Chamber and committees

I think that you will see the poverty-related attainment gap in many different countries. It is not specific to Scotland. We see the same challenges elsewhere in the UK and, indeed, further afield, but we have also seen a determination to tackle them in Scotland.

Absolutely. The national Government is clear that, when possible, we should work in partnership with local government on many of these issues. As I have said, the work that we are doing on stretch aims, for example, is something that many local authorities have been doing to some extent. We are trying to ensure that all local authorities take part in that process and that there is transparency in that improvement work.

Of course, local authorities are responsible for delivering the decisions on education that are, quite rightly, taken at a local authority or school level. Just as you would expect the national Government to challenge itself on its responsibilities and targets, it is very much the responsibility of a local authority to challenge itself on why there is variation either within the local authority or with another local authority. I hope that the role and responsibilities of local government are very clear in the refreshed attainment challenge, in which we set out the roles and responsibilities of the different parts of the system.

I think that it is important that I push back on the suggestion that the OECD was being critical, so—

The OECD suggested that we look at a number of areas. One of them was about strengthening the middle, as it was paraphrased, and that was, therefore, one of the reasons why we looked at the regional improvement collaboratives and more collaborative working between local authorities. There has also been a discussion about the empowerment of our teaching workforce, to ensure that we have a workforce that is enabled to take decisions that are right for their schools. I think that that is an important change that we have made. We may have had difficulties in the past not just because of the levels of poverty in the country, but because we perhaps needed to ensure that more power was being given to local authorities and to individual headteachers and that work was going on to collaborate on that.

You are suggesting that I find additional money that I do not have. For example, the £6 million that you are quoting would take further PEF money from schools. If you are suggesting that we could allocate money by taking the £6 million of current underspend from PEF, which will remain with schools, I do not think that that would be a sensible way forward. Through our allocations, we have attempted to ensure that there is a fair funding formula right across Scotland. There was an understanding, as was shown in the evidence from the directors of education, that we needed to look for a fair funding formula right across Scotland. The policy was also worked on and agreed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

The Government has to take these difficult decisions. The importance of recognising that poverty exists across all local authority areas, of dealing with that and of addressing the impact of the Covid pandemic across all 32 local authorities led us to change the funding formula. There is no additional money in my portfolio that is not being spent, so money would have to come from somewhere else within my portfolio. I am afraid that no one has suggested where I would find that—

I am saying that, if a local authority decides to change its priorities at a local authority level—which, of course, would be under the direction of the local administration—a headteacher can determine a project. Again, I point not to my opinion but to the director of education who gave an example of how that might happen.

We have made it very clear, through the process of looking at the Scottish attainment challenge, that we need to recognise that poverty exists in all 32 local authority areas. We were very clear that we need to work on a fair funding model to ensure that we deliver support right across Scotland. I believe that Mr Marra said in a previous evidence session that he recognised that poverty exists right across Scotland.

We have guaranteed that there will be £1 billion of expenditure on the SAC over this parliamentary session. For the first time, we have a long-term commitment from the Government that it is not year-on-year funding but guaranteed funding. That was a key ask of both local government and headteachers, and that is exactly what we have delivered. There is £520 million of PEF to be distributed to schools, which is providing further certainty, and we have provided an uplift in the PEF per pupil this year. What we have seen is recognition of the fact that there needs to be a long-term commitment to this. That is what the Government has provided. We have guaranteed that the funding will be there for the next four years.

We have also guaranteed £1 billion-worth of expenditure over the parliamentary session. There is, of course, a process that we will go through annually to look at education funding, in addition to what happens within the SAC, but this is an area in which we have been able to guarantee funding in the long term, and that has been welcomed by local authorities and headteachers.

We have made an important change in recognition that poverty exists in every area of Scotland. It is very important that we look at the role of local authorities, work with them and provide them with additional support to undertake their work. The Government recognises that there is variation within and between local authorities. One of the reasons behind the introduction of the stretch aims is to tackle the unwarranted variation between local authorities. We hope that the transparent mechanism that we are putting into the system will give a clear understanding of local ambitions.

We are clear that we need to reduce that unwarranted variation. With the support of Education Scotland, we will provide constructive challenge and support to all local authorities to ensure that they are ambitious in what they develop. We know that there is variation in outcomes between local authorities; that is often talked about. The collaborative work that local authorities are doing with Education Scotland will assist with some of that, but we know that we have more to do to tackle unwarranted variation.