Scottish Government

EDUCATION AND YOUNG PEOPLE

To give every child and young person the best possible start in life, through delivering the National Priorities in Education and Closing the Gap for those who are not sharing the general level of attainment and wellbeing.

OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 3.01 Categories of spending (Level 2)

Note:
1. Central Government spending, not including local authority GAE allocations.

Table 3.02 Categories of spending (Level 2 real terms)at 2005-06 prices

What the budget does

The Education and Young People budget supports central government policies aimed at schools, children, young people and social care and also provides specific grants in these areas. The majority of the rest of the funding for schools, children, young people and social care is allocated to local authorities through the Local Government budget and is accounted for in the Finance and Public Service Reform chapter.

Statement of priorities

Across all portfolios, the Executive is committed to ensuring that all Scotland's children and young people are safe, nurtured, healthy, achieving, active, included, respected and responsible. They should have access to positive learning environments and opportunities to develop their knowledge, skills, confidence and self-esteem to the fullest potential. Our policies and spending plans are complementary, integrated and focused on that common goal.

Within that broader context, in 2006-07 and 2007-08 the Education and Young People portfolio will focus resources on giving every child and young person the best possible start in life by implementing relevant key commitments from the Partnership Agreement:

• ensure that our children have opportunities to learn and develop in first class schools with modern facilities;

• deliver more teachers and support staff in schools to provide more focused attention to their individual learning and development in order to improve attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy, promote positive behaviour and help narrow the attainment gap;

• deliver improvements in outcomes for pupils across the 5 National Priorities in Education;

• through the 21 ^st Century Social Work Review ensure that the social work profession and social work services are best fitted to provide quality outcomes for children and adults in need. Continue to develop the social care and social work workforce, as a key driver for improvements in the quality of provision;

• introduce a modern, integrated and efficient system of inspection of children's services and social work services; and

• following the review the Children's Hearings system, develop the fundamental principles, improve effectiveness and ensure the system delivers more effectively for children ¹.

In everything that we do we are committed to ensuring that we work to grow the economy, to promote equality and close the opportunity gap, and to ensure that our activities are sustainable.

New resources and transfers

These figures take account of the following significant individual changes made since the publication of the Draft Budget 2005-06

Teachers

A transfer of £11/0/0m to the Revenue Support Grant to meet costs associated with A Teaching Profession for the 21 ^st Century. A transfer of £7.5/0/0m to the National Priorities Action Fund in respect of support staff.

Additional Support Needs

A reduction of £6.6/0/0m. This consists of a £3.6m transfer to the National Priorities Action Fund and £3m to the Health Department, with both transfers relating to the Additional Support for Learning Act.

Early Education & Childcare

A transfer of £5/5/5m to the Health Department in respect of the Care Commission.

National Priorities Action Fund

A transfer of £7.5/0/0m from Teachers in respect of support staff. £5/5/5m transferred out of the NPAF to create the Centres of Excellence specific grant.

Schools / PPP

A transfer of £25/0/0m to Central Unallocated Provision ( CUP) to meet future requirements.

Growing the Economy

Education is crucial to the strategy for economic growth and the foundation of a competitive economy. ; basic education and skills are identified together as one of five key drivers of economic development.The Framework for Economic Development in Scotland ( FEDS)The importance of education in increasing productivity - through increased skills and knowledge - is stressed in

Education equips young people with the core skills and the personal confidence they need to continue their learning or get their first job. It unlocks the potential of our future researchers and innovators, building knowledge, ideas and from these, growing competitiveness in the global market place. Specific examples include:

• investing significant additional resources in school education and children's services, increasing teacher numbers - and reducing class sizes where it matters most;

• delivering improvements in outcomes for pupils across the 5 National Priorities in Education;

• ensuring that our children have opportunities to learn and develop in first class schools with modern facilities;

• maintaining free part-time nursery places for every 3 and 4 year old and explore further options for expansion of universal or targeted early years provision; and

• increasing the availability of affordable childcare, thus removing one of the barriers preventing parents from accessing employment or training opportunities, whilst also creating more employment opportunities in the childcare sector itself.

