to publish very soon after that.

We would expect to see significant progress. The challenge that we have coming out of Covid is that the progress that was being made pre-pandemic has been impacted by Covid as teachers are working day in, day out to support children and young people through the impact of Covid. The entire purpose of having the refresh and making the changes that we have made is that we expect not only progress but accelerated progress compared to pre-pandemic levels.

In the previous parliamentary session, we spent £750 million in total on the attainment challenge, and in this parliamentary session the figure is £1 billion.

The figures are available for what goes to local government and what goes to schools.

With respect, I think I have said that poverty is one of the key challenges in Scotland, as in other countries, and that we have had a system that has perhaps been too top-down and has not empowered the workforce to take decisions that are right for them. That is one of the lessons that we have had to learn. In looking at what we need to improve on from the OECD report in 2015, building on the further encouragement in its latest report, it is about empowering a system and providing resources to that empowered system.

The only way that the money could be put back would be if I took it off the local authorities that will be having it for the first time. If that is what the member is suggesting—

We absolutely have school and local authority plans and reports—they are a condition of the grant. However, it is for Education Scotland to collate the information. We would be happy to provide further advice after the meeting, but it is a condition of the grant that the schools or local authorities work with Education Scotland on the projects and, importantly, that they discuss what has worked and what has had the greatest impact. We also have the annual evaluation reports that look at a range of different expenditure. However, it is part of our empowerment agenda to empower headteachers to determine how to spend money, and our agencies are there to assist them to ensure that the money has been spent effectively and that other schools are learning from that.

—of the fact that it has produced reports that have endorsed curriculum for excellence and in which it has encouraged us to develop the way—

You will see information about the stretch aims. I am not going to make any apologies for the fact that, as the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, I am working with local authorities to allow them to develop stretch aims that are supported by our national agencies. Given your commitment to empowering local government, I think that the committee will be pleased that we are not dictating from the centre but working with local government to deliver the stretch aims that will be publicly available. We are working together with people.

I am not sure about the last time that the First Minister was asked a question about her defining mission, but it is absolutely the defining mission of this Government to close the poverty-related attainment gap. It has always been a long-term process. That was made very clear right from the start of the project, and, as the OECD and Audit Scotland have made very clear, it will always be a long-term project. Nevertheless, we are determined to see accelerated progress.

I am referring to one of the four directors of education who sat in front of the committee.