SEIAG/04/08
SCHOOL EDUCATION INFORMATION ADVISORY GROUP (SEIAG)
EDUCATION AND CHILDREN STATISTICS PLAN 2004/05 AND 2005/06
Purpose
1. To update the Committee on the reasons for the delays to production of the 2004/05 plan; to outline the process planned for the development of the 2005/06 plan and to invite the Committee to provide some thoughts on the priorities for 2005/06.
Details
2. The Statistics Plan for 2004/05 was published on the SE website in mid October 04. It can be found at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/education/statsplan04-05.pdf
3. The initial plan for 2004/05 was drafted in March 04 and discussions took place with the Minister at the end of the month. At this meeting the Minister for Education and Young People raised a number of general and specific questions covering issues such as
- Opportunities for improving the use made of the statistics by combining publications
- Comparability of data between schools, LAs and over time
- Data Gaps and plans to fill these
4. Following on from this two further submissions were provided for the Minister and an agreed Plan was finalised in mid October 04. This was then placed on the SE website and SEIAG members informed.
5. The overview Plan produced by the Chief Statistician is however not yet publicly available. A copy has been provided as a background paper to this meeting. It is likely this report will not be formally published on the web due to the lateness in getting the report finalised.
6. It is expected that the process for the 2005/06 Education and Children plan will take considerably less time and the expectation is that the plan will be available on the web in April / May 05. The Statistics Group in IAC will be consulting with Policy colleagues during February 05, to ensure that the outputs and analyses produced by IAC meet the needs of SEED Policy.
7. The discussions in February will be used to identify and clarify the use being made of all data collected by IAC, plans for filling data gaps, whether all data currently collected is required and identification of the key users and stakeholders for the analytical work undertaken by the Statistics Group. This identification of users and stakeholders is increasingly important to the Statistics Group in managing its work planning. It is also important that work done for external users and stakeholders is identified and that the relevant groups and organisations are consulted on the need for the analyses and data.
8. The discussions with external users and stakeholders will be taken forward through a number of channels. This will include
- Inviting SEIAG members to provide thoughts on analyses required, data gaps, presentation and publication issues etc - these are welcome at today's meeting
- Inviting SEIAG members to comment on early drafts of the Statistics Plan 2005/06 - this will take place during March 05.
- Responding to proposals received from SEIAG sub-groups - these are now invited
- Responding to proposals received through the various SCOTXED groups including the Benchmarking and Focus groups - these are now invited.
9. All comments and suggestions should be made via e-mail to Peter.Whitehouse@scotland.gov.uk
IAC - ED
Scottish Executive
Dec 04