Closing the Opportunity Gap/Promoting Equality

Closing the Opportunity Gap

We will close the opportunity gap by, for example:

• driving forward better integrated services so statutory, voluntary and other agencies work together to co-ordinate services and support, in particular for the most disadvantaged children and families; the £65m Changing Children's Services Fund will be progressively transferred to GAE giving local authorities greater flexibility to target these resources towards local circumstances and priorities thereby improving front-line delivery of children's services and the associated support for vulnerable children and young people and their families;

• improving the effectiveness of early years intervention and maintaining free part-time nursery places for every 3 and 4 year old; and introducing innovative integrated services for the youngest and most vulnerable (and their families);

• sustaining improvements to the quality of school meals by increasing National Priorities Action Fund expenditure on Hungry for Success to £30m in 2006-07 and promoting active, healthy lifestyles by investing £12m per annum in the Active Schools initiative - all schools will be "health promoting schools" by the end of 2007; and

• achieving Target 9 above, an increase of 5% in the average tariff score of the lowest attaining 20% of S4 pupils by March 2008.

Promoting Equality

The Scottish Executive wants a fair and just Scotland, where everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential, and where we respect each other and our differences. The vision for all children and young people is that they should be safe, nurtured, healthy, achieving, active, included, respected and responsible. They should have access to positive learning environments and opportunities to develop their knowledge, skills, confidence and self-esteem to the fullest potential.

HM Inspectorate of Education ( HMIE) has:

• introduced a proportionate model of inspection of primary, secondary and special schools with a strong emphasis on inclusion and equality. HM Inspectors now work with education authorities in providing support and challenge to schools in proportion to the needs of each school to improve;

• in 2005, published two support documents on diversity issues, Meeting the Needs of Gypsies and Travellers and Promoting Race Equality; a further report sets out the progress made in improving Gaelic education provision in the last decade and the key issues and challenges that need to be addressed in the coming years; and

• published Better Behaviour-Better Learning which highlights effective practice and provides advice to assist schools and authorities to further improve the climate for learning in schools.

In addition the Children's Services Unit within HMIE has completed two pilot inspections of child protection and will undertake a programme of multidisciplinary inspections of child protection by 2008. The Unit will evaluate how effectively children are being protected and kept safe from harm and neglect.

Actions to continue to promote equality include:

• sustaining the impact of our National Priorities for Education by embedding equality within schools and providing quality learning and teaching opportunities for young people in schools as part of our agenda for action, " ambitious, excellent schools";

• supporting looked-after children and improving their educational attainment and qualifications by: making available up to £6m to fund a two year pilot programme of educational support for this group; and, providing £1.2m to fund a 2 year pilot Careleavers Leadership Academy in partnership with Columba 1400 specifically aimed at young people aged 16-25 who are preparing to make the transition from the care system to independent living;

• supporting children with additional support needs and disabilities, and including them in mainstream schools, where this is in their best interests, but also recognising that some will be better served by specialist provision;

• increasing funding for Childline Scotland's Anti-Bullying Helpline to £148,000 in 2006-07; and

• implementing the Gaelic Act and making progress with a National Language Strategy, including British Sign language and ethnic community languages; the development of Scotland's languages - whether in relation to access, opportunity to use a language, learning or preservation - are issues of equality and inclusion and contribute to the diversity of life in Scotland.

Sustainable Development

In August 2005, 600 of the world's most dynamic young activists in the field of sustainable development came to Scotland from 120 different countries for the 3rd World Youth Congress. The Congress theme was "young people working for a sustainable world community". Delegates helped shape international policy by documenting the contribution young people are making to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals. They joined forces with young Scots to undertake 40 hands-on community action projects across Scotland, and almost 7,000 Scots pledged five personal actions for sustainability as part of the linked Change '05 programme.

The Congress was hosted by the Executive, in conjunction with Peace Child International and a range of Scottish public and voluntary organisations, and we will continue to enhance youth-led activity and sustainable development education throughout the UN Decade for Sustainable Development (which began in 2005) by:

• investing £125,000 in 2006-07 and 2007-08 to further increase the number of Eco-schools in Scotland - even although we already have 65% participation and lead the rest of Europe;

• sustaining the impact of our National Priorities for Education on eco-schools and by embedding sustainable development within the school curriculum as part of our education reform programme;

• providing quality learning and teaching opportunities for young people in schools as part of our agenda for action, " ambitious, excellent schools"; and

• ensuring high design and environmental standards in our schools buildings - greater cost and energy-efficiency is one of the key outcomes of the ongoing investment in the school estate of £2.3 billion.

SCHOOLS

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 3.03 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Notes:
1. Prior to 2003-04 Schools and Teachers funding was combined.
2. Prior to 2003-04 Pupil Support & Inclusion and Additional Support Needs funding was combined.

