Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has robust processes in place for assessing outcomes, performance and value for money in relation to expenditure from Portfolio budgets.

Accountable Officers are in place to ensure that public money is used efficiently and effectively in line with guidance published in the Scottish Public Finance Manual. This includes scrutinising significant policy proposals or plans to start or vary major projects/policies, and then assess whether they measure against the required standards for regularity, propriety, value for money and feasibility.

As you will be aware, the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework tracks progress toward our national outcomes and the associated national indicators. There are further tools that are more specific to the Education and Skills portfolio. For example, the primary purpose of the National Improvement Framework since January 2016 has been to bring together an enhanced range of information and data at all levels of the system, to drive improvement for children and young people in early learning and childcare settings, schools, and colleges across the whole of Scotland.

Furthermore, all recipients of grant funding receive letters which clearly outline their objectives and expected outcomes from the funding and targets/milestones in which progress against these objectives and outcomes will be measured.

The Scottish Government has collected six-monthly reports from local authorities on school counselling services since January 2021.

The number of young people that accessed the service in each period, broken down by local authority can be found below. It is acknowledged that some young people accessed the service in multiple periods so may be recorded twice.

The information requested relates to Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) data and is not held by the Scottish Government.

SQA has advised that this information is available on their website, including historical data for all courses including those specifically listed. The data can be accessed at https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/105159.html .

The Scottish Government defines the poverty-related attainment gap as the gap in attainment between children and young people living in the most and least parts of the country based on Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) data. The most affluent being those living in SIMD quintile 1; and the least in SIMD quintile 5.

It is important to be able to measure the impact of the system on progress towards closing the poverty-related attainment gap. That is why in 2017, the Scottish Government consulted on proposals for measuring the poverty-related attainment gap and milestones towards closing it, focusing on the impact of the education system as a whole and using a range of 11 measures that reflect key stages of the learner journey and the breadth of issues that can impact on attainment.

These measures are:

1. 27-30 month review (children showing no concerns across all domains)

2. HWB: Children total difficulties score (age 4-12)

3. HWB: Children total difficulties score (age 13&15)

4. Primary - Literacy (P1, P4, P7 combined)

5. Primary - Numeracy (P1, P4, P7 combined)

6. Secondary - Literacy (S3, 3rd level or better)

7. Secondary - Numeracy (S3, 3rd level or better)

8. SCQF 4 or above (1 or more on leaving school)

9. SCQF 5 or above (1 or more on leaving school)

10. SCQF 6 or above (1 or more on leaving school)

11. Participation measure

We identified eleven key measures to assess progress as part of the National Improvement Framework , along with associated stretch aims. We held a further consultation in summer 2022 which resulted in two new key measures being added for 2023.

Those measures are:

1. School Attendance

2. Initial Positive destination

The SQA will oversee the exam diet in 2025. Legislation establishing the new qualifications body will be introduced this parliamentary year enabling the new qualifications body to be established in late 2025.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) are currently working with the sector to better identify those who leave college, including those who move on to work opportunities or other positive destinations. This work is ongoing and the information will be made available by SFC through Official Statistics products in due course.

The intention is for the Scottish Qualifications Authority to continue to operate at the time of the 2024 and 2025 exam diets, with the new qualifications body being established in late 2025, after the 2025 exam diet.

The new body will therefore be responsible for overseeing the 2026 exam diet.

As Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills I engage with the SQA and Education Scotland regularly on a range of business, including on education reform. This involves meetings with the SQA Chair and Chief Executive and with Education Scotland’s Interim Chief Executive. Additionally, I have undertaken direct engagement with staff in both organisations, by attending an all-staff session with SQA on 4 September 2023 and an Education Scotland all-staff event on 22 August 2023.

The number of post probationers in each local authority on temporary contracts will be published in the Summary Statistics for Schools publication in December.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the proportion of temporary contracts offered to post probationers, as the recruitment and employment of teachers including recruitment practices are matters for individual councils.

Ministers and Scottish Government officials have met representatives of the college sector frequently since 1 April 2021 through in-person meetings, visits and online meetings.