Chamber and committees

Sara, would you like to come in?

Thank you very much. I just want to finish with what, for me, summed up how PEF funding can work very well. When we visited the school in Dundee on Monday, we talked to a wee boy who described what he was like before and after the intervention. He said that, when he used to get things wrong in class, he would lose his temper, stamp his feet and be out in the corridor, shouting and bawling; now he just rubs the wrong thing out and starts again. I thought that that brilliantly summed up how that kind of intervention can work and make a real difference for young people. We just need more of that.

No—your answer had good precision. Do you want to come in next, Jim?

It was very good. Do you want to respond, Maureen?

Is that what you mean when you refer to “regional or national forums” for sharing best practice? Why do they not exist just now?

Oliver Mundell has a point, as there has been deep frustration that the Government has not been as open as it should have been over the OECD process. It is important that that is highlighted, that the committee takes a direct interest in it, that we have a public session on it and that we seek evidence from the Government and appeal to it to give us the additional information that we have been asking for for months.

It would be wrong if the media scrutiny on the issue was not replicated with scrutiny by this committee, because we have a massive responsibility, so I would like to have a public session. However the matter was brought up, it is important that we take our role seriously, actually scrutinise the Government and seek the openness that teachers and pupils deserve, so I would like to have a session on the issue at a future committee meeting.

Thank you for all your evidence. It has been compelling.

I am interested in being precise about what we want to change about the attainment funding. We are spending hundreds of millions of pounds. We need to know that that is working effectively. I take all the points that have been made about the wider society, but hundreds of millions of pounds is being spent directly with councils and schools and we need to ensure that it is being spent effectively. The written submissions refer to things that could be done and improvements that could be made, and I would like to draw them out. Perhaps I can start with Louise Goodlad. What precisely would you improve about how attainment funding is used and allocated, Government policy and so on? What would you like to change?

Bob Doris rightly pointed out that the PEF will have three-year funding, but in your submission, you say that it is not clear whether that will feed through to you yourselves getting three-year funding.

Why is that?

I was going to finish there but your last point is interesting. What precisely are we not doing? What is happening in England that is not happening here in terms of measurement?