What the budget does

Responsibility for the provision of school education in Scotland is shared with local councils as education authorities ( EAs) and individual schools. We believe that we all should work in partnership, and with other agencies, to deliver education services designed to fulfil the potential of each pupil. As previously highlighted the central government budget only represents a fraction of total public sector spend on school education. The main spend is channelled through Local Authorities.

In relation to school education, the Executive's responsibility continues to be to:

• secure the provision of a well trained workforce, and support the improvement of school infrastructure;

• give direction to education authorities and schools as to the main priorities they should follow, and establish a system of performance measurement to evaluate progress against these priorities;

• support and encourage education authorities and schools through guidance, advice, benchmark information and specific support for new developments;

• provide guidance on the curriculum, an assessment system, and a system of National Qualifications; and

• provide quality assurance through national inspection of schools and education authorities, integrated appropriately with other inspection of other children's services.

In 2006-07 and 2007-08, we will:

• ensure that our children have better schools with more modern facilities to provide first class places to learn and develop;

• deliver improvements in outcomes for pupils across the 5 National Priorities in Education;

• maintain enhanced school inspection arrangements;

• develop an innovative leadership and school transformation initiative to bring about improved outcomes for the school system as a whole and some schools in particular; and

• deliver more teachers and support staff in schools to provide more focused attention to their individual learning and development in order to improve attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy, and to help maximise the attainment gap; delivering improvements in outcomes for pupils across the 5 National Priorities in Education.

CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND SOCIAL CARE

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 3.04 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Notes:
1. Prior to 2003-04 Early Education & Childcare and Children & Families funding was combined.
2. Prior to 2005-06 Looked After Children & Youthwork and Youth Justice & Children's Hearings funding was combined.

What the budget does

The budget supports the provision of a range of services for children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable. This involves working with and through local authorities and health boards as well as the voluntary and independent sectors. It also funds the Scottish Social Services Council, supports national training initiatives, training and seminars for social work service staff and governing bodies, grants to voluntary organisations, research initiatives and implements ministerial priorities.

The budget represents only a fraction of total public sector spend on services for children and young people. The main spend is channelled through local authorities and health boards.

The Executive's role is to assist service users and service providers by:

• providing a policy and legislative framework;

• giving strategic direction and guidance; and

• providing quality assurance through inspection and national standards.

In 2006-07 and 2007-08, we will focus our resources on:

• supporting continued development of the social care and social work workforce, and related improvements in the quality of provision;

• protecting our children; and the introduction of a modern, integrated and efficient system of inspection of children's services;

• providing more flexible and more available childcare, and maintaining free part-time nursery places for every 3 and 4 year old;

• communities; and

• developing the children's hearing system, and the adoption of consistent standards.

SPECIFIC GRANTS

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 3.05 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Notes:
1. Funding transfers to Centres of Excellence from 2005-06.
2. Funding transfers to the NPAF from 2005-06
3. Grant transfers to Teachers central government budget from 2005-06.

What the budget does

The bulk of this budget is allocated through the National Priorities Action Fund, which supports the delivery of better teaching methods, improved attainment, inclusion and equality, citizenship and learning for life.

Specific Grants will also be available to support work in four other areas, covering the PPP programme which will deliver 300 new or substantially refurbished schools by 2009, Special Educational Needs, Social Work Services and Gaelic in Education.

In 2006-07 and 2007-08, we will focus our resources on:

• ensuring that our children have better schools with more modern facilities to provide first class places to learn and develop;

• providing more flexible learning and development opportunities so that pupils' experience of education is matched to their individual needs and delivering improvements in outcomes for pupils across the 5 National Priorities in Education;

• supporting children with additional support needs training educational psychologists;

• maintaining support for professional development in the social work and social care workforces; and

• supporting the development of Gaelic education provision.

OTHER EDUCATION AND YOUNG PEOPLE RELATED LOCAL AUTHORITY FUNDING

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 3.06 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

What the budget does

The Education and Young People Grant Aided Expenditure ( GAE) figures relate to the level of local authority net revenue expenditure on these services that the Executive is supporting through grant. GAEs are not budgets, but more a basis for the distribution of grant through Aggregate External Finance ( AEF). Local authorities are, however, free to allocate their available resources to each service, including Children and Young People, on the basis of local need. The figures in this table are included in the GAE summary table (Table 10.04) contained within the Finance and Public Service Reform chapter of this